Just two months after its spinoff from Baxter International(BAX), as it continues to reject acquisition interest from Shire(SHPG), Baxalta(BXLT) is in talks to acquire Ariad Pharmaceuticals(ARIA). Ariad jumped 42% on the news last Friday, valuing the oncology company at nearly $2 billion. What is driving this potential acquisition? Is it the “Promise of the Baxalta Spark“? Perhaps it’s… Read More »
With Darden (DRI) announcing a real estate spinoff, analysts and investors are flocking to find other targets which could benefit from monetizing real estate assets through a REIT conversion. One reason REITs are attractive is that they tend to trade at higher multiples than other sectors so in theory, a separation ‘unlocks’ value by creating a higher sum… Read More »
Abbott Labs(ABT), which spun off AbbVie(ABBV) in one of the largest spinoffs in recent years, is preparing to make a $25 billion bid for St. Jude Medical(STJ) according to a report in the Financial Times. Abbott and St Jude, which is based in St Paul, Minnesota, already have a strong alliance in the field of cardiovascular devices, and… Read More »
Starboard Fund, the ‘Tom Brady of activists‘, successfully campaigned for a spinoff of MeadWestvaco’s specialty chemical group earlier this year. The spin got delayed a bit as the company merged with RockTenn in order to create a consumer and corrugated packaging giant named WestRock (WRK). Now that the merger has closed, the spinoff is heating up again and… Read More »
A few links for another glorious summer Friday: The activist investors at CDK Global (CDK) have a new plan to keep the star spinoff stock rising: find a buyer. The company is apparently working with Morgan Stanley to sell itself and private equity firms are apparently the target audience. That is somewhat surprising because a PE deal for… Read More »
The endless speculation regarding YUM! Brands (YUM) China spinoff rages on despite management saying it’s not currently in the cards. The most recent fuel added to the fire was a sudden management shakeup in China. Long time company veteran and Chinese expansion mastermind Sam Su is retiring from his position as Yum China’s CEO after 26 years of… Read More »
Forbes continues to pump out the spinoff ideas. The other week, we highlighted a Forbes piece nominating five companies ripe for a spinoff, including big names such as Disney (DIS) and Time Warner (TWX). That wasn’t all though. A recent idea in Forbes by Richard Stiennon was that chip powerhouse Intel (INTC) should spin off McAfee, its internet security… Read More »
Ventas (VTR) completed the spinoff of its skilled nursing facilities into the brand new Care Capital Properties (CCP) yesterday. Shareholders should have received 1 share of CCP for every 4 VTR shares owned. The new company is set to join the S&P 400 Midcap index and will be replacing Omnicare which is in the process of being acquired by… Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) announced that it will spin off its Biosciences business into a standalone entity. So what do they mean by ‘biosciences’? The new company will ‘focus on providing novel oncology and hematology therapeutics to meaningfully improve patients’ lives. The core technology of the Biosciences company will be its ADAPTIR platform applied to immuno-oncology’. More specifically, the new… Read More »
It’s a summer Friday – here are a few links for your enjoyment: 1) Gannett (GCI) recently transformed itself via spinoff (the parent company changed its name to TEGNA(TGNA)) into a print focused business. New CEO Robert Dickey is tasked with building a business in a market that is facing severe secular headwinds. So what is the plan?… Read More »
Yahoo(YHOO) investors may be learning a costly lesson in the dangers of tax efficiency. Under pressure from investors to maximize the value of its Alibaba(BABA) stake, the company unveiled a plan to spin off the stake, with a small business unit, as Aabaco Holdings. The spinoff was intended to avoid paying $12 billion in taxes. For months, however… Read More »
IDT (IDT) has a history of spinoffs, and in the middle of 2013, the company spun off a bunch of its intellectual property and spectrum assets into Straight Path Communications (STRP). Suffice it to say, expectations were low. The company had previously attempted to monetize these assets and failed. The business and assets were difficult to understand and… Read More »
After months of ‘will they or won’t they’ and having its stock whipsawed as a result of buyout rumors, Ntelos (NTLS) announced that it would be acquired by fellow Mid-Atlantic region focused operator Shenandoah Telecommunications (SHEN). Shentel, as it is known, is paying $640m for the company, much of it in the form of assumed debt. NTLS shareholders… Read More »
If the prevalence of spinoff related articles and discussions in the media wasn’t enough of a clue that spins are ‘hot’ right now, the latest news from S&P Dow Jones should serve as a clear sign of their increased popularity. The leading index company announced that they were launching three new indexes in order to meet the ‘evolving… Read More »
W.R. Grace & Co (GRA) filed an initial Form 10 for its upcoming construction products and packaging technologies segment. The new company will be called GCP Applied Technologies and the name refers to Grace Construction & Packaging. In fact, the press release notes that many customers still refer to the business today as ‘GCP’. Of course, the company couldn’t… Read More »