Author Archives: Inelegant Investor
Last week, Dow Chemical(DOW) and DuPont(DD) announced a massive merger. We had reported earlier in the week on chatter about the potential deal, and the outlines of the final deal were pretty much as described. The $130 billion merger will briefly create a company that had a combined $83 billion in revenue last year. The company will, however,… Read More »
In July, as Lockheed Martin(LMT) announced its acquisition of Sikorsky helicopter from United Technologies(UTX), it also announced it was considering a sale or spinoff of its IT business. A decision had been expected by year end. Last week, the company said that although it was still very likely to divest the division, the decision would be pushed into… Read More »
After fighting to push forward with a spinoff of its Alibaba(BABA) stake as Aabaco Holdings since the IRS first indicated its opposition in May, Yahoo(YHOO) and its embattled CEO Marissa Mayer have finally thrown in the towel. After days of intense speculation, the company announced this morning that the Board, “after careful review and consideration of how to… Read More »
Less than two months after its successful IPO of 10% of Ferrari(RACE), Fiat Chrysler(FCAU) took a major step forward towards the spinoff of its remaining 80% stake yesterday. At the company’s Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders, the transaction was approved. It is expected that the company will complete the spinoff in January 2016. The EGM approved a demerger… Read More »
General Electric(GE) announced the results of its exchange offer for Synchrony Financial(SYF) common stock this morning. The exchange, which ended last night at midnight, was oversubscribed by 3.2 times, with “2,149,128,195 shares of GE common stock were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn.” The company will “accept 671,366,809 of the tendered shares in exchange for the 705,270,833 shares… Read More »
Last month, we reported speculation that Starwood Hotels(HOT) would be acquired by one of three Chinese hoteliers or Hyatt Hotels(H). An acquisition was indeed in the offing, but by a company unmentioned in those previous reports- Marriott International(MAR). Marriott announced yesterday that it would be acquiring Starwood for $12.2 billion. Not to worry, spinoff fans. Starwood’s spinoff of… Read More »
Last night, GE(GE) set the final ratio for its exchange offer at 1.0505 shares of Synchrony(SYF) common stock for each share of GE tendered. At GE’s closing price on Thursday of $30.16 and Synchrony’s close of $30.79, this represents $32.34 worth of Synchrony stock, or a premium of 7.2%. GE shareholders have until midnight, Monday night, November 16… Read More »
Mallinckrodt(MNK) began the week trading at $70 per share. Six months ago, it was above $130. Today, after some comments from Andrew Left of Citron Research, it trades at $62.58, having touched as low as $52.01. The drug company was spun off of Covidien in 2013. Covidien, which had spun out of Tyco(TYC), was acquired in 2014 by… Read More »
Despite what appeared to be reasonable improvement in the first quarter since its spinoff from DuPont(DD), The Chemours Company(CC) stock has continued its downward spiral. The company which began when-issued trading at $21 in late June, closed at $6.43 yesterday. As we have discussed previously, the company is burdened with $4 billion in debt, plus unknowable environmental liability.… Read More »
Canadian company COM DEV International(CDV.TO) announced that Honeywell(HON) will purchase the company for C$455 million ($345 million USD). Concurrent with the purchase, COM DEV will spin off its stake in exactEarth to shareholders. exactEarth will become an independent, publicly traded company. (i) Honeywell will acquire the equipment business of COM DEV by way of an acquisition of all of… Read More »
Computer Sciences Corporation(CSC) announced that its Board had approved the spinoff and subsequent merger of CSRA, as well as a $10.50 special dividend. After the market close on Friday, November 27(which is the day after Thanksgiving and will be at 1PM), CSC shareholders as of November 18 will receive one share of CSRA for each share of CSC held.… Read More »
Just two days after setting the date for its Associated Capital Group(AC) spinoff, GAMCO Investors(GBL) has pushed it back eleven days in order to “to coincide with month-end.” One wonders what went on behind the scenes that caused the Board(and by Board, we mean Mario Gabelli) to reconsider so quickly. Presumably, the Board was previously aware that November… Read More »
On Wednesday, Exterran Holdings completed its spinoff of Exterran Corporation(EXTN) and changed its name to Archrock, Inc.(AROC). Not to be confused with a defunct seafood restaurant, or a small brewery, or perhaps the next new comic book villain, Archrock “is the leading provider of natural gas contract compression services to customers throughout the United States and a leading… Read More »
One does not need a particular gift for forecasting the future to know that magazines are in the midst of an inexorable decline. No doubt, there is still some profit left to be made, but it will be less and less each year. Joe Ripp certainly knows this. As CEO of Time, Inc.(TIME), his job is to transform… Read More »
The question of whether to exchange their GE(GE) stock to receive Synchrony Financial(SYF) at a 7% discount is a question weighing heavily on the minds of many GE shareholders. One investor decided to Ask Matt what to do. Who is Matt? Apparently, Matt is “USA TODAY markets reporter Matt Krantz [who] answers a different reader question every weekday.”… Read More »