The company will finance the acquisition with an offering of eight million common shares.

Those were changed into common shares in 2005, as the company increased its capital by about €900 million to finance acquisitions.

The company had geared itself up heavily in order to finance the acquisition at the top of the market.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to finance acquisitions, the company said.

As a result, Teardrop's ability to finance acquisitions from its own resources is limited.

After that, the share price kept rising even though the company was regularly selling stock to finance acquisitions.

Siebe plans to finance the acquisition through a rights issue of 54.95 million new shares.

Centel said it would sell its business systems operations to help finance the acquisition.

Johnston Press will finance the acquisition with a combination of bank debt and new shares.

The company, based in Dallas, said it financed the acquisition through a preferred stock offering and credit.