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 »
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 »
Last week, Dow Chemical(DOW) and DuPont(DD) announced a massive merger. We had reported earlier in the week on chatter about the potential deal, and the outlines of the final deal were pretty much as described. The $130 billion merger will briefly create a company that had a combined $83 billion in revenue last year. The company will, however,… 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 »
In July, as Lockheed Martin(LMT) announced its acquisition of Sikorsky helicopter from United Technologies(UTX), it also announced it was considering a sale or spinoff of its IT business. A decision had been expected by year end. Last week, the company said that although it was still very likely to divest the division, the decision would be pushed into… 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 »
After fighting to push forward with a spinoff of its Alibaba(BABA) stake as Aabaco Holdings since the IRS first indicated its opposition in May, Yahoo(YHOO) and its embattled CEO Marissa Mayer have finally thrown in the towel. After days of intense speculation, the company announced this morning that the Board, “after careful review and consideration of how to… Read More »