The Westin New York at Times Square
THE ink has barely dried on the shareholder approval agreement for Marriott International to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and already a wrench has been thrown into the works.
According to a Bloomberg report, the acquisition is facing legal challenges from Cityfront Hotel Associates Limited Partners and Dream Team Hotel Associates LLC, the owners of Sheraton Grand Chicago and The Westin New York at Times Square respectively.
They are arguing that the merger would violate exclusivity agreements and unfairly eat into their businesses.
The plaintiffs are thus calling for an injunction on the deal with the civil suit currently being handled by the New York State Supreme Court.
Marriott and Starwood had just last month been given the green light by their respective shareholders to go ahead with the merger, an important development that ended anintense bidding war sparked by the involvement of a third conglomerate led by China’s Anbang Insurance Group.
The Marriott-Starwood deal was last expected to close by mid-2016, according to a joint statement by the two companies in April.
