Author Archives: Inelegant Investor
Last week, Novartis(NVS) completed its spinoff of Alcon(ALC). Less than a decade ago, Novartis had purchased Alcon from Nestle(NSRGY), but new leadership decided to reverse the transaction. In an article this weekend, Barron’s suggests that there is more than meets the eye to Alcon. Barron’s notes that, on the surface, Alcon looks expensive. For now, Wall Street is… Read More »
What the VF(VFC)? The clothing conglomerate moved closer to completing the spinoff of its denim business as Kontoor Brands recently with the filing of a Form 10. Kontoor will comprise the Wrangler®, Lee® and Rock & Republic® brands, and the VF Outlet business. Kontoor stock is expected to trade under the KTB ticker symbol. The spinoff, which is on track to be completed… Read More »
A cross-country flight transporting a motley collection of violent and dangerous criminals? What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, until they take over the plane mid-air. Good thing Nicholas Cage is there. Oh, wait, that’s Con Air. Really, nothing to do with this morning’s completion of the Alcon (ALC) spinoff from Novartis (NVS), but it’s making us giggle. Go… Read More »
Much ink was spilled, on these pages and countless others, discussing Yahoo’s plan to spinoff its stakes in Alibaba(BABA) and Yahoo! Japan as an independent company. For much of 2015, the company planned to spin off this stake, together with a Yahoo’s small business unit as Aabaco Holdings. The small business unit was included to maintain the tax… Read More »
Some combinations are long-lived. Procter & Gamble(PG) became partners in 1837. Others are over before they began. Dow and DuPont merged 18 months ago to form DowDuPont(DWDP). From the time the deal was announced 18 months earlier, they planned to break up. Now, after shuffling around some businesses, they have taken the first step in their breakup process.… Read More »
DowDuPont(DWDP) celebrates its last trading day intact today. After the bell, it will spin off Dow(DOW), and on June 1, it will spin off its agriscience business as Corteva. Shareholders will receive one share of Dow stock tonight for every three shares of DowDuPont stock owned. It has been a complicated road to get here. CEO Ed Breen… Read More »
A spinoff of a Dow Jones Industrial Average component is not an everyday occurrence. GE(GE), a former Dow component, recently spun off its transportation business into Wabtec(WAB), but the struggling company was removed from the Dow last June. United Technologies(UTX) plans to split in three next year. Even rarer, in this case, the child will join the Dow,… Read More »
A title pairing Robert Zimmerman and Madonna Louise Ciccone- too much? No matter, we’re having fun. DowDuPont(DWDP) is as well, with two spins coming up, the first in just weeks. It was just 36 months ago that Dow and DuPont announced their merger, and just 18 months ago when it closed. All along, they intended to split into… Read More »
Born as Microbia over twenty years ago, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals(IRWD) trades just 21% above its 2010 IPO price. It has managed to get to market with LINZESS, a treatment for IBS. Partnered with Allergan(AGN), LINZESS did $761.2 million in 2018 US sales. Now, Ironwood will be spinning off much of its R&D business as Cyclerion. Current Ironwood CEO and… Read More »
via GIPHY On this month’s episode of Stock Disasters, we once again discuss Helios & Matheson Analytics(HMNY). Last month, our protagonist had announced plans to spinoff MoviePass, despite being insolvent, bleeding money, and having no hope of raising meaningful capital. We suggested, probably a bit too charitably, that it was unlikely to succeed with its spinoff plan. Some… Read More »
We’ve been here before. The dismantling of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire began in earnest in June 2013 when News Corp completed the spin off of its publishing business as the new News Corp(NWS) and changed its own name to 21st Century Fox(FOX). That deal separated Murdoch’s declining but beloved newspaper business from the growing film and television business… Read More »
Is breaking up retail conglomerates about to become a trend? Last week, Gap(GPS) announced the planned spinoff of its Old Navy brand. Now, Barington Capital is urging L Brands(LB), parent of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, to spinoff one of the two brands. Barington has a history of activism and last appeared in these pages when… Read More »
Dearest Readers, we have a confession to make. We fell short of the sacred trust you have placed in us, and were, somehow remiss. You see, it seems, that other than to mention an index change, we never discussed Air Products and Chemicals (APD) October 2016 spinoff of Versum Materials (VSM). We apologize profusely for this breach and… Read More »
This summer will mark the 50th anniversary of Don Fisher opening the first Gap(GPS) store in San Francisco. That initial store opened just days after Woodstock and a month after Neil Armstrong took his small step and, it initially sold only Levi’s jeans and records. Fisher’s concept was that his store would always have every size in stock… Read More »
Wabtec(WAB) was excited to announce this that it had completed its merger with GE Transportation, immediately following GE Transportation’s spinoff from GE(GE). GE shareholders will see small amounts of Wabtec in their portfolios. The final ratio is a bit lower than what had been estimated. For each share of GE stock owned, shareholders received 0.005371 shares of Wabtec stock,… Read More »