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December 2, 2008 7:58:34 AM CST



Mergers & Acquisitions track this thread

Started by J Kelman; Last updated by SeacoastNH | View history

Mergers & Acquisitions

Private equity may be Wall Street's favorite fad diet, but sometimes a good, old-fashioned takeover is just what the market ordered

Stories

Stories 241 - 260 of 295

  • July 2007
    • Credit Crunch Rocks LBOs

      Credit Crunch Rocks LBOs

      (Newser) - Leveraged buyouts, which have fueled Wall Street booms with offers of huge premiums on shares of target companies, are sputtering to a halt, the Wall Street Journal reports. Private equity firms, which just weeks ago were predicting acquisitions worth $100 billion and more, are now finding large-scale borrowing too expensive to make deals worthwhile. More »

    • Banks Put Hold on Chrysler Debt Sale

      Banks Put Hold on Chrysler Debt Sale

      (Newser) - Banks yesterday postponed the sale of $12 billion of debt intended to finance the deal that will split off Chrysler from parent DaimlerChrysler. The Journal reports that the holdup is part of a global pinch on the market for corporate debt, and escalating borrowing costs have the potential to slow down a host of high-profile buyouts. More »

    • XM, Sirius Say Post-Merger Prices Will Fall

      XM, Sirius Say Post-Merger Prices Will Fall

      (Newser) - In an attempt to lower resistance to their proposed merger, satellite radio providers Sirius and XM unveiled new pricing plans today that they say will cut subscription prices by 46%. The plans, which start at $6.99 as opposed to the current $12.95 per month standard price, also allow listeners to select channels to add a la carte. More »

    • Barclays Bid Gets Backing From the East

      Barclays Bid Gets Backing From the East

      (Newser) - The Chinese and Singaporean governments have invested almost $5 billion in Barclays, helping the firm float more cash for its bid for ABN. The state-run companies would invest even more if the bid succeeds, which would leave the Chinese state with a holding of 7.7% of the world's new largest bank. More »

    • $24B Buyout Buzz Boosts Macy's Shares

      $24B Buyout Buzz Boosts Macy's Shares

      (Newser) - Shares in Macy's soared amid reports of a pending $24-billion buyout plan by KKR and Goldman Sachs, reports Bloomberg . Stock rose $3.06—7.6%—to $43.09 after Women's Wear Daily reported the news. The Wall Street firms would pay $52 a share—a 30% premium on Wednesday's close, according to the report. More »

    • How Did the Fox Dow Do Today, Dear?

      How Did the Fox Dow Do Today, Dear?

      (Newser) - Get ready for the Fox Dow. If Rupert Murdoch is willing to pay $6B for a company that produced $105M in income last year, he must be seeing hidden opportunities, argues Brett Arends in the street.com. Dow Jones controls the name of the financial index—and if the sale goes through, Murdoch could change it to whatever he pleases. More »

    • Whole Foods CEO Sorry for Web Subterfuge

      Whole Foods CEO Sorry for Web Subterfuge

      (Newser) - The CEO of Whole Foods apologized yesterday for boosting his company and posting snide comments about a rival supermarket chain in Internet forums and said he "had fun doing it." John Mackey's actions over the last 8 years have already triggered an SEC investigation, and the company's board said yesterday it will launch its probe, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

    • Answer(s.com): $100 million

      Answer(s.com): $100 million

      (Newser) - Question:  What is the amount tiny Answers.com ($7 million in 2006 revenues), the operator of a reference aggregation site, has agreed to pay for equally tiny Lexico, owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com.  In order to raise the $100 million purchase price Answers has filed for a $140 million offering. More »

    • IHOP Gets a Taste of Applebee's

      IHOP Gets a Taste of Applebee's

      (Newser) - Breakfast giant International House of Pancakes is acquiring the bar-and-grill chain Applebee's for $1.9B, or $25.50 a share—4.6% higher than Friday's closing price. IHOP will turn most of Applebee's 508 restaurants into franchises at a rate of 40 per quarter beginning in 2008, a move that execs hope will cut costs and revitalize the struggling pancake maker. More »

    • $4B Deal Shakes Up Educational Publishing

      $4B Deal Shakes Up Educational Publishing

      (Newser) - Educational-publishing giant Houghton Mifflin grew even bigger today, agreeing to acquire three of Reed Elsevier's divisions for $4 billion. Boston-based Houghton will pay $3.7 billion in cash and the remainder in stock of its parent company for the Harcourt Education, Harcourt Trade, and Greenwood-Heinemann imprints, Reuters reports, leaving the sector largely in the hands of Houghton, Pearson, and McGraw-Hill. More »

    • Danone Swallows Up Numico

      Danone Swallows Up Numico

      (Newser) - French food corp Groupe Danone put in a $16.8B cash offer to buy baby food magnate Royal Numico—at just under $75 a share, a 38% premium over last week's closing price. The acquisition will make Danone an industry leader in the baby food market and should be finalized within weeks, Bloomberg reports. More »

    • British Firm Bags Samsonite for $1.7B

      British Firm Bags Samsonite for $1.7B

      (Newser) - CVC Capital, a British private equity firm, has bought out Samsonite, the American luggage line, in an all-cash deal worth $1.7B, BBC reports. CVC will pay $1.49 a share--12% more than the stock was worth Tuesday. Samonsite has had five owners in the last 21 years, as luggage sales in general have declined. More »

    • Coca-Cola May Bid to Swallow Up Snapple

      Coca-Cola May Bid to Swallow Up Snapple

      (Newser) - Coca-Cola is talking to private-equity firms about purchasing Cadbury Schweppes PLC's Snapple and Mott's brands, the Wall Street Journal reports. Coke is trying to expand its presence in the fast-growing market for noncarbonated drinks--namely juices, waters and ready-to-drink teas, like Snapple. Mott's includes apple juice and sauces, as well as other items. More »

    • Kraft Goes Cookie Shopping in France

      Kraft Goes Cookie Shopping in France

      (Newser) - Kraft moved to elevate its international profile today with a $7.2 billion for Danone's biscuit division, setting up a deal that would make the Oreo manufacturer Europe's largest cookie maker. The polyglot alliance of Ritz crackers and Petit Ecolier biscuits faces numerous obstacles, the Times of London reports, including a likely EU investigation and possible French government and labor resistance. More »

    • Carlyle Bids on Faltering Virgin Media

      Carlyle Bids on Faltering Virgin Media

      (Newser) - The friendly corporate raiders at the Carlyle Group have floated an offer to buy out Virgin Media, the British cable provider, with total equity in the range of $8B and $10B, the Journal reports. The besieged media company has been losing customers to rivals in the UK, and has stacked up debt nearing $12B. More »

  • June 2007
    • Debt Market Booms, Risk Climbs

      Debt Market Booms, Risk Climbs

      (Newser) - The undergirding of the current buyout boom is a dicey financing method called collateralized loan obligations—giant pools of bank loans packaged together by Wall Street and sold off in slices to investors, spreading the risk of default. The Journal reports that the  CLO glut is ushering in an age of overborrowing that could cripple buyout firms, and the economy, in the future. More »

    • KKR Buyout Spree Hits a Snag

      KKR Buyout Spree Hits a Snag

      (Newser) - Buyout giant KKR's $26B acquisition of electronic payment processor First Data Corp is not going smoothly, reports the Wall Street Journal . Once enthusiastic investors are shying away from private equity deals as interest rates steepen. "We have enough exposure to KKR already," said one major financier. More »

    • Blackstone IPO Payouts Will Eclipse Google

      Blackstone IPO Payouts Will Eclipse Google

      (Newser) - Huge windfalls due the top executives of the Blackstone Group from their IPO late this month will eclipse even the payday enjoyed by the Google founders three years ago, the Wall Street Journal reports. CEO Stephen Schwarzman will make $677 million and retain a $7.5 billion stake in the company—more than double that of Sergey Brin and Larry Page. More »

    • Whole Foods Cannot Sow Wild Oats

      Whole Foods Cannot Sow Wild Oats

      (Newser) - Even crunchy granola types may be monopolists at heart—at least according to the Federal Trade Commission.The FTC said yesterday it wants to block Whole Foods’ $670 million purchase of Wild Oats Markets, claiming that the sale will result in even higher-than-usual prices at the natural foods stores. More »

    • Union Seeks Journal Savior