Dive Brief:

• UPDATE: Simon Property Group Friday boosted its cash and stock offer for rival Macerich Co. to $95.50 per share from its offer of $91 per share three days earlier and said it would withdraw that "best and final" offer if Macerich didn't take a meeting by April 1.

• Mall development and operating company Macerich Tuesday rejected a $16 billion hostile bid from Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc., the country’s largest mall company.​ Macerich then said the bid undervalues the company, and also adopted a “poison pill” to prevent a takeover.

• The Santa Monica-based company also expressed concerns about a proposed partnership of Simon and Chicago-based real estate investment trust and mall operator General Growth Properties, which would have some of Macerich’s assets sold to General Growth, saying it raises antitrust issues.

Dive Insight:

A combination of these companies could have helped reshape the mall business in the U.S., but this rejection by Macerich of Simon’s overture ensures that the turmoil in the mall industry won’t likely abate any time soon.

UPDATE:​ Investors don't seem to be moved by Simon's latest offer, sending Macerich shares down. "I guess people are saying Macerich won't bite," Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst Alexander Goldfarb told Reuters. "Macerich's history has been very independent and marching to their own beat and I don't know if this is enough to compel them."

Macerich Tuesday said it’s issuing new preferred shares to stockholders, with any purchase rights to the new shares exercised only by an entity that acquires at least 10%, effectively raising the price Simon would have to pay to acquire Macerich.