Author Archives: Inelegant Investor
Bill Ackman loved its business model of purchasing companies with “mispriced” drugs and raising prices, but, under fire from regulators and legislators, Valeant(VRX) announced today that it will be completely changing its business model. Recent outrage about huge price increases for acquired drugs including public statements by Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have been a cause of the… Read More »
Chip Rewey is the manager of Third Avenue’s Value(TVFVX) and Small Cap Value(TVSVX) funds, having recently succeeded value investing legend Marty Whitman. Rewey was interviewed by Barrons.com yesterday, and shared his excitement about SPX Flow(FLOW), which was very recently spun off from SPX Corp(SPXC). Q:Have fears over oil and gas led you to other opportunities lately? A: SPX… Read More »
Posters featuring its iconic speedsters grace the walls of teenagers’ bedrooms around the world. Now, fans will have a chance to own a piece of the company. Management is busy on the road this week promoting an IPO of Ferrari. The company, 90% of which is owned by Fiat Chrysler(FCAU), will, naturally, trade under the ticker RACE. The IPO… Read More »
For years, a favorite speculation of the spinoff prognosticators has been that Amazon(AMZN) should spin off its fast growing Web Services business. These rumors have had little basis in reality. After all, Jeff Bezos does what he wants, and pays little heed to the whims of others. The buzz only intensified when Amazon recently began breaking out the… Read More »
Now, let me tell you a little bit about Bob Evans(BOBE). This ain’t no Bob’s Broccoli Buffet, this here is a pile your plate high with sausage and go back fer more kind of place. We reported in March that, despite pressure from Sandell Asset Management, the company would not be spinning off its packaged foods business, and… Read More »
The Dolan family has spent the better part of the decade spinning off assets. The dynasty behind Cablevision(CVC) spun off the Madison Square Garden Company(MSG) in 2010, followed by AMC Networks(AMCX) in 2011. Now, all three companies are in the midst of radical transformations. Early this morning, Cablevision announced that it would be acquired by French telecom Altice… Read More »
Capital Southwest Corporation(CSWC), a Business Development Company, announced late last year that it would spin off its industrial products, coatings, sealants and adhesives and specialty chemicals businesses into a separate, publicly traded company. Yesterday, the company announced that its Board of Directors had approved the spinoff of CSW Industrials. The new company will trade under the ticker CSWI. Shareholders… Read More »
After months of putting on a brave face in the face of mounting IRS resistance to its proposed spinoff of Alibaba(BABA) shares as Aabaco Holdings, Yahoo(YHOO) was served another setback last week. In a filing late today, the comapny revealed that the IRS had declined to issue a ruling on the taxable status of the transaction. On January 27,… Read More »
Cree(CREE), a leader in LED lighting also has a North Carolina-based Power & RF business which has no overlap with the core business. In May, the company announced that it planned an IPO of the Power & RF business, and that it had filed with the SEC towards that goal. The company plans to sell a minority stake… Read More »
Verizon(VZ) is a proto-spinoff. At its core rest two of the original baby bells, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, although it didn’t take on the Verizon moniker until after its merger with GTE(as part of that merger, GTE spun off Genuity). Verizon later purchased other spinoff related companies such as Alltel, which had spun off its wireline business into… Read More »
Just two months after its spinoff from Baxter International(BAX), as it continues to reject acquisition interest from Shire(SHPG), Baxalta(BXLT) is in talks to acquire Ariad Pharmaceuticals(ARIA). Ariad jumped 42% on the news last Friday, valuing the oncology company at nearly $2 billion. What is driving this potential acquisition? Is it the “Promise of the Baxalta Spark“? Perhaps it’s… Read More »
Abbott Labs(ABT), which spun off AbbVie(ABBV) in one of the largest spinoffs in recent years, is preparing to make a $25 billion bid for St. Jude Medical(STJ) according to a report in the Financial Times. Abbott and St Jude, which is based in St Paul, Minnesota, already have a strong alliance in the field of cardiovascular devices, and… Read More »
Yahoo(YHOO) investors may be learning a costly lesson in the dangers of tax efficiency. Under pressure from investors to maximize the value of its Alibaba(BABA) stake, the company unveiled a plan to spin off the stake, with a small business unit, as Aabaco Holdings. The spinoff was intended to avoid paying $12 billion in taxes. For months, however… Read More »
The Summer of Spin kicked off a little over one month ago, but already one of the spinoffs might be acquired. Shire(SHPG) unveiled an offer to acquire last month’s Baxter International (BAX) spinoff, Baxalta(BXLT). According to the release, Shire contacted Baxalta in early July- immediately after the spinoff, met briefly on July 10, but Baxalta has not seriously considered… Read More »
More spins mean more work for the folks at S&P Dow Jones Indices. With the completion of Barnes & Noble’s(BKS) spin of Barnes & Noble Education(BNED) this weekend, Barnes & Noble Education will join its parent in the S&P SmallCap 600, replacing A.M. Castle & Co(CAS). The change will maintain the index’s current ampersand level. With the completion… Read More »