deals
Deal wrap: Talking defense
Sep 10th
Boeing defense chief Dennis Muilenburg startled many this week when he told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit he would not rule out the possibility of a large-scale merger. Is he sending up a trial balloon to gauge the Pentagon’s reaction? *View article *Read more at the Aerospace and Defense Summit
Two of the world’s biggest private equity firms, KKR and TPG, are potentially interested in Foster’s wine business, but they are not currently working on rival bids, sources told Reuters. Earlier this week Foster’s rejected a $2.5 billion offer for its wine business as too cheap. *View article
The SEC is investigating investment advisory firms that channel investors’ money into hedge funds, the Wall Street Journal reported. *View WSJ article
The NYT’s Deal Professor blog takes a look at G3 Capital’s deal for Burger King. Apparently the investment firm wants its deal like Burger King’s customers want their meals, right now. *View NYT article
Did Oracle hire former HP CEO Mark Hurd because of his great management skills, or is there more to the story? A DailyFinance article looks into whether Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is after HP itself. *View DailyFinance article
Work hard at the market open and close and soak up the sun in the middle of the day. Is this a recipe for success? The WSJ profiles some traders who skip most of the day. *View WSJ article
Deals wrap: No deal for NAB
Sep 9th
National Australia Bank’s bid for AXA Asia Pacific has been blocked for a second time. The Australian competition regulator’s decision clears the way for AMP to make another bid for AXA Asia Pacific and that could come as early as Friday, according to an Australian Associated Press report. *View article *View article on NAB’s CEO
Sanofi-Aventis poured cold water on reports it had raised its offer for Genzyme, saying it was sticking to its bid of $18.5 billion. *View article *View article reporting Sanofi may raise bid
Deal making is a prominent theme at the Aerospace and Defense Summit being held in Washington, D.C. EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois said the company’s cash position of 9 billion euros gives it room for “reasonable” acquisitions. Northrop Grumman Chief Executive Wes Bush said the defense contractor has no plans to break itself up, and he would not forecast any large-scale mergers for the industry in the near term.*Full coverage of Aerospace and Defense Summit
Deals wrap: Reaching for the wine
Sep 8th
Foster’s beer business has been getting all the limelight recently but the company has now rejected a private equity offer worth up to $2.5 billion for its wine business. The news raised speculation that suitors for the combined group, which has a market value of about $11 billion, might now step forward. *View article *View article on Foster’s CEO
BA-Iberia has earmarked Asia as a key region for expansion once their own merger solidifies, though restrictions on foreign investment could narrow their range of acquisition targets.*View article
The defense world is bracing for a whirlwind of dealmaking as tighter budgets and new security threats prompt the Pentagon’s large contractors to move resources to cybersecurity and unmanned defense. *View article *View graphic *View full coverage of the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit
Too many green technology IPOs recently have been big on hype but slow on results, Wired reports. The site has come up with some bright prospects going forward. *View article *IPO Candy gives a wider look at the IPO market
Deals wrap: Competition for Potash?
Sep 7th
China’s state-owned chemicals group Sinochem has approached Singapore state investor Temasek to join a consortium that may bid for Potash, sources said. It was unclear if this potential consortium will bid to buy a blocking stake or make a full counter offer. *View article
Air Products raised its bid for Airgas to $5.5 billion, the latest salvo in its hostile move on the rival company. *View article
The Justice department is looking into Google’s takeover of airline ticketing software firm ITA Software Inc, to determine whether the deal would exert too much influence on the online travel industry. *View WSJ article *View scores.org graphic on Google’s acquisitions
The WSJ takes a look at Berkshire Hathaway’s bid for Wesco Financial. “This begins as a Warren Buffett love story. The intriguing question is whether it ends that way,” reports the WSJ. *View WSJ article *View additional article on the deal
Deals wrap: Factoring in China
Sep 3rd
Chinese and other investors have approached at least one big Canadian pension manager about a bid for Canada’s Potash Corp to rival BHP Billiton’s hostile offer. This is one of the first pieces of hard evidence to back up speculation that China is looking for a way to derail a takeover of Potash Corp by the powerful Anglo-Australian miner. *View article *View analysis on possible regulatory action from China *View Globe and Mail article on the concern about jobs and revenue in Saskatchewan
The recent M&A binge certainly suggests corporate treasurers are confident that whatever the near term may bring now is the time to expand. Are we headed for a recovery or is the buying spree just a case of too much money needing a place to go? *View analysis
Genzyme rejected an all-cash $18.5 billion offer from Sanofi-Aventis this week. Will the deal go hostile? Take a look at how events could unfold. *View article
Looking for a Wall Street deal in the Hamptons, it appears Russian women are hitting the East Coast vacation spot this year in search of an “American banker flush with cash.” *View The Daily Beast article
Deals wrap: Whopper deal sealed
Sep 2nd
Burger King agreed to be bought by investment firm 3G Capital for $3.26 billion. The deal represents a 46 percent premium to Burger King’s share price before news of the deal talks emerged on Wednesday. *View article *View WSJ article on how tasty a Burger King deal is
Hewlett-Packard raised its offer by $3 to $33 per share for 3Par. Shortly after, Dell announced it is bowing out of the bidding war for the data storage company. *View article
China is stepping up attempts to hamper BHP Billiton’s $39 billion hostile offer for Potash Corp, amid worries about future supplies of fertilizer it needs to rapidly boost food production. There is a report that China’s state-run Sinochem has hired HSBC to advise it on options and another which says China is considering launching an anti-monopoly investigation into the deal. *View article *View factbox on Potash supply and demand
Worldwide M&A volume last month was the largest in over a year. Get a snapshot of the deal activity in this PDF.
Live Video: Bernanke and Bair testify before the FCIC
Sep 2nd
Live video of Thursday’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission testimony from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair.
Deals wrap: Mulling a Whopper of a deal
Sep 1st
Burger King,which has underperformed rivals and has forecast weak demand, is considering a sale, a source familiar with the situation said. One potentially interested party is 3i Group, a source told Reuters. *View article
August’s unseasonable burst of dealmaking — the busiest in over a decade — could herald a wider rebound in M&A for the remainder of the year as low interest rates, record cash piles and low stock-market values encourage chief executives to strike deals. *View article *View Seeking Alpha article on how the deals boom means trouble ahead
Regulators did not grant Lehman Brothers the same assistance as its competitors and thereby aggravated the global crisis, former Lehman Chief Executive Dick Fuld will tell a “too big to fail” commission. *View article *Full coverage
Regulated and humble, meet the new reality for hedge funds and find out how they are coping. *View article from The Economist
Deals wrap: Is 3PAR a good deal?
Aug 31st
Dell is expected to soon give up its pursuit of 3PAR, either ceding to HP’s last offer of $30 per share or giving up at a few dollars higher, according to a Reuters survey of eight technology investors and analysts. * View article *Columnist Robert Cyran asks: Is 3PAR an overpriced bauble for HP? * An MSN article makes the case that both Dell and HP are certifiable.
AIG faces the prospect of looking for another buyer for its Taiwan unit after regulators threw out its proposed $2.2 billion sale of Nan Shan Life to China Strategic. There have been suspicions in Taiwan about the connections of China Strategic with political foe China, and concern it did not have the experience to run an insurance business. * View article
Some high-profile IPO’s are under water and this is not sitting well. “Investors are sick to the back teeth of being treated like idiots,” Dan Nickols, at Old Mutual Asset Managers, tells the Financial Times. *View FT article
Deals wrap: Turning down Sanofi
Aug 30th
Genzyme broke its five-week silence to reject an $18.5 billion takeover proposal by French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, dismissing it as opportunistic and too low. *View article *View Genzyme’s letter to Sanofi-Aventis
Intel will buy Infineon’s wireless unit for $1.4 billion, enabling the chipmaker to boost its presence in the smartphone market. This is the second major deal for Intel within two weeks after the company announced its $7.7 billion offer for McAfee on Aug 19. *View article
Is Cisco in deal talks with Skype? A TechCrunch source says Cisco has made an offer for the Internet phone services provider. Earlier this month, Skype filed for an IPO. *View article
3M said it agreed to buy Cogent for more than $900 million, paying a nearly 18 percent premium for the biometric identification systems company. 3M estimates the $4 billion biometric market will grow by 20 percent a year. *View article
Agrium said it would be interested in Potash Corp’s nitrogen and phosphates business, worth an estimated $12 billion, if miner BHP Billiton secures its $39 billion Potash takeover and decides to sell the assets. BHP Billiton says they have no plans to sell any Potash Corp assets. *View article *View article on BHP’s top deal maker, Alberto Calderon *View analysis on China’s growing appetite
If there were any questions about whether Frank Quattrone could successfully return to the frontline of investment banking after a five-year legal fight, they have been put to rest by his role in advising 3PAR. *View article
Websense is open to takeover bids after rival McAfee was snapped up by Intel. “In my experience the way that you position yourself for sale is not to go around saying, ‘I am for sale,’” Chief Executive Gene Hodges told Reuters. “It’s to win in the marketplace and make sure that potential suitors know what your unique assets are.” *View article