A few short hits for a December Friday: By now, everyone has read about the proposed ‘mega merger of equals’ between Dow Chemical (DOW) and DuPont (DD) and the subsequent breakup into three separate companies (agriculture, specialty products and materials). One question worth pondering is how does it actually avoid the tax man? It sure seems like a… Read More »
Congress is working hard trying to pass a comprehensive spending bill and a tax package extending numerous tax breaks. According to the WSJ, buried in these proposals is a bid to end companies’ ability to spinoff property into REITs: The bill from Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, would prevent… Read More »
Back in April, Jana Partners took a large stake in Qualcomm (QCOM) and urged the company to consider splitting up by separating its chip unit from its patent licensing business. Ultimately, the two parties ended up settling after the company agreed to add several Jana-picked directors and explore its strategic options. The idea wasn’t entirely new and in fact,… Read More »
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 »
Who says persistence doesn’t pay off? Months after having a buyout offer rejected and weeks after reports of its continued interest in a deal, Shire (SHPG) has reportedly gotten recent Baxter International (BAX) spinoff Baxalta (BXLT) to sit down at the table for a little M&A pow-wow. Apparently the two are making progress on a deal which would include… Read More »
Fidelity National Financial (FNF) scooped up a number of businesses during the crisis and set up a tracking stock, Fidelity National Financial Ventures (FNFV) to track and highlight the value of those assets. It has since pursued an aggressive monetization plan, including both sales and spinoffs. On the spinoff front, it separated Remy International at the end of… 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 »
The WSJ is reporting that Dow Chemical (DOW) and DuPont (DD) are in advanced merger talks to create a chemical behemoth with leading positions across the chemical spectrum including ag, plastics and a host of other markets. Both companies have been shedding non-core and non-performing assets over the past few years, including some via spinoffs and exchange offers.… 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 »
Some people just won’t take no for an answer. According to Reuters, Shire (SHPG) is getting ready to unveil a higher bid for recent spinoff Baxalta (BXLT), after its unsolicited $30b offer was rejected earlier this year. At the time of the initial offer, the orphan disease focused company had been independent for about roughly two minutes and argued… 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 »
A few short hits to close off the week: The Economist had a short piece looking at some of the challenges faced by both companies following HP’s (HPQ) spinoff of its services business HP Enterprise (HPE). While both companies have scale and more focused operations, the future for each company is murky. The PC business is shrinking and… Read More »
One of the highlights of the ‘Summer of Spin’ was eBay’s (EBAY) spin off of payments processor PayPal (PYPL). Several activists had been pushing hard for the spin, including Carl Icahn, who at one point, engaged in a heated war of words with the company and then CEO John Donahoe. Although he ultimately struck a deal with a… 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 »