Beverly Enterprises is on the auction block. The company’s board unanimously approved a sale after it became clear it was about to lose control of the nation’s largest nursing home operator.

An investor consortium led by Formation Capital offered to buy Beverly (now BEI) for $11.50 a share, or roughly $1.5 billion in January. The BEI board rejected the offer, saying the bid undervalued the firm’s potential.
But during a whirlwind East Coast tour in mid-March to meet institutional investors, Beverly’s bosses learned they no longer had enough stockholder support to reject Formation’s hostile takeover bid.
“We were painting a  picture of two birds in the bush, and they wanted the bird-in-hand,” said BEI Chairman and CEO William R. Floyd.