Maguire takeover buzz

We've been to this dance before, but it's still worth noting that shares of L.A.-based Maguire Properties Inc. are way up this morning on speculation that the real estate company is looking for a deal that would take it private - with Rob Maguire still running the show. At a little before noon, the stock was up almost 7 percent, at $40.07 - just shy its 52-week high of $40.36 earlier in the morning. Merrill Lynch analyst Ian Weissman raised his price target on the stock to $43 from $39 on Monday, based on the takeover talk. He figures that a buyout would likely occur between $43 and $45 a share.

Maguire fell short of analysts' expectations in the second quarter as a result of smaller-than-expected net operating income and fewer-than-anticipated acquisitions. (It's held back on acquiring $700 million in properties this year because prices are too high.) The strategy is now to sell rather than buy properties.

Backgrounder: Going private would not be that surprising. Maguire has had a tough time on Wall Street - or shall we say Wall Street has had a tough time with him. It's getting to be an old story. In my Los Angeles magazine piece on Richard Ziman (September issue; sorry, it's not online), the former Arden Realty CEO talks about the hassle of being publicly held. He hated trying to please Wall Street with good numbers every quarter – nor was he thrilled about the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations that establish tighter standards for running public companies. “I’ve made a vow,” he said, “that for the rest of my professional life I am never going to be a CEO and that whatever I do, I am going to be the enabler instead of the enabled.”