The food service company that serves food in such august ballparks as Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, not to mention our own beloved Cashman Field, has received a takeover bid from a consortium of investment banks and private equity groups, reports Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs and the company's chairman, Joseph Neubauer, are leading the bid.

The offer of $32 per share sent the stock well over $34 as the market figured that this was only an opening gambit. The company has a two-tier share structure and is controlled by owners of the Class A shares which do not trade publicly. The Class B shares, which do trade, were sold in 2001 after the company had been taken private by Neubauer in 1984.

A corporate governance expert tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that investors have to wonder what the insiders know that shareholders don't when they move to take a company private. University of Delaware Law Professor Charles Elson notes that there is a conflict of interest in insiders trying to get the best price but valuing the company for potential not known to the market.

Profits rose dramatically last year, although all our years of attending 51s games and covering shows at the Convention Center, led us to believe that Aramark had long ago mastered the art of selling execrable food at vastly inflated prices. Obviously, the company has expanded sales to other institutions like colleges, senior centers and jails and insiders think they can do more to enhance shareholder value.