More spinoff news from the energy space. Atlas Energy (ATLS) recently completed the spinoff of its E&P MLP, Atlas Resource Partners, by distributing ~19.6% of the company or ~5.24m common units on March 13 to shareholders as of February 28th. The new company trades under the ticker ARP. In addition to the remaining 78.4% of ARP’s common units,… Read More »
What do you do when your letters and pleas get ignored? Turn them into a presentation of course because pictures and charts are just so much harder to ignore. That seems to be superstar hedge fund manager John Paulson’s approach for turning up the heat on Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG). After having no success writing letters to… Read More »
Activism is alive and well these days. A little while ago, we noted that Barnes & Noble (BKS) was considering its options for its cash burning yet growing Nook business. It seems the company wasn’t alone in that thinking and is now being publicly egged on by Michael Glickstein, CIO of G Asset Management and one of BKS’… Read More »
Who says you have to be a mega-conglomerate in order to pursue a spinoff? Galena Biopharma (GALE), a $46m market cap biotech company, announced that it will spin off RXi Pharmaceutical via stock dividend sometime in the coming months. While the board has not set a final payment date, the date of record will be March 8, 2012… Read More »
Came across a note in Barron’s this weekend that Furiex Pharmaceuticals (FURX) CEO Fredric Eshelman upped his stake in the company by 17,359 shares to a total representing ~12.1% ~21.1% of the company. In case you don’t remember, Furiex was spun out around the time of our site’s launch and we noted some bullish followers of the stock.… Read More »
NovaGold (NG) recently provided an update on its planned spinoff of its Northern Alaska Ambler copper deposits. Since that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, the new company will be known as NovaCopper. Click here for our earlier article on this topic. Shareholders of NovaGold will receive 1 share of NovaCopper for every 6 shares of NovaGold owned. More… Read More »
Listening to (or reading) company conference calls are a necessary but often painful part of investing. Calls are usually filled with a bunch of numbers, some CEO speak and suck-up analysts (if the company is doing well) so anything out of the ordinary or even somewhat controversial becomes noteworthy. Throw in ‘legendary’ fund manager John Paulson and now… Read More »
Ah, to be an activist investor. Push around executives, demand ‘shareholder friendly’ measures and all this while maintaining the flexibility of trading in and out of shares. After pushing hard for a breakup, Carl Icahn quickly rang the register on a chunk of his Motorola Mobility (MMI) stake shortly after its takeout announcement. Too much work? John Paulson… Read More »
With both the DOJ and EU regulatory body blessing the transaction, Google’s (GOOG) purchase of spinoff Motorola Mobility (MMI) is finally close to fruition. No small feat given the recent failures of some other large deals such as ATT’s (T) takeout of T-Mobile and the NYX/Deutsche Boerse combo. Motorola’s hefty patent portfolio appears to have been the impetus… Read More »
It seems the spinoff bug is even starting to spread a bit into the emerging markets, with Brazil being the latest country to catch the fever. Well…maybe more of a cough or a minor cold. JBS SA (JBSAY), once a potential player in the Sara Lee (SLE) sweepstakes, announced plans to spin off its dairy unit, Vigor Alimentos… Read More »
After undergoing a strategic review and failing to find a buyer, Loral Space & Communication (LORL) announced that it is committed to spinning off its Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) segment. SS/L designs, manufactures and integrates satellites and space systems for a wide variety of commercial and government customers. The unit appears to be growing rather nicely over the past… Read More »
Less than a year after being spun out of the Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO), the Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) is pondering a spin of its own. Talk about moving quickly. Egged on by activist investor Jana Partners (who is also ‘prodding’ McGraw-Hill [MHP]), the company is considering setting up an master limited partnership (MLP) for its pipeline business… Read More »
M&A gets a lot of attention, but many have questioned whether or not it delivers the expected returns to shareholders. Often this is a result of paying too much. While the data on spinoffs is pretty favorable (we might be a bit biased here), the transaction can have some consequences. For example, if the parent company doesn’t retain… Read More »
‘Everyone else is doing it’. Unfortunately, that line never worked for me as a child [it was always met with something like ‘if everyone else was jumping off a bridge…’ or ‘well, you are part of this family’], but apparently it is the new motto for integrated energy companies. Many players in the space appear to be operating… Read More »
While picking out a name for a newborn child is fun and exciting, it is also a really stressful decision. Everyone seems to have an opinion and it really will affect the child for the rest of his or her life (yes, I am talking about you Apple, Blue and Brooklyn). So I am sure it must challenging… Read More »