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Ferraro banks on Dime bid
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August 10, 2000: 3:38 p.m. ET
Former vice presidential candidate heads alternative slate for Dime board
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - North Fork Bank Thursday demanded that Dime Bancorp call a special shareholders meeting to consider an alternative slate of directors led by former Congresswoman and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.
In a letter delivered Thursday, Melville, N.Y.-based North Fork, which has persisted with a $2.07 billion hostile bid for Dime despite consistently being rebuffed by the New York bank, insisted that a new election be held for five seats on Dime's 17-seat board.
Shareholders overwhelmingly voted against Dime's nominees for those seats at the company's annual meeting in July, but the nominees filled the seats anyway because they ran unopposed. North Fork (NFB: Research, Estimates) is requesting a new election with the opposition candidates it proposed.
Included on that list is Ferraro, the former New York Democratic congresswoman who stands as the only woman to be nominated as a vice presidential candidate by a major political party.
Also nominated is Muriel Siebert, the founder and president of the Muriel Siebert & Co., a New York brokerage firm, and the former superintendent of banking in New York state.
Rounding out the list are private investor Josiah Austin, former WRM Equity Management Inc. President and CEO Warren Marcus and C.E. Unterberg Towbin Co-chairman A. Robert Towbin. North Fork said all of its proposed nominees would seek a merger partner for Dime.
"It is a fundamental principle of corporate democracy that shareholders decide who will manage their company," North Fork Chairman, President and CEO John Kanas said.
 Thursday's demands are but the latest salvo launched by North Fork in what has become one of the year's more bitter hostile takeover bids.
The $15 billion bank launched its hostile tender offer for Dime (DME: Research, Estimates) in March, hoping to cobble together enough shareholder support to force Dime's board to consider its offer. But despite several extensions, North Fork thus far has been unable to accumulate the support of 50 percent of Dime's shares.
North Fork's offer would exchange 0.9302 of a common share plus $2 cash for each Dime share. North Fork officials have indicated they would consider raising the offer if Dime's management would initiate merger discussions.
Dime's board steadfastly has opposed North Fork's offer, but is considering its "strategic alternatives."
Dime shares inched forward 1-1/6 to 17-5/8 in late afternoon trading Thursday and are up only slightly since North Fork first initiated its hostile bid. North Fork shares gained 1/2 to 17-11/16. 
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