One of my favorite and often overlooked parts of examining spinoffs is the choice of name for the new entity. Generally, this decision requires zero thought as there is a division or some well known product making the choice obvious, such as in the case of Madison Square Garden or Babcock & Wilcox (well…maybe that one isn’t the best example). However, occasionally management needs to flex its creative muscles (by which I mean hire some… Read More »
Ending a short-lived marriage, Ralcorp(RAH) announced plans today to spin off its Post Cereals business as an independent company. The company hopes to complete the spinoff in the next 4 to 6 months. Ralcorp. which itself was spun out of Ralston Purina in 1994, purchased the Post Brands from Kraft(KFT) in August 2008. Ralcorp, which will continue to… Read More »
A few months ago, pharma giant Pfizer (PFE) got a boost when Sanford Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson (and a few other street colleagues) mentioned that company management was open to spinning off or selling parts of the business. This set off a flurry of reports analyzing potential castaways with estimates ending up as high as 4 divisions shed… Read More »
ConocoPhillips(COP), one of the world’s six “supermajor” oil companies has decided that the benefits to vertical integration are not all they’re cracked up to be. The company announced today that it will be spinning off its refining business in the first half of 2012, leaving it as a pure-play exploration and production business. At the time of the… Read More »