Time for a little housecleaning as we catch up on some old news regarding a few potential spins which ended up as sales instead. Can’t win them all. Loral Space & Communications (LORL) had long talked about spinning off its Space Systems/Loral (SSL) unit to shareholders, but instead sold the division to MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates (TSX:MDA) for $875m. The… Read More »
It only took about a year since the idea was first publicly floated, but Kraft Food’s (KFT) board of directors formally approved the spinoff of its North American grocery business last week. The tax-free spin is expected to be completed after the close on October 1st and shareholders of KFT will receive 1 share of the new Kraft Foods… Read More »
This author wonders what activists will do once the market’s conglomerates have all been broken up. Nelson Peltz of Trian Group gaining a board seat at Ingersoll Rand may be the latest harbinger of yet another spinoff on the horizon. Peltz had been trying to get a board seat and push for change but the company up to this point… Read More »
It’s been a scant three months since Fiesta Restaurant Group(FRGI) was spun out of Carroll’s(TAST) but the new company has already produced impressive results in its first reported quarter. The stock, which began trading in May below $13, closed at $16.16 yesterday. Last week, Fiesta reported its results for the second quarter. The company showed strong comparable store… Read More »
For followers of John Malone and his family of companies, frequent restructurings are nothing new. And he continues to provide special situation investors plenty to do. On the heels of the announced Starz spin, Liberty Interactive executed a previously announced splitoff of the company into new tracking stocks Liberty Interactive (LINTA) and Liberty Ventures (LVNTA). Since the company is remaining one… Read More »
Back in January, we reported that Comverse Technology(CMVT) would be spinning off subsidiary Comverse, Inc., leaving the parent with majority ownership of Verint(VRNT), as well as Starhome, a private company. We speculated at the time that the company would then follow up by distributing its Verint shares and winding down the holding company. Today, it was announced that… Read More »
What do you do when your drug discovery costs swamp your profits from a successful marketed drug. If you’re Elan Corporation(ELN), you spin off your drug discovery business with a bundle of cash, keeping your marketed drugs and late stage pipeline. Elan, an Irish biotech firm, is driven largely by Tysabri,a multiple sclerosis drug marketed with Biogen Idec(BIIB).… Read More »
It’s tough to be a CEO or board member these days. It used to be so easy, but now those pesky shareholders cause too many headaches. ‘Say on Pay’? What? Do they think they own the company or something? The only thing worse are those so called ‘activist’ shareholders, pushing to create ‘value’ or profits in their pockets.… Read More »
Carl Icahn is not a patient man, but he also doesn’t easily give up. Throughout his storied career, he has profited from forcing companies to make tough decisions to unlock value. Icahn, who owns 9.64% of Oshkosh Corporation(OSK), lost a bruising proxy battle for six seats in January. At the time he had urged the company to reverse… Read More »
In the largest one day gain on a spinoff announcement we can recall, Dean Foods(DF) jumped over 40% yesterday after announcing it would be spinning off its WhiteWave-Aplro business. The Wall Street Journal reports that this is due to excitement about the company’s smaller organic business “which accounts for less than a fifth of group sales, but 40%… Read More »
Long time stock columnist Gene Marcial(now of Forbes) thinks McGraw-Hill(MHP) is “the new and potentially robust growth- and-value stock play, as it gets closer to splitting up into two companies“. Marcial says that the stock , which has risen from $34 last August to over $49, may have more room to go up in the next year. Some bulls… Read More »
Some companies just can’t stop maneuvering. Less than a year after being spun out of IDT (IDT), Genie Energy (GNE) announced that it is launching an exchange offer for up to 8.75m of its common shares. Before digging into the offer, it is worth familiarizing oneself with some background information on the operations. For a fuller description check… Read More »
John Malone is at it again. Liberty Media Company(LMCA), a former tracking stock that was spun out from his core Liberty Interactive(LINTA), will be spinning off its Starz subsidiary. The Starz spinoff will contain the operating assets of Liberty Media, including the Starz and Encore premium cable networks. Liberty Media’s assets after the spin will primarily be its… Read More »
After the close this afternoon, together with reporting its earnings, Dean Foods(DF) announced it would conduct an IPO for part of its WhiteWave-Alpro division, and subsequently distribute the rest to its shareholders. We have not yet read through the S-1 filing, which can be found here. From the earnings release, we learn: Separately, Dean Foods announced today that… Read More »
There are many hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, and zoetic is not one of the more common. The word, meaning “of or relating to life”, is the inspiration for Zoetis, the new name for Pfizer’s (PFE) soon to be independent Animal Health business. After over a year of speculation as to how Pfizer would… Read More »