The WSJ publishes a weekly column titled ‘Boss Talk’ where it picks the brain of CEOs and other top brass from big companies. A few weeks ago the paper spoke with Mike Petters, CEO of Huntington Ingalls (HII), a spinoff from Northrop Grumman (NOC). This week the paper sat down with Juan Ramon Alaix, CEO of Zoetis (ZTS),… Read More »
National Oilwell Varco (NOV) recently announced plans to spin off its distribution business to shareholders sometime in the first half of next year. Its MRO business won’t be the only thing leaving the company though, as current Chairman and CEO Merill ‘Pete’ Miller will be stepping down from his post and joining the new company as Executive Chairman.… Read More »
Six months after completing its spinoff of CST Brands(CST), Valero(VLO) has sold off all of its remaining shares in the convenience store operator, CST announced yesterday. Valero sold 15,079,448 shares in an underwritten public offering after the underwriters exercised their over-allotment option in full. CST has risen 8.98% since its May 2 close, lagging the S&P 500. Nonetheless, given… Read More »
It’s almost go time for Ingersoll Rand’s (IR) spinoff of Allegion, its commercial and residential security business. Shareholders will receive one share of Allegion for every 3 shares of IR owned with the distribution taking place on December 1st to shareholders as of the November 22nd record date. The new company will trade on the NYSE under the… Read More »
Never heard of SunEdison(SUNE)? Perhaps you know it better by its old name, MEMC Electronic Materials. The name was only the first thing to change in the company’s ongoing evolution. In August, the company announced plans to spin off its semiconductor business, which had been its initial core business. The company plans to conduct an IPO for a… Read More »
Like many companies with a focus on natural gas, Encana(ECA) has struggled with the glut of production causing sustained low prices. To some extent, the company has successfully shifted production to oil and natural gas liquids which have had far better economics over the past few years. There is still more that the company needs to do, however,… Read More »
We recently highlighted a piece from DomainNameWire.com speculating that Demand Media’s (DMD) upcoming domain registration spinoff would be named Rightside. It turns out their sleuthing was on the money, as the company formally announced the new name as Rightside last week. The ‘Rightside’ in this case represents ‘everything to the right of the dot – and beyond.’ Clever, but was… Read More »
At his last earnings call in August, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes pushed back the timing of the company’s spinoff of Time, Inc. Three months later, another earnings call, and another delay. What had once been planned for completion this year is now projected to occur in the second quarter of 2014. Without elaborating on the reasons… Read More »
Newcastle Investment Corp(NCT), which in May spun off a residential REIT, the creatively named New Residential Investment Corp(NRZ), has announced plans to spin off its media business to shareholders. Newcastle is a bit of a strange beast. It is structured as a REIT and controlled by Fortress Investment Group (FIG). The transaction itself is strange as well. Newcastle… Read More »
Last Friday, a spinoff we’ve written about several times became a reality. Harvard Biosciences (HBIO) spun off Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technologies(HART) to shareholders. HBIO shareholders received one share of HART for every four shares of HBIO owned. With management going to the spin off, recently appointed HBIO CEO Jeffery A. Duchemin received the additional titles of President and… Read More »
Some things go great together. Peanut butter and jelly. Ernie and Bert. Song and Dance. Others go less well together. Title insurance and restaurants. Over at the Inelegant Investor, we shared our surprise at this bewildering combination back in August 2012. Now, this strategy has generally worked well for Fidelity National Financial(FNF), but it seems that Corvex shares… Read More »
Amcor Limited (AMCRY) recently held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and not surprisingly there was a lot of talk about the planned demerger of its Australasia Packaging and Distribution business, which will be named Orora. In fact, both company Chairman Chris Roberts and Managing Director Ken MacKenzie spent a good chunk of their remarks extolling the virtues of the spin and gushing… Read More »
It was, some thought, a mismatch from the beginning. When Sears(SHLD) purchased Lands’ End for $1.9 billion in 2002, the New York Times spoke of a union of “pants and power drills”. The hope of then-CEO Alan Lacy that Lands’ End would revive Sears’ struggling apparel business was never realized. By the time Kmart purchased Sears in late… Read More »
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft (MSFT), continues to own a $2 billion stake in the company. Recently, Paul Ghaffari, the manager of Vulcan Capital, Allen’s family office, called for the company’s new CEO to spin off the consumer unit. Vulcan Capital, the family investment office of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, believes the new CEO should explore a spinoff of… Read More »
If you owned United Online(UNTD) prior to Friday and are trying to figure out what happened to your portfolio, better get a scorecard. The security underwent a series of changes Friday as the company completed its spin off of FTD Companies(FTD). For every five shares of United owned, shareholders received one share of FTD. Following the spinoff, United… Read More »