Mittal Steel's Pursuit of Arcelor (B)

Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of Mittal Steel, a UK-based company with Indian roots, took advantage of a weakened Arcelor that had successfully won a bidding war for Canadian steel company Dofasco, with an unsolicited bid to buy the company. Mittal's plans for acquiring Arcelor were initially thwarted by concerted opposition from Arcelor's board and several European governments. To Mittal's further surprise, on May 26, Arcelor orchestrated a merger with the Russian steelmaker Severstal. Although the proposed merger did not offer Arcelor shareholders as much value as Mittal's deal, Arcelor had structured the deal in such a way that it did not require shareholders' approval. Mittal wondered how he should respond to the Severstal deal. Did it make sense to continue pursuing Arcelor or should he look for other ways to expand his steel empire?