Author Archives: Inelegant Investor
At his last earnings call in August, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes pushed back the timing of the company’s spinoff of Time, Inc. Three months later, another earnings call, and another delay. What had once been planned for completion this year is now projected to occur in the second quarter of 2014. Without elaborating on the reasons… Read More »
Newcastle Investment Corp(NCT), which in May spun off a residential REIT, the creatively named New Residential Investment Corp(NRZ), has announced plans to spin off its media business to shareholders. Newcastle is a bit of a strange beast. It is structured as a REIT and controlled by Fortress Investment Group (FIG). The transaction itself is strange as well. Newcastle… Read More »
Last Friday, a spinoff we’ve written about several times became a reality. Harvard Biosciences (HBIO) spun off Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technologies(HART) to shareholders. HBIO shareholders received one share of HART for every four shares of HBIO owned. With management going to the spin off, recently appointed HBIO CEO Jeffery A. Duchemin received the additional titles of President and… Read More »
Some things go great together. Peanut butter and jelly. Ernie and Bert. Song and Dance. Others go less well together. Title insurance and restaurants. Over at the Inelegant Investor, we shared our surprise at this bewildering combination back in August 2012. Now, this strategy has generally worked well for Fidelity National Financial(FNF), but it seems that Corvex shares… Read More »
It was, some thought, a mismatch from the beginning. When Sears(SHLD) purchased Lands’ End for $1.9 billion in 2002, the New York Times spoke of a union of “pants and power drills”. The hope of then-CEO Alan Lacy that Lands’ End would revive Sears’ struggling apparel business was never realized. By the time Kmart purchased Sears in late… Read More »
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft (MSFT), continues to own a $2 billion stake in the company. Recently, Paul Ghaffari, the manager of Vulcan Capital, Allen’s family office, called for the company’s new CEO to spin off the consumer unit. Vulcan Capital, the family investment office of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, believes the new CEO should explore a spinoff of… Read More »
If you owned United Online(UNTD) prior to Friday and are trying to figure out what happened to your portfolio, better get a scorecard. The security underwent a series of changes Friday as the company completed its spin off of FTD Companies(FTD). For every five shares of United owned, shareholders received one share of FTD. Following the spinoff, United… Read More »
In the course of our busy lives, we sometimes never get around to writing about certain spins, even those which we are aware of and find interesting. Penn National Gaming’s (PENN) spin of Gaming & Leisure Properties (GLPI) is one such case. A search of our site revealed one scant mention when talking about IRS treatment of REITs,… Read More »
Though it is not expected to come up for a shareholder vote until Q2 2014, Noble Corporation(NE) is making progress with its plan to spin off its non-deepwater assets. Noble announced last week that it had received a private letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service relating the the expected tax-free status of the proposed transaction. Though this… Read More »
In February, struggling internet company Demand Media(DMD) first announced its plan to separate its domains business from its content business. At the time, the company shared some metrics about each unit. More recently, amidst continued struggles in the content business, the CEO resigned, leaving the timing of the spinoff in doubt, though the company reaffirmed that it would… Read More »
General Electric(GE) is the prototypical conglomerate. It is welll known for its turbines, its locomotives, its jet engines, and its finance division. Chastened by the financial crisis which GE entered as a finance company with some industrial assets attached, CEO Jeff Immelt has been on a multiyear mission to shift the company’s focus back to its industrial operations.… Read More »
Murphy USA(MUSA) completed its first day of trading yesterday following its spinoff from Murphy Oil(MUR). The business, which is primarily Murphy’s retail gas station network, will be led by R. Andrew Clyde. Former parent Murphy Oil has new leadership as well, with the retiring Steven Cosse being replaced by Roger Jenkins. The spinoff, which was completed after the… Read More »
There are few companies in America with as long a history as DuPont (DD). Started as a gunpowder mill in Delaware in 1802, the company has been a fixture on the American business landscape for over two centuries. DuPont was a force behind the creation and growth of General Motors (GM) and invented many of the signature materials… Read More »
Epazz(EPAZ) continues to push the envelope on the bare minimum of substance a spinoff must have. Consider its latest gem of a press release: Epazz a leading provider of cloud based business software solutions, announced today that the Company is moving quickly forward with the Project Human Mobile Power spinoff. Epazz is currently working with a Patent attorney… Read More »
In July 2007, when Rio Tinto(RIO) announced it would be purchasing Alcan for $38.1 billion in the largest mining acquisition ever, new CEO Tom Albanese was ecstatic. His bold move, beating out a $27 billion hostile bid from former Alcan parent Alcoa(AA) proved disastrous. Earlier this year, Albanese was forced to resign after writing down over $25 billion… Read More »