Dynegy: Homeless Man Comes ThisClose to Buying It

Meet the (almost) new boss, not the same as the old boss

SEC filings show that after Carl Icahn put in a bid of $5.50 a share for the energy company, Goldman Sachs and the others shepherding the sale tested the market to see if there were better offers out there.

They contacted 54 entities, but they also got a letter from something called Buisson Baudoin Rondeleux Inc., expressing interest in putting in a bid.

According to the filing:

The letter purported to express an interest in acquiring the company, but, after a brief initial conversation, the individual listed as a contact did not respond to repeated telephonic and written attempts by Goldman Sachs, Greenhill and the company to contact him until Jan. 24, 2011, when he returned a call from a representative of Goldman Sachs.

The entity, which used a phone number associated with a Columbia, S.C., telephone exchange and a return address associated with a homeless shelter, did not appear in searches of public records and the Internet. In the conversation with the representative of Goldman Sachs, the person indicated that he did not have financing for the purported proposal and had no prior experience in acquiring public companies.

Somehow that was enough to eliminate him from consideration.