A few short hits to kick off the week: Marketfolly posts a copy of Third Point Capital’s Q3 newsletter in which chief Dan Loeb talks about the firm’s position in Baxter International (BAX). Mr. Loeb is a big fan of new CEO Jose ‘Joe’ Almeida which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that the fund’s board representative helped… 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 »
Despite the urging of some investors, McDonald’s (MCD) will not spin off its real estate assets into a REIT. The much awaited decision was revealed by CEO Steve Easterbrook at the company’s investor meeting held earlier this week. The company spent a long time studying tax advantages and analyzing multiple benefits of the move and ultimately concluded that the… 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 »
It may be the world’s premier luxury brand. Ferrari(RACE) manufactured just 7,255 cars last year, part of its strategy to keep supply below the level of demand. The recent IPO of 10% of Ferrari’s shares by Fiat Chrysler(FCAU) followed the same model, making available only a small number of shares. Barron’s notes that the company’s valuation is unjustified.… Read More »
Mario Gabelli has often made money off of spinoffs. Now he’s executing one. Gabelli, the CEO and controlling shareholder of GAMCO Investors(GBL), will be spinning off the company’s alternative investment management business and some assorted assets as Associated Capital Group. At 11:59PM on November 19, GAMCO shareholders as of November 12 will receive one Associated Capital Group Class… Read More »
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman (NOC) is feeling pretty good right now after having just won a massive contract for the new long range bomber. The company is also in the process of restructuring its organization by cutting its operating groups from 4 to 3, one of which will be called Technology Services. The move led to suspicion that… Read More »
While Yahoo(YHOO) still persists in its hope that its spinoff of Aabaco Holdings and its Alibaba(BABA) stake will be tax free, one analyst believes that investors have not been properly evaluating the worst case. Bob Peck of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey believes that taxes may be as high as 65% of the Alibaba stake’s value. Why does he believe that?… Read More »