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 »
After shaking up its leadership earlier this year, Occidental Petroleum (OXY) is undergoing a strategic review to ‘streamline and focus’ its operations. The first steps of that process authorized by its board include: Pursue the sale of a minority interest in the Middle East/North Africa operations in a financially efficient manner. Pursue strategic alternatives for select Midcontinent assets,… Read More »
In the course of our busy lives, we sometimes never get around to writing about certain spins, even those which we are aware of and find interesting. Penn National Gaming’s (PENN) spin of Gaming & Leisure Properties (GLPI) is one such case. A search of our site revealed one scant mention when talking about IRS treatment of REITs,… Read More »
Earlier this summer, Weyerhauser (WY) announced that it was exploring ‘strategic alternatives’ for Weyerhauser Real Estate Company (WRECO), its homebuilder unit. Those options included including ‘continuing to hold and operate WRECO, or a merger, sale or spin-off of the business.’ The unit ranks in the Top 20 homebuilders and sold 1,099 homes in H1 2013. The exploration of strategic… Read More »
Though it is not expected to come up for a shareholder vote until Q2 2014, Noble Corporation(NE) is making progress with its plan to spin off its non-deepwater assets. Noble announced last week that it had received a private letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service relating the the expected tax-free status of the proposed transaction. Though this… Read More »
In February, struggling internet company Demand Media(DMD) first announced its plan to separate its domains business from its content business. At the time, the company shared some metrics about each unit. More recently, amidst continued struggles in the content business, the CEO resigned, leaving the timing of the spinoff in doubt, though the company reaffirmed that it would… Read More »
Ceasar’s Entertainment (CZR) distributed subscription rights to its shareholders two weeks ago, offering them the option to purchase shares of Ceasar’s Acquisition Company at the price of $8.64 per share. The rights were distributed on October 21st to shareholders as of October 17th and shareholders should have received one subscription right for every CZR share owned. As we… Read More »
General Electric(GE) is the prototypical conglomerate. It is welll known for its turbines, its locomotives, its jet engines, and its finance division. Chastened by the financial crisis which GE entered as a finance company with some industrial assets attached, CEO Jeff Immelt has been on a multiyear mission to shift the company’s focus back to its industrial operations.… Read More »
Noble Corporation (NE) is going deep after announcing plans to spin off a business holding most of its standard specification drilling units. The new company’s assets will include ‘five drillships, three semisubmersibles, 34 jackups, two submersibles, and one FPSO’ and also be responsible for the Hibernia platform operations. Noble will continue to own and operate its high-specification assets, ~35 rigs… Read More »
DE Master Blenders 1753’s (DE.AS or DEMBF) listing on the NYSE Euronext will be terminated on Tuesday, October 29th. To be fair, this is a mere formality as the stock hasn’t really traded much in the months following the takeover announcement by privately held Joh A Benckiser. While it’s been awhile since the board approved buyout offer rolled in, the ensuing… Read More »
In late September, National Oilwell Varco (NOV) announced that it would spin off its distribution business, a unit which provides MRO supplies to the energy and industrial markets, into a standalone entity. According to CEO & Chairman Pete Miller, after a series of acquisitions from Schlumberger (SLB) last year, the business is now large enough (both in size… Read More »
Amidst talk of defense budget cuts and sequesters, Northrop Grumman (NOC) spun off of its naval shipbuilding unit Huntington Ingalls (HII). Despite the doom and gloom setting for the defense industry, the stock has appreciated quite nicely since its March 2011 debut, up close to 90%. The company has recently faced cost overruns while building the newest aircraft… Read More »
The death knell appears to be ringing for Telecom Italia’s (TI) fixed line spinoff. According to this Bloomberg piece, the company plans to ask its board of directors to withdraw its approval for the spin, which would put an end to a process which has been going on for over a year. That is a loooong time and… Read More »