It’s that time of year again where thanks to sites like Market Folly we mere mortals get to enjoy the vast wisdom contained in hedge fund year end letters. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital is always a good one to read although this past year was a challenging one for the value investor. The fund returned <2% in 2017… Read More »
Spinoffs: Once you start, you just can’t stop. Roughly a year after breaking the famed Hewlett Packard into two pieces, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) CEO Meg Whitman is at it again. This time the structure is a bit more complex than a straight spinoff though. It’s our old friend, the Reverse Morris Trust transaction. Real veteran stuff. On… Read More »
Anyone have any new ideas? I know we have mentioned this numerous times – sorry – but the business and investing world is chock full of followers. We recently wrote about one example in the defense industry, but alas, it is not an isolated case. Take the PC business. IBM (IBM) successfully converted itself into a very profitable software business by dumping… Read More »
Spinoffs take a lot of time. It really isn’t so surprising considering the plethora of regulatory and logistical issues that arise from splitting up a business. While often overlooked as one time charges, companies spend millions upon millions planning and executing these transactions. As a result, at least 6 months usually pass between the date of announcement and… Read More »