Stories related to: mergers and acquisitions

Microsoft is likely to borrow for the first time to finance its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, the company's CFO said yesterday, rather than drawing down its reserves to fund the half-cash, half-stock offer. After spending $31 billion on stock buybacks and dividend payouts in 2007, Microsoft has $21 billion cash on hand, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, Yahoo is said to be considering an alliance with rival Google in an effort to thwart Microsoft’s takeover try. More »

Among the many uncertainties about a Microsoft-Yahoo marriage is whether the combined company would gain any sex appeal in the Silicon Valley recruiting market, reports the New York Times . If both are washed up compared to job fair belles like Google and Facebook, would joining help them prevail in the more-competitive-than-ever race for talent? More »

First reaction to Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo for $44 billion has been generally positive, especially among Wall Street analysts. Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget, an ex-analyst, quotes several who predict regulators and shareholders will have no problems with the deal. Meanwhile, New York Times blogger Steven M. Davidoff says the timing favors a hostile takeover if Yahoo's board resists. More »

Sprint Nextel says it may write off up to $31 billion related to the merger that created the combined company. The move comes just after a regime change at the company, which has struggled since the 2005 merger, and lost about 1 million customers last year. The write-off, accounting for most or all of the “goodwill” from the merger, will probably mean a big Q4 loss, reports the Washington Post . More »

After months of playing hard-to-get, UK brewer Scottish & Newcastle has agreed to a $15.2 billion takeover bid from Carlsberg and Heineken. The offer tops a bid rejected in March by 11.1%, Forbes reports. Experts expected S&N to squeeze out a better deal, especially after it filed a lawsuit to pressure Carlsberg. S&N’s stock rose 2.1% on the announcement; Carlsberg's dropped 4.1%. More »

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an inquiry into possible insider trading surrounding last year's takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro. Holland's Financieele Dagblad r eports that Fortis, Barclays, Santander, and Royal Bank of Scotland—which eventually won the bidding—have been asked for information about trading in ABN stock before and during the takeover battle. More »

Recent acquisitions by Sun Microsystems and Oracle could be the opening round of new Silicon Valley deal-making, the Wall Street Journal reports, as tech companies worried about a US economic slowdown seek to strengthen their positions. Smaller companies struggling to stay afloat are tempting targets; bigger fish also want to invest in building web-based software and services—a still-growing sector. More »

Yahoo's falling core value threatens the company's future and is ringing alarm bells for investors, the New York Times ’ Saul Hansell warned in his "Bits" blog. The central business of Yahoo.com, excluding subsidiary holdings, is worth less than half of its current share price, and a paltry 7% of Google’s $200 billion market value, according to one analyst quoted by Hansell. More »

What do you do when you take over the world’s biggest media company? If you’re new Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, you probably sharpen some knives. Bewkes may soon spin off AOL as well as the conglomerate’s cable and magazine divisions, Bloomberg reports. “There’s nothing special necessarily about being the biggest,” argues one expert who manages 11.3 million Time Warner shares. More »

Electronics giant Philips will buy Respironics, an American maker of sleep therapy products, for $5.1 billion, Reuters reports, its most expensive foray yet into the health-care sector. That plan has seen Philips purchase lighting firm Genlyte for $2.7 billion and medical systems provider Visicu for $430 million within the past month as the company works to leverage its cash pile. More »

Discount travel search engine Kayak has acquired competitor SideStep for $200 million. Kayak raised nine figures in a new round of financing from its own investors, new VC companies, and SideStep's backers. It then bought SideStep for $180 million in cash plus a redistributed $20 million of SideStep's capital, reports TechCrunch. More »

The slowing economy and financing costs that have more than doubled since June because of the subprime collapse could ice the pace of mergers and acquisitions in 2008, Bloomberg reports. After a record $3.9 trillion in deals in 2007, analysts predict transaction value could plummet 20%. "The mega-LBO is dead,'' says an ABN Amro takeover expert. More »

In what would be the largest industrial acquisition since 1999, Ingersoll-Rand has agreed to buy Trane for $10.1 billion, creating the second-largest manufacturer of air conditioners and climate-control systems in the world, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal requires regulatory and shareholder approval but little borrowing, because I-R recently sold assets for $6.2 billion. More »

XM Satellite Radio and Sirius stock prices got a boost Friday when an analyst predicted the Justice Department won't block Sirius from buying out the larger XM. Morning trade saw XM shares jump 9.4% and Sirius shares 4.6%, reports CNN. The analyst said that shares could hit $20 and $4.50, respectively, if the deal goes through. More »

“We are the Switzerland of these heterogenous environments,” a Hewlett-Packard exec said by way of explaining why his company is not interested in acquiring BEA, after BEA rejected an offer from Oracle as too low. HP is a partner of BEA’s, the company's software chief said, but HP has similar relationships with BEA rivals. More »

Garmin, the world’s top GPS producer, dropped its $3.3 billion bid for mapmaker Tele Atlas yesterday, allowing rival TomTom to seal the deal. That may prove a long-term disadvantage for Garmin, but investors love the non-deal, sending shares up 16%, their best gain in five years. “There’s relief,” one analyst said. “The bidding had gone to a level that people didn’t like.” More »

United Airlines and Delta are in talks to merge and create the nation's largest airline, the AP reports. The new airline would keep the United name and surpass American as the nation's biggest. Delta's CEO denied that any specific talks are under way, but the company said it had formed a committee to consider all its options, including mergers, the Wall Street Journal says.  More »

The biggest mining company in the world is aiming to get even bigger. BHP Billiton's $142 billion bid for Rio Tinto has been turned down, but the firm is still keen to make a deal, reports the Wall Street Journal . The deal would be the second-largest in history, and the combined company would dominate world production of some key minerals. More »

The proposed multi-billion dollar merger of rival discount wireless service providers has collapsed amid acrimony. AP reports MetroPCS Communications is withdrawing it's $4.7 Billion bid for Leap Wireless International. The Leap board had rejected the bid as "financially inadequate." Both companies allow customers to pay up front for wireless service without a contract.   More »

Software mogul Oracle made good today on its threat to drop a $6.7 billion offer to buy BEA systems, after the latter failed to meet the October 28 deadline. Oracle said BEA shareholders should "not assume" it will renew the offer, though it did not rule out the possibility, either, if shareholders were to force the company's hand, the Financial Times writes. More »