TEL AVIV — Apple is in early negotiations to buy Israel-based PrimeSense, a developer of chips that enable 3-D machine vision, for $280 million, the Hebrew-language Calcalist news website said Tuesday.
A delegation of Apple (AAPL) engineering executives visited PrimeSense in early July, Calcalist said.
Officials at PrimeSense weren’t immediately available for comment.
PrimeSense has raised $85 million from Israel and U.S. venture capital funds, Calcalist noted.
PrimeSense’s sensing technology, which gives digital devices the ability to observe a scene in 3-D, was used to help power Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox Kinect.
FRANKFURT — Germany’s Bayer has agreed to buy U.S. contraceptive devices maker Conceptus for $1.1 billion, aiming to underpin its position as the world’s largest women’s health-care provider.
Bayer AG will launch a public tender offer to acquire all Conceptus Inc. (CPTS) shares for $31 each in cash, in an offer agreed with Conceptus’s management, Bayer said Monday.
That is a premium of 19.7 percent over the stock‘s closing price on Friday and a multiple of about 30 times the adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization that Conceptus is targeting for this year.
Shares in global health-care equipment and services companies on average trade at 9 times annual EBITDA, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.
Bayer’s women’s health-care business had sales of €3.15 billion ($4.1 billion) last year, from products including its Yasmin contraceptive pill and Mirena intrauterine device.
“Our experience in the field of gynecology combined with our sales and distribution expertise will help to further develop Conceptus’ business,” said Andreas Fibig, head of Bayer unit HealthCare Pharmaceuticals.
Conceptus, which makes inserts that are placed into the fallopian tubes as a permanent non-hormonal contraceptive, had $28.2 million in adjusted EBITDA last year on sales of $141 million.
The U.S. company has forecast 2013 adjusted EBITDA of between $34 million and $37 million on sales of between $155 million and $159 million.
Bayer Chief Executive Marijn Dekkers took the post in 2010 with a reputation for being able to handle transformational takeovers, but the Conceptus deal, expected to close by mid-year, is the latest in a line of small and medium-sized buys.
Last September Bayer agreed to buy Teva’s U.S. animal health operations for up to $145 million, following the purchase of AgraQuest, a developer of bacteria to fight plant disease, for at least $425 million.
Swiss-based commodities trading house and mining company Glencore International announced last night that it has received approval from China’s Ministry of Commerce for its merger with Xstrata. The Chinese government did, however, insist on a few changes.
Glencore must sell a Peruvian copper project being developed by Xstrata by September 2014. But a more central condition is that the combined company must “offer to supply” its current Chinese customers an average copper concentrate volume of 900,000 metric tons under long-term contracts annually for eight years, beginning on January 1 of this year. There is also an eight-year requirement for sales of zinc and lead concentrates under both long-term and spot contracts.
Glencore has been directed to hire an “independent monitoring trustee,” whose job it will be to see that the company lives up to these agreements.
The Chinese also set some price controls:
The price for a minimum of 200,000 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate will be offered in accordance with the applicable annual benchmark price agreed between major miners and major smelters during annual supply negotiations and the price for the remaining 700,000 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate will be offered with reference to the applicable annual benchmark price.
In other merger-related news, Xstrata CEO Mick Davis has declined the offer to assume the role of chief executive and executive director of the merged company. Essentially he would have been paid for six months and then shown the door. Davis has some pride. Glencore’s CEO, Ivan Glasenberg, will become the CEO of the merged company as soon as the merger is completed.
Glencore now expects the effective date of the merger to be May 2, and the issuance and trading of new Glencore shares will begin on the London Stock Exchange on May 3.
Glencore made its offer for Xstrata, of which it already owned about 40%, in February of 2012. It just seems longer ago than that.
Glencore’s statement is available here.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Commodities & Metals, International Markets, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mergers and Buy Outs
DALLAS — US Airways began studying a potential merger with American Airlines several months before American filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2011, according to papers filed Monday by the two companies.
The documents give a blow-by-blow account of how the merger was negotiated, including the thorny issues of how to share ownership of the merged company and who would run it.
The companies also revived a proposed $20 million severance deal for Tom Horton, the CEO of American parent AMR Corp. A federal judge had declined to approve the payout, finding that it violated a 2005 bankruptcy law, but he had left open the possibility that a payment could be reconsidered later.
US Airways Group Inc. (LCC), whose CEO, Doug Parker, will run the combined company, played up the importance of Monday’s filings with the bankruptcy court in New York and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“With these materials filed, we are one step closer to completing the merger, which we expect to occur in the third quarter of this year,” US Airways officials said a memo to employees.
The bankruptcy court has already signaled approval for the merger, which would create the world’s largest airline. The deal faces only a few more hurdles, including approval from the U.S. Justice Department and US Airways shareholders.
AMR will have 60 days to win support among creditors for its reorganization plan. Major creditors were closely involved in negotiations leading to the merger announcement in February, so it seems unlikely that they would derail the plan that will be considered by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane.
It’s less clear whether antitrust regulators in the Justice Department will impose major conditions on the deal. Regulators approved other big airline mergers — Delta and Northwest, United and Continental, Southwest (LUV) and AirTran — so industry analysts expect them to let this deal pass.
The Justice Department, however, could require the American-US Airways combination to give up takeoff and landing slots at Washington’s busy Reagan National Airport, where it would be the dominant carrier, and possibly slots in New York, too.
The company will be called American Airlines Group Inc. It is expected to operate more than 6,700 flights a day to 336 destinations in 56 countries and have about 100,000 employees. Based on current figures, American will emerge slightly bigger than United Airlines (UAL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) in the number of miles flown by passengers, the usual standard for ranking carriers.
Parker will be chairman and CEO after Horton steps down as chairman in 2014. Parker would get $19.5 million if he is terminated by the new company for a reason other than misconduct, according to a separate filing
The world’s second largest maker of laboratory equipment, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) has agree to acquire competitor Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: LIFE) for $13.6 billion in cash ($76 a share). Thermo Fisher will also assume $2.2 billion in debt.
The transaction is expected to close in early 2014 and is subject to a vote by Life Technologies‘ shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Thermo Fisher has received committed financing from J.P. Morgan and Barclays and expects the payment for Life Technologies to be split with cash and debt accounting for $9.5 billion to $10 billion and equity of up to $4 billion.
The acquisition brings to Thermo Fisher an established position in the genetic sequencing business, an area in which the company has not been a player. Genetic testing and sequencing are expected to be high-growth fields in the next few years.
Last year Roche Holdings made a hostile bid for genetic testing equipment maker Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN), which the smaller company successfully beat back. But Illumina could be back in play now because its market cap is significantly lower than Life Technologies‘ and the company may need to find a larger partner to help it compete in the market.
Life Technologies‘ shares are up 8% in premarket trading this morning, at $73.44, above the top end of its prior 52-week range of $39.73 to $68.23.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Medical, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: ILMN, LIFE, TMO
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Professional networking website LinkedIn is paying about $90 million to acquire Pulse, which makes an e-reader platform used on mobile devices.
More than 30 million people worldwide use Pulse’s e-reader applications on devices running both Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android-based operating systems. Pulse, based in San Francisco, was founded in 2010 by Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta while they were students at Stanford University.
The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, is a combination of 90 percent stock and 10 percent cash.
Following the close, Pulse employees will join LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
PITTSBURGH — Burger KingCEO Bernardo Hees will take the top job at Heinz following its acquisition by investment firm 3G Capital and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B).
Hees, 43, has been CEO at Burger King, another 3G Capital investment, since 2010. Before that, Hees was CEO of America Latina Logistica, Latin America‘s largest railroad and logistics company.
He will remain CEO at Burger King until the deal closes. Likewise, Heinz Chairman and CEO Bill Johnson will retain that job until the acquisition of the company closes.
The investors announced plans in February to buy Pittsburgh-based H.J. Heinz Co. (HNZ) in a $23.3 billion deal. Heinz shareholders are set to vote on the acquisition at a meeting April 30.
The deal is expected to close in the second or third quarter and still awaits regulatory approval in some countries and the European Union. U.S. authorities have already signed off on the deal.
3G Managing Partner Alex Behring said in a statement that Hees’ experience in the food industry makes him the ideal leader for Heinz.
Berkshire and Brazilian investment firm 3G said they will discuss a continuing role with Heinz with Johnson.
At Miami-based Burger King Worldwide Inc. (BKW), Chief Financial Officer Daniel Schwartz will become chief operating officer and will take the CEO job on July 1.
Hees led a campaign to revamp Burger King‘s menu and marketing. The menu moves helped boost the burger chain’s profit in the fourth quarter.
But now, the world’s second-biggest hamburger chain says it needs to play up value more aggressively to compete with rivals.
On Wednesday, Burger King said it expects revenue at restaurants open at least a year fell 1.5 percent in the first quarter. The figure is considered critical because it strips out the effects of locations that opened or closed during the year.
Allison Joyce/Getty Images Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, speaks at an NFL news conference on March 11 in New York.
By JONATHAN FAHEY
NEW YORK — GE has agreed to buy the oilfield equipment maker Lufkin Industries for $3.1 billion, furthering an effort by GE to grow its oil and gas operations.
General Electric Co. (GE) said Monday that it would pay Lufkin shareholders $88.50 a share, a 38 percent premium over Lufkin’s closing price on Friday of $63.93.
The companies valued the deal at $3.3 billion, which includes $200 million in debt to be assumed by GE.
CEOJeff Immelt is in the process of transforming GE from a sprawling conglomerate to one that is more tightly focused on providing services and equipment to industrial customers. The company has shed divisions such as NBC Universal and is shrinking its banking operations.
At the same time, Immelt indicated the company would use some of its enormous cash balance to buy mid-sized companies that fit well into what the company already does. GE makes aircraft engines, natural gas-fired turbines and generators, wind turbines, medical devices and locomotives.
General Electric is putting particular focus on oil and gas, hoping to capitalize on the boom in extracting oil from difficult places, such as deep offshore, shale formations under several U.S. states, or older depleting oil fields. GE bought Wellstream, a maker of flexible pipes for gathering oil undersea, in 2010, and a division of the John Wood Group, a maker of pumps and control systems, in 2011.
“Wells in the future are going to be more and more technically challenging,” said Dan Heintzelman, who runs GE‘s oil and gas division, in an interview Monday.
Lufkin Industries Inc. (LUFK), based in Lufkin, Texas, makes pumping equipment that helps drillers extract more oil out of older fields or ones that need to be pumped because the oil and gas underground is not under enough pressure to be forced to the surface naturally. Heintzelman said 94 percent of wells will require some form of pumping, known in the industry as artificial lift.
GE‘s oil and gas related revenue has tripled since 2005, to $15 billion, accounting for 10 percent of the company’s $147 billion total revenue last year.
Christopher Glynn, an analyst at Oppenheimer, said the deal fits nicely into GE‘s strategy. He said as oil and gas continues to get more expensive to produce there will be ample opportunity for GE‘s growing oil and gas division to offer products and services to help keep those costs in check and make fields more productive.
Lufkin shares climbed $23.94, or 37.5 percent, to $87.87 in premarket trading. GE shares edged up 13 cents to $23.06 about 45 minutes ahead of …read more
NEW YORK — German drugmaker Merz Pharma Group said Tuesday that it wants to buy dermatology products maker Obagi for about $383.5 million, topping an offer made by Canada’s Valeant Pharmaceuticals last month.
Merz said it sent a letter to Obagi Medical Products Inc.’s (OMPI) board offering to buy all of the company’s stock for $22 per share. The news sent Obagi’s shares up 14.7 percent to $22.61 in premarket trading Tuesday.
Late last month, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (VRX) struck a deal with Obagi to pay $19.75 a share, or a total of about $343.7 million, for the company. Merz said Tuesday that it had been in private talks with Obagi before that deal was announced and wasn’t aware that it was considering signing a deal with another company so quickly.
Long Beach, Calif.-based Obagi makes skin anesthetics as well as prescription and over-the-counter treatments for wrinkles, acne, sun damage and other skin problems. It posted sales of $120 million last year.
Merz, which makes drugs and other products to treat neurological and clinical dermatological conditions, said the addition of Obagi would be a natural fit for it, expand its U.S. market presence and boost its lineup of dermatology products.
The German company maintained that its offer constitutes a superior proposal and offers a significant premium over Valeant’s. The company said it has enough cash on hand to fund the deal and doesn’t need additional financing.
Officials for both Obagi and Valeant didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.
NEW YORK (AP) – A federal bankruptcy judge signed off Wednesday on the $11 billion merger of American Airlines and US Airways.
The widely-expected decision by Judge Sean H. Lane helps clear the way for the two carriers to form the world’s biggest airline, with 6,700 daily flights and annual revenue of roughly $40 billion.
“The merger is an excellent result. I don’t think anybody disputes that,” Lane said during a court hearing. American has been operating under bankruptcy protection since November 2011.
The merger, first announced on Feb. 14, still needs approval from the Department of Justice and US Airways shareholders. It is expected to close by the fall.
Lane’s decision was complicated by objections to the timing of a $20 million severance package for outgoing American CEO Tom Horton. Horton has agreed to step down as CEO and leave the company within a year of the merger’s closing. The U.S. trustee objected to Horton’s severance, saying it is in excess of limits set under the bankruptcy code.
Lane decided not to approve that payment as part of his decision and plans to issue a written decision at a later date detailing his reasoning.
“Approving it today is just not appropriate,” Lane said.
Horton spent nearly his entire career at American, becoming CEO when the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 29, 2011. Once the deal closes, US Airways CEO Doug Parker will run the combined airline. Horton will step down as CEO and then leave the company’s board within a year. The agreement calls for him to receive $19.9 million in cash and stock as well as a lifetime of free first-class tickets on American for himself and his wife.
“This was not something decided upon to line the pockets” of American’s executives, said Stephen Karotkin, a lawyer with Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which represents American.
Lane didn’t object to the actual severance payment but agreed with the trustee that the timing of it seemed to violate prohibitions in the bankruptcy law.
“I am bound by the way Congress drafted the statute,” Lane said, adding that he was worried about setting a bad precedent that lawyers in future cases will try to capitalize upon.
“There are many, many smart lawyers out there,” Lane added. “It’s not hard to imagine.”
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP US Airways Group Chairman and CEO Douglas Parker (left) with American Airlines and AMR Corp., Chairman, President and CEO Thomas Horton at a congressional hearing on March 19. A federal bankruptcy judge signaled his support for the $11 billion merger of the two carriers.
NEW YORK — A federal bankruptcy judge signaled his support for the $11 billion merger of American Airlines and US Airways. But Judge Sean H. Lane deferred giving his official blessing until he could further consider the timing of a severance package for outgoing American CEO Tom Horton.
“The merger is an excellent result. I don’t think anybody disputes that,” Lane said Wednesday during a court hearing. American has been in bankruptcy protection since November 2011.
The companies have proposed paying Horton $20 million in severance. Horton has agreed to step down as CEO and leave the company within a year of the merger’s closing. The U.S. trustee objected to Horton’s severance, saying it is in excess of limits set under the bankruptcy code.
American tried to get Lane to approve the severance as part of a larger motion to approve the merger. The U.S. trustee accused the airline of trying “to misuse their motion to approve the merger to make an end run around” limits included in the bankruptcy code. American denied that. “This was not something decided upon to line the pockets” of American’s executives, said Stephen Karotkin, a lawyer with Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which represents American.
Lane didn’t object to the actual severance payment but agreed with the trustee that the timing of it seemed to violate prohibitions in the bankruptcy law.
“I am bound by the way Congress drafted the statute,” Lane said, adding that he was worried about setting a bad precedent that lawyers in future cases will try to capitalize upon.
“There are many, many smart lawyers out there,” Lane added. “It’s not hard to imagine.”
Horton spent nearly his entire career at American, becoming CEO when the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 29, 2011. Once the deal closes, US Airways Group Inc. (LCC) CEO Doug Parker will run the combined airline. Horton will step down as CEO and then leave the company’s board within a year. The agreement calls for him to receive $19.9 million in cash and stock as well as a lifetime of free first-class tickets on American for himself and his wife.
The trustee didn’t object to the merger or special compensation arrangements that have been proposed for rank and file employees.
The court took a break from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. to let lawyers work through some of the issues in the case.
Separately, Lane approved a motion to extend American’s exclusive period for filing a reorganization plan until May …read more Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
LexisNexis Expands Lexis Practice Advisor with New Offering Addressing Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities & Capital Markets
End-to-end practical guidance solutions help law firm M&A, Securities and Capital Markets practice groups increase productivity, improve practice efficiency and maximize billable hours
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– LexisNexis® Legal & Professional, a leading provider of content and technology solutions, today launched two new modules for its practical guidance offering Lexis® Practice Advisor. The new offerings for Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities & Capital Markets help practice groups at law firms execute transactions more efficiently, confidently and in-line with current legal and market trends. Providing practical guidance, checklists, model documents and legal and market analysis for key transactions and topics, the modules support each step an attorney needs to take during a transaction or filing, from deal evaluation and due diligence – or compliance review – to document drafting. Additionally, the Mergers & Acquisitions module debuts Lexis® Market Tracker, a new tool delivering real-time insights into deals and trends in the M&A market.
“Constant market and regulatory changes, cost pressures and stiff competition are the new normal for law firms handling sophisticated, complex transactional areas such as Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities & Capital Markets,” said Suzanne Petren Moritz, vice president and managing director for Lexis Practice Advisor. “The expert guidance and unparalleled market insight provided by Lexis Practice Advisor and the unique Lexis® Market Tracker tool empower lawyers to stay current, negotiate with confidence and help clients expedite each step of their transaction.”
“Lexis Practice Advisor and Lexis Market Tracker are incredibly useful tools that will undoubtedly save me a lot of time in my practice and help give me an edge that will provide a lot of value to clients,” said Michael Wilson, Associate at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP.
Lexis Practice Advisor – Mergers & Acquisitions with Lexis Market Tracker
The Lexis Practice Advisor Mergers & Acquisitions module covers the key areas of M&A transactions such as Public Company M&A, Private Asset Acquisitions, Private Stock Acquisitions and Private Mergers. It addresses the core activities of an M&A attorney – from structuring and planning a deal, handling preliminary agreements and conducting due diligence, to drafting and negotiating the main purchase or merger agreement, signing and closing. Built and managed by a team that includes experienced former Am …read more Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Nadine Rupp/Getty Images Nick D’Aloisio, founder of Summly, speaks last year at a technology conference in Munich, Germany. Internet-search giant Yahoo agreed Monday to acquire Summly for an undisclosed sum.
LONDON — One of Britain’s youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top-selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo.
Seventeen-year-old Nick d’Aloisio, who dreamed up the idea for the content-shortening program when he was studying for his exams, said he was surprised by the deal. As with its other recent acquisitions, Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) didn’t disclose how much it is paying for Summly, although British newspapers suggested the deal’s value at several million dollars.
“I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly,” he wrote on his website, before thanking his family, his school — and his venture capitalist backer Li Ka-Shing — for supporting him.
Summly works by condensing content so readers can scroll through more information more quickly — useful for the small screens of smartphones.
The deal announced Monday is Yahoo’s fifth small acquisition in the past five months. All of them have been part of CEO Marissa Mayer’s effort to attract more engineers with expertise in building services for smartphones and tablet computers, an increasingly important area of technology that she believes the Internet company had been neglecting.
Although the Yahoo acquisition won’t close until later this spring, D’Aloisio said the Summly will no longer be available. Summly’s technology will return in other Yahoo products, he said.
D’Aloisio will work for Yahoo in its London office — in part so that he can complete his high school exams. Two other Summly workers will join Yahoo at its Sunnyvale, California, headquarters.
D’Aloisio is younger than Yahoo, which was incorporated in March 1995.
NEW YORK — A bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of Twinkies to a pair of investment firms, one of which has said it hopes to have the cakes back on shelves by summer.
Hostess Brands Inc. is selling Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and other brands, to Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. for $410 million. Evan Metropoulos, a principal of the latter firm, said in an interview that he wants to have the snack cakes back on shelves by June and that the brands could benefit from new flavors and other product extensions.
“There’s no mistake, we’ve got to move smartly, we’ve got to move quickly,” Metropoulos said.
He also said that comedians Will Farrell and Zack Galifianakis are at the top of his “wish list” for potential pitchmen. But he doesn’t plan on formally approaching anyone about marketing deals until after the sale closes in coming weeks.
Metropoulos, which owns Pabst beer, has already used Farrell in its ads. Apollo’s investments include the fast-food chains Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., which is known for indulgent burgers and splashy ads starring scantily clad women.
Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York also approved the sale of Wonder bread to Flowers Foods, which makes Tastykakes and other breads. Flowers, based in Thomasville, Ga., would also get Nature’s Pride, Butternut, Home Pride and Merita as part of the $360 million deal.
Hostess has said the Justice Department is reviewing that sale.
The sale of Beefsteak to Grupo Bimbo was also approved. Grupo Bimbo makes Entenmann’s cakes and Thomas’ English muffins and is paying $31.9 million for the regional bread brand.
A separate hearing is scheduled for April 9 to approve the sale of Drake’s cakes, which include Devil Dogs and Yodels. Hostess picked McKee Foods, the maker of Little Debbie snack cakes, as the buyer for those brands at $27.5 million.
Taken together, a Hostess spokesman said 29 of the bankrupt company’s 36 bakeries were sold as part of the transactions. It will be up to the new owners whether to hire back the thousands of workers who lost their jobs when the company went out of business.
In a statement, the company’s bakers union said it shared the enthusiasm exhibited by the new owners to bring Hostess brands back to shelves quickly.
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union said it believed “our highly-motivated and skilled workforce will serve as indispensable partners in the seamless re-opening of factories.”
Hostess closed its factories in late November following a strike by the union. The company had been struggling financially for years.
STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) is winning while Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) is losing on news that the two companies have agreed to split up their unprofitable joint venture. Some assets will be taken by each company while other assets will be closed or sold.
The press release this morning from STMicroelectronics indicated an agreement on a strategic way forward for this unprofitable joint venture. That path forward is one that appears on the surface to be better for ST than for Ericsson. The plans are as follows:
Ericsson will take on the design, development and sales of the LTE multimode thin modem products, including 2G, 3G and 4G multimode.
ST will take on the existing ST-Ericsson products, other than LTE multimode thin modems, and related business, as well as certain assembly and test facilities.
Starting the shut down of the remaining parts of ST-Ericsson.
Ericsson will assume approximately 1,800 employees and contractors, with the largest concentrations in Sweden, Germany, India and China.
ST will assume approximately 950 employees, primarily in France and in Italy, to support ongoing business and new products development within ST.
After looking through the numbers, the problem is the losses that will absorbed. Ericsson has made provisions of for -3.3 billion Swedish kroner to cover costs related to the implementation of the strategic option. Once the multimode thin modem business has been fully integrated into Ericsson in the fourth quarter, the operation will be reported as a standalone segment, and it will generate operating losses of approximately 500 million Swedish kroner, mostly on R&D expenses.
Ericsson is down 2.8% at $12.90 for its New York ADRs, and STMicroelectronics is seeing a gain of 3.8% to $7.93 for its New York ADRs.
NEW YORK (AP) – Hostess is moving ahead with plans to sell its Twinkies and other snack cakes after nobody stepped forward to top an offer made by two investment firms.
The bankrupt company had earlier picked a $410 million joint offer from Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management (APO) as the “stalking horse” bid to set the floor for an auction. Others were then given a chance to submit competing bids and Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn had predicted the process would be “wild and wooly.”
But in a document filed in U.S. bankruptcy court on Monday, Hostess Brands said no other qualified offers were submitted by the bid deadline. No auction will be held as a result for the cakes, which include CupCakes, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos.
A spokesman for Hostess said the company had no comment on the lack of competing bids. A representative for Apollo, whose investments include the fast-food chains Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, declined to comment on when Hostess cakes might return to shelves. A representative for Metropoulos, which owns Pabst beer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hostess had also canceled an auction for its Wonder and other major bread brands after no competing offers were made. Those breads are being sold to Flowers Foods (FLO), which is based in Thomasville, Ga., and makes Tastykakes and Nature’s Own bread. The final sales of the breads and Hostess snack cakes are set to be approved in Bankruptcy Court on March 19.
McKee Foods, which makes Little Debbie snack cakes, was picked as the lead bidder for Drake’s cakes, which include Devil Dogs, Funny Bones and Yodels. The deadline to submit competing offers for the snack cakes is Tuesday, with an auction set for Friday.
Hostess stopped making its cakes and breads in late November after it announced it was going out of business and closing its plants following years of financial struggles.
Lenovo, the Chinese PC maker, is once again hinting it might like to own BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY). Given the battered Canadian company’s results, it is hard to see the appeal. But Lenovo has no real spot in the smartphone market, which is a vulnerability as it ponders the shift of consumer buying activity from personal computers to handheld devices. Lenovo may believe it needs to take a long shot.
According to EWeek:
Lenovo, which offers Android-based smartphones, may be in the market for the troubled device maker, according to Lenovo’s CEO. Lenovo executives, less than two months after disavowing rumors that they were interested in buying struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry, reportedly are again raising that possibility.
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing told a French financial newspaper in an interview that was published March 11 that a deal for BlackBerry “could possibility make sense,” though he would first have to assess the market and BlackBerry’s standing in it.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Mergers & Acquisitions, PC Companies, Rumors
Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL) is seeing its shares clipped hard this morning due to an acquisition it is making. The company will spend close to $800 million to acquire Aurizon Mines Ltd. (NYSEMKT: AZK). It is not uncommon for an acquirer to see its shares drop when it spends up for an acquisition. What is different about this deal is that Hecla has had enough mine problems that you wonder why investors are not cheering some mine diversification efforts.
Hecla said that it has received a $500 million financing commitment from The Bank of Nova Scotia and there is no financing condition in the acquisition. As such, the transaction will be fully financed, but one note here is that the deal will not require the approval of Hecla shareholders.
As part of the deal, Aurizon shareholders will receive $4.75 (Canadian dollars) per share, or they can choose to accept 0.9953 of a Hecla share per share they own. The deal is subject to caps on each election: maximum cash consideration of $513,631,193 (Canadian dollars) and a maximum number of Hecla shares issued of 57,000,000. On this matter Hecla said:
Assuming that all Shareholders elected either the Cash Alternative or the Share Alternative, each Shareholder would be entitled to receive CAD$3.11 in cash and 0.34462 of a Hecla share for each Aurizon common share.
Hecla’s goal is to create long-life, high-grade, low-cost mines in some of the best mining jurisdictions in the world. The three properties have in common what Hecla says are “strong exploration potential on very large and contiguous land positions as well as locations near communities that are supportive to mining.”
The reaction is taking a bite out of Hecla shares, sending it down 10% to $4.17 against a 52-week range of $3.70 to $6.94. Hecla’s market cap is about $1.3 billion. Sometimes investors think that diversification comes with too high of a price. That seems to be the case here.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mergers and Buy Outs, Metals Tagged: AZK, HL
Specialty chemicals firm Ferro Corp. (NYSE: FOE) has received an unsolicited buyout offer from A. Schulman Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLM), another provider of specialty chemicals and plastics. The total value of Schulman’s offer is about $563 million, or $6.50 a share, of which half will be paid in cash and half in A. Schulman common stock.
According to A. Schulman’s press release, the offer represents a 25% premium to Ferro’s closing price on Friday and a 32% premium over the volume-weighted average trading price for the past 60 days. Including debt, A. Schulman’s offer totals $855 million.
A. Schulman said its offer was based on publicly available information for the first nine months of Ferro’s 2012 fiscal year. In February, Ferro rejected an offer from A. Schulman that had expressed its “strong intent” to combine with Ferro.
Shares of Ferro are up 30% in the first half-hour of trading this morning, at $6.76 after hitting a new 52-week high of $6.82 earlier. The prior 52-week range was $2.38 to $6.39.
A. Schulman’s shares are also trading higher, up 1.4% at $31.55 in a 52-week range of $17.75 to $33.40.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: FOE, SHLM
24/7 Wall St. has tracked many stocks on the move in the last week. Now it is the weekend and this can be considered your weekend cheat sheet for the stocks you need to have your eye on come Monday morning. We are featuring eleven weekend stock stories. After all, your money matters to us even if the markets are taking the weekend off.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has fallen out of favor and is actually getting less coverage now that so much media attention was given to the spending sequestration dilemma in Washington DC. Apple shares hit a new 52-week low on Friday And the stock briefly traded under $430. The $1 billion Samsung judgment has been cut by $450 million on Friday. Apple’s share price is getting closer and closer to what portfolio manager Jeffrey Gundlach had been forecasting as a reversion price. The real question that investors will have on Monday and the rest of the week is whether or not anyone starts to care again.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is still in trouble if it stays on its own but new interest from founder Riggio has shares back up again. Barron’s reported over the weekend that Riggio should pay at least $19 per share for the retail unit. The report even gave B&N a combined value for the bookstores and the Nook operations at more than $38 per share.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) released its annual earnings for 2012 and Warren Buffett released his annual letter to shareholders on Friday. While shares have outperformed other conglomerates in 2012, investors may start to look at that premium over book value compared with this year’s strong performance. Buffett’s stock is also trading up virtually at all-time highs.
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) will be in focus on Monday, as will Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Shire plc (NYSE: SHPG), after late-Friday news that the $60 billion Big Pharmastock considered these and is considering other companies for large acquisitions. While Biogen hit a new all-time high on the pop, Shire actually rose more as the company may be more acquirable and would be cheaper on a raw dollar basis and is currently cheaper on its relative earnings multiples to buy.
Depomed Inc. (NASDAQ: DEPO) will be on watch as it has an FDA panel meeting regarding its menopause drug, and there appears to be a coin-toss over whether or not this will be a win or loss. Expect shares to be halted all day Monday.
Forestar Group Inc. (NYSE: FOR) was highlighted in Barron’s as “rich assets, cheap shares” for its real estate, energy, water, and timberland assets with shares trading at a whopping 40 percent discount to its net asset value. For whatever it is worth, its consensus analyst price target is $25.67 versus the closing price of $17.56. Investors also need to know that the small cap Forestar pays no dividend currently and that its market …read more Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
