High-End REIT in Lowdown Brawl

This reversal has taken a toll on Post, its stock and its dividend. The company has been selling prize apartment complexes instead of aggressively building more of them. It has watched its stock tumble below $25 --with only a slight rebound to $26.30 -- for the first time in nearly five years. And it has become so strapped for extra cash that last year it finally cut its dividend so it could stop selling assets and borrowing money to pay it.

This storm, brewing when doctors told Williams he needed heart surgery two years ago, erupted since Williams retired. And these days, Post looks sicker than its founder.

Williams, for one, believes a buyer could cure the company. But Wall Street isn't holding its breath for another deal. On the basis of their sell recommendations, analysts believe the recent $26-a-share offer from GID -- dismissed by Post as too low -- may be as good as the company gets for awhile.

And at least one analyst doubts the GID offer was even genuine. He believes Williams intentionally sought out a lowball offer so that, when management refused it, he would have a weapon for his fight. The analyst is convinced that Williams is only hurting the company -- and himself -- by trying to hang on.

But Williams has no plans to back down. If anything, he and his supporters are more determined -- and confident -- than ever.

"Based on the meetings and phone conversations Mr. Williams and the slate are having with investors," his publicist said last week, "they have been increasingly encouraged by the reception the message is receiving."

Still, the fight has left Post and its founder -- particularly the latter -- with signs of damage.

"Maybe he wanted to leave on a high note," one expert pondered. "But he's the man who built that company, and he should be proud.

"His legacy was already intact."