Cleveland-Cliffs CEO tells Bloomberg U.S. Steel offer ‘no longer exists’

Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) CEO Lourenco Goncalves, who has been critical of United States Steel’s (X) decision to sell itself to a Japanese steelmaker, said his company’s prior $54 per share offer is now off the table and won’t be a backup if Nippon Steel’s $55 per share cash offer that was accepted by the American steelmaker falls through. “That transaction is no longer available, it’s no longer a backstop for their failure. If they can’t close – I don’t know where they are at this point – that offer is gone, that offer no longer exists,” Goncalves is quoted by Bloomberg as having said in a Thursday interview.