With all of the world focused on Starwood’s (HOT) buyout and the exciting bidding war between Anbang and Marriott International (MAR) it was easy to forget about the planned spinoff of Vistana, its timeshare business. It always seemed to get lumped into the bids, but as a reminder, the company will merge into the Interval Leisure Group (IILG)… Read More »
Paging Kevin Sorbo! Speaking at an industry conference back in February, Larry Silber, CEO of Hertz’s (HTZ) equipment rental business and of its future spinoff, announced that the new company will change its name to Herc Rentals post-spin. Alas, the choice of ‘Herc’ had nothing to do with the Greek demigod and is merely the initials of the… Read More »
After delaying the spinoff of its chemical business due to ‘complexities’, WestRock (WRK) is finally ready to complete the spinoff of Ingevity. The transaction is expected to be completed on May 15th, with WestRock shareholders receiving 1 share of the Ingevity for every 6 WestRock shares owned. The new company will trade on the NYSE under the ticker… Read More »
Community Health Systems’ (CYH) board of directors gave the formal go ahead to the spinoff of its regional hospital network, Quorum Health (QHC). The spinoff will take place on April 29th and CYH shareholders as of April 22nd should receive one share of Quorum for every 4 CYH shares owned. The new company will trade under the ticker ‘QHC’.… Read More »
Gannett (GCI) strikes again and it has another print spinoff in its crosshairs. After scooping up the Journal Media Group back in October, the company, which spun off its digital properties into TEGNA (TGNA), is now going after Tribune Publishing (TPUB), the 2014 print spinoff from Tribune Media. That is a lot of spinoff on spinoff M&A. Gannett’s all-cash… Read More »
Judging by our tables and readership, spinoffs have become pretty popular and apparently, even Jim Cramer is a fan. Speaking on his show last week, Cramer exclaimed that he is ‘a huge backer of this break-up strategy, in part because the stock market prefers smaller, easy-to-understand, pure-play type companies over big, complicated conglomerates.’ Continuing with the spinoff theme, Cramer… Read More »
CBS Corporation (CBS) is ready to shed one of its oldest assets. While the network is well known today for its hit shows, its origins are in the radio business. Nothing lasts forever though and during this week’s presentation at its analyst day, CEO Les Moonves announced that the company was considering ‘its strategic options’ for the radio business.… Read More »
Masayoshi Son’s Softbank (SFTBY) is shaking up its organizational structure, creating two separate, but still wholly owned, internal companies. One business will house its domestic (Japanese) businesses such as mobile and its stake in Yahoo Japan, while the other unit will contain its overseas investments. The overseas bucket will include Softbank’s investments in budding technology companies, such as… Read More »
Sadly, not every announced spinoff actually ends up executed. For example, earlier this week we highlighted Fidelity National Venture’s (FNFV) postponement of its restaurant group spinoff while it exercises patience and awaits better ‘market conditions’. Another recently scrapped spinoff was Federal-Mogul Holding’s (FDML) planned separation of its Motorparts business from its Powertrain unit. The decision shouldn’t have come… Read More »
After successfully spinning off J. Alexanders (JAX) late last year, Fidelity National Ventures (FNFV) was set to spin off the rest of its restaurant assets under the holding company American Blue Ribbon Holding. Then plans changed. The headline was that the spin was delayed due to ‘market conditions’, a catchall phrase that is especially useful during market volatility, but… Read More »
A quick update now that the transaction is official. The Manitowoc Company (MTW) completed the tax-free spinoff of Manitowoc Foodservice (MFS) on Friday, with shareholders receiving one share of MFS for every share of MTW owned. Expectations were for the legacy crane business, which kept the company name, to languish amidst a severe downcycle and for the foodservice… Read More »
Farewell Foodservice! Manitowoc’s (MTW) board of directors formally approved the spinoff of Manitowoc Foodservice, its foodservice equipment segment, last week. The new company will trade on the NYSE under the ticker ‘MFS’ and on March 4th, shareholders will receive one share of MFS for every MTW share owned. A ‘When-Issued’ market is expected to begin on or around February… Read More »
Grab a tissue and say farewell to the Tyco (TYC) name. The former high flying conglomerate has a complicated history full of acquisitions (lots of those), strategy shifts, scandal ($6,000 shower curtains!) and of course, a lot of spinoffs. Current DuPont (DD) CEO Ed Breen smashed the company apart not once, but twice, creating three entities in both… Read More »
Tribune Publishing (TPUB), a 2014 spinoff from Tribune Media, received a large cash infusion of over $44m from Chicago entrepreneur Michael Ferro last week week in exchange for 5.2m shares. Mr. Ferro will become TPUB’s largest shareholder with ~16.6% of the shares and will join the company’s Board of Directors, replacing Eddy Hartenstein as Executive Chairman. Interestingly, Mr. Ferro… Read More »
With a diverse business portfolio and some enterprising competitors, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been the subject of spinoff rumors for years. So far, the company has opted to not pursue any divestitures of that nature and that will remain the case for some time if CEO Andrew Witty has his way. Well…at least regarding the consumer unit. While discussing the… Read More »