As part of its recent spinoff of Engility(EGL), L-3 Communications(LLL) received $325 million in cash which it will use to retire $250 million in debt and repurchase $75 million in stock. Despite this balance sheet improvement, both S&P and Fitch left the company’s ratings unchanged. From S&P: Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today that its ratings and… Read More »
Earlier this week, we reported on rumors that VMWare(VMW) and EMC(EMC) were planning to spin off their cloud assets into a new company. Today, CRN reports that the company called the rumors ‘unfounded’ in an internal memo. In an internal memo Tuesday, VMware instructed its corps of global spokespeople to address questions about the rumored spin-offs by answering… Read More »
Defense contractor L-3 Communications(LLL) completed its spinoff of Engility Holdings(EGL) yesterday. L-3 shareholders as of July 16 received 1 share of Engility for every 6 shares of L-3 that they held. In its last day of when issued trading, Engility closed at $17.83, giving the company a market cap of just under $300 million. L-3 closed at $69.79… Read More »
Heinz(HNZ) is certainly one stock that needs no introduction as it is likely to be in your pantry, if not your portfolio. On CNBC’s Fast Money, host Jim Cramer told viewers that Heinz should spin off its frozen food business: “It’s time for Heinz to spin-off its frozen division as a separate company or find someone else… Read More »
It’s been five years since EMC(EMC) spun off a minority stake in VMware(VMW). Today, GigaOm reports that EMC, which owns around 80% of VMware, plans to spin out cloud assets from each company into a newly independent company. No word yet on what structure the spinoff will take or how it will be handled, but a surprising amount… Read More »
A reader writes: my broker cannot help me I had 6 calls 20 of SARA LEE due july 21 company was spinoff and is now hilshire SLE to HSH my calls are not listed anymore Am i eligible to the $ 3.00 per share bonus ? I want to sell my calls but there was a reverse split… Read More »
Saying that the investment was led by Ted Weschler or Todd Combs, Warren Buffett told Bloomberg today that Berkshire Hatahway(BRKB) has increased its holdings of Phillips 66(PSX) while continuing to sell former parent ConocoPhillips(COP). Berskhire reduced its holding in ConocoPhillips and bought into “some of the refining operation,” Buffett said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In the… Read More »
Supervalu (SVU) is one of America’s largest grocery chains, but it only became so with its 2006 purchase of over 2,000 Albertson’s stores. Prior to that, Supervalu had been primarily a wholesale business, and it continues to remain a large grocery wholesaler. Yesterday, the stock plummeted after hours when the company reported declining earnings, suspended its dividend, suspended… Read More »
The board of directors at L-3 Communications Holdings (LLL) recently approved the spinoff of the majority of its government services business, Engility. The spin is expected to take place on July 17th and shareholders as of July 16th will receive one share of Engility for every 6 shares of LLL owned. Given that L-3 currently has ~97.5m shares… Read More »
While individuals don’t have to worry about month or quarter end performance, it can be interesting to see which sectors or individual stocks have been performing exceptionally well or particularly poorly. It is even more interesting to us here when spinoff related names reside within those ‘best’ or ‘worst’ lists such as this past Q2 when spinoff related… Read More »
With the announcement last week that News Corp.(NWSA) would be spinning off its publishing business, analysts have been looking for copycat transactions to propose. It was inevitable that some of them would turn their attention to Time Warner(TWX), and, indeed Jeanine Poggi reports at AdAge that Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser renewed the calls for a Time Inc.… Read More »
Breakups seem to have become activists’ favorite tools when faced with an underperforming company. Following John Paulson’s pressure to Hartford to spin off its life business, Highfields Capital has disclosed it is in talks with Genworth Financial(GNW) with options that may include a spinoff of its mortgage insurance business. Highfields, a Boston-based hedge fund still run by co-founder… Read More »
Twenty seven years after Consolidated Foods became Sara Lee, Sara Lee is retiring as a corporate name. Months of preparation culminated in a flurry of activity today, in which Sara Lee shareholders received a goodie bag containing 1 share of D.E. Master Blenders 1753(DEMBF), an international coffee company trading in Amsterdam, a $3 special cash dividend, and 0.2… Read More »
After days of speculation, and months of internal debate, News Corp(NWSA) announced yesterday that it will spin off its newspaper and publishing business. The company aims to complete the transaction in the first half of 2013. Rupert Murdoch will remain Chairman of both companies and CEO of the media and entertainment business. Each company will continue to have… Read More »
What is your dream job? A lot of great options to choose from, but personally I have always imagined being a member of a company’s board of directors to be a pretty cushy gig. Jet around, fancy dinners, high salaries and all for a few meetings per year that you can apparently skip if you are Leon Black.… Read More »