Verizon is leaving the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Alphabet is taking its place. At first glance, this is just a routine index change. The Dow is price-weighted, Verizon’s share price is low, and Alphabet gives the average more exposure to the businesses that now dominate the communications sector: search, cloud, artificial intelligence, YouTube, Android and digital advertising.… Read More »
Comcast is not finished taking itself apart. The company completed the Versant spinoff earlier this year, separating cable networks such as CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, E!, Syfy, Oxygen, Golf Channel, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes and related assets into a standalone public company. Now Comcast is going bigger. Comcast announced plans to separate NBCUniversal and Sky into a new publicly… Read More »
Another week, another mix of spinoffs, near-spinoffs, and spin-offs-that-weren’t. Here’s what caught our eye this week. ABB’s Robot Spinoff Becomes a $38 Billion Sale to SoftBank ABB Ltd.(ABBNY) had been widely expected to spin off its robotics division — a move long anticipated by investors as the final step in ABB’s multi-year simplification effort. Instead, the Swiss industrial… Read More »
Comcast(CMCSA), the second largest cable tv company by subscribers in the US will be announcing the spin off of its NBCU cable networks as soon as tomorrow, the WSJ reports. We believe this to be Comcast’s first spinoff, though much of its footprint came from AT&T(T) spinoff AT&T Broadband. AT&T Broadband was itself a combination of MediaOne(a spinoff… Read More »
Under pressure, once again, from Starboard following the abandonment of its plan to spin off its huge stake in Alibaba(BABA), Yahoo(YHOO) has formed an independent committee of its Board Of Directors to explore strategic alternatives. The Board has formed a Strategic Review Committee of independent directors to lead this effort, with the assistance and support of management. The… Read More »