Wall Street loves spinoffs, but these transactions are hardly simple affairs to execute. There is a reason most of them take more than 9 months to consummate. After pushing off the expected completion date of Ingevity’s spinoff again, it seems WestRock (WRK) is learning that fact the hard way. The specialty chemical spinoff is now expected to be… Read More »
Yahoo (YHOO) had a tough year in 2015. The core business continued declining, key employees fled and its plans to deliver shareholder value by spinning off its Alibaba (BABA) stake into a standalone company was effectively derailed by the IRS. Unfortunately for the company and its beleaguered CEO Marissa Meyer, the start of 2016 isn’t looking much better… Read More »
A few links to help get through this hump day: ValueWalk links to a frank interview with JANA Partners co-founder Gary Claar, who now heads up his own shop Claar Advisors. Within, Mr. Claar discusses some of the investments he was involved with at JANA, including McGraw-Hill as well as some of his new fund’s ideas. Additionally, he… Read More »
Hertz (HTZ) first announced the idea of spinning off its rental equipment business back in March of 2014 after facing severe activist pressure. The plan was to have the equipment company pay a big dividend which would fund a large buyback at the parent. A few months later, the company even managed to settle its fight with Carl… Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Earlier this year, the WSJ reported that ATM maker NCR Corp (NCR) was considering its strategic options, including a possible spinoff. A little digging revealed a spinoff to be a low probability choice and that a buyback or dividend seemed more likely to be in the cards as a new ‘shareholder friendly’ activity. Shortly thereafter though, the company… Read More »
A few short hits to kick off the week: Marketfolly posts a copy of Third Point Capital’s Q3 newsletter in which chief Dan Loeb talks about the firm’s position in Baxter International (BAX). Mr. Loeb is a big fan of new CEO Jose ‘Joe’ Almeida which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that the fund’s board representative helped… Read More »