CORPORATIONS: Bargain Day at RKO

In less than two hours last week, RKO stockholders voted overwhelmingly to accept Howard Hughes’s offer to buy all of their stock (TIME, Feb. 22). Proxies for 2,095,996 shares (besides the 1,262,120 shares owned by Hughes) were sent in to the special meeting and 2,022,769 voted in favor of the plan, only 73,227 against. The only barrier remaining was a court suit filed by two stockholders who contend that Hughes is getting too big a bargain in buying the rest of the RKO stock for $15,916,758, if all the stockholders sell. Since the stock was selling at only $2.87½before Hughes made his offer, there will probably be few holdouts. Once the suit is out of the way, Hughes plans to pay out $6 for every share turned in.