Men’s Wearhouse ups Jos. A. Bank offer to $1.87B

Men’s Wearhouse has had enough of this playing-hard-to-get routine.

The men’s-suit retailer raised its buyout offer for arch rival Jos. A. Bank to upward of $1.87 billion, and meanwhile filed a testily worded lawsuit to block its competitor’s plan.

Men’s Wearhouse raised its buyout offer early Monday to $63.50 a share in cash and stock, up from $57.50 a share, and added that it would consider raising the bid to $65 a share upon limited due diligence.

Later in the afternoon, Jos. A. Bank said in a statement it will consider the raised offer “in due course.”

Jos. A. Bank’s stock, which has had a bumpy ride in a lengthy back-and-forth with its own would-be acquirer, which began last fall, surged 9 percent, to $60.04, on hopes that a deal will get done after all.

Shares of Men’s Wearhouse, which had been hammered after Jos. A. Bank announced its $900 million Eddie Bauer deal earlier this month, rose 7.5 percent, to $48.51.

In a sharp-edged legal salvo, Men’s Wearhouse on Monday accused Jos. A. Bank chairman Bob Wildrick of maneuvering to protect his own job, fending off a takeover from Men’s Wearhouse despite arguments that it that would be more lucrative for his own shareholders than the Eddie Bauer deal.

Wildrick, the suit alleges, has packed Jos. A. Bank’s board with “cronies … comprised principally of Mr. Wildrick’s longtime friends from Palm Beach and people who have worked for him for decades.”

In an interview with The Post earlier this month, Jos. A. Bank’s investment banker Gilbert Harrison blasted the tough language in Men’s Wearhouse’s public statements and legal filings.

“Bob Wildrick and the board [of Jos. A. Bank] have been nothing but gentlemanly throughout this entire process,” said Harrison, who is chairman of Financo, a New York investment bank focused on the retail sector.

The long, twisting dealmaking saga began last September, when Jos. A. Bank initially approached Men’s Wearhouse with a takeover offer worth $2.3 billion.

In its lawsuit, Men’s Wearhouse noted that Jos. A. Bank’s Wildrick had said at the time that the two companies were “ideal partners,” only to do an about-face when the tables were turned.

Men’s Wearhouse gave Jos. A. Bank until March 12 to respond to its proposal.