Navivest Stocks and Options Blog » Mergers & Acquisition

Shares of Genzyme Surging On Possible Merger Talks

Navivest — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:40:17 +0000

Shares of biotech company Genzyme (GENZ) are rallying $10.50 to $64.67, on word that the company was approached by Sanofi-Aventis (SNY). Genzyme shares at 1:36 pm, are currently the best performing stock in the S&P 500 index on a percentage basis.

SAP Buying Sybase For $5.8 Billion

Navivest — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:08:53 +0000

German business software maker SAP (SAP) is buying Sybase (SY) for $65 a share or a total of $5.8 billion. In late day trading during the regular session, shares of Sybase started rallying, ending the day at $56.14, up $14.57 or 35.05% on rumors that the company is a takeover candidate. The stock is up another $8.36 to $64.50 in after hours trading.

Sybase Shares Rallying On Takeover Rumors

Navivest — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:40:03 +0000

Shares of software maker Sybase (SYB) are rallying 39% on rumors the company might be a takeover candidate. The stock is up $16.19 to $57.76 a 38.95% gain at 3:35 PM.

Interactive Data To Be Acquired For $3.4 Billion

Navivest — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:46:29 +0000

Interactive Data Corporation (IDC), which provides financial market information, announced today that it had entered into an agreement to be acquired by two private equity funds, Warburg Pincus and Silverlake, for $33.86 per share or $3.4 billion in an all cash transaction.

Back on January 15, the company announced that its board was conducting a preliminary review of strategic alternatives for the company. The news sent the stock from a close of $25.47 the day prior, to a close of $29.07 on the 15th.

The $33.86 per share price represents a 32.9% premium over the closing price on January 14. IDC expects that the deal will close in the third quarter.

Hewlett-Packard Buying Palm For $1.2 Billion

Navivest — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:13:57 +0000

Hewlett Packard (HPQ) is reportedly buying Palm (PALM) for $5.70 a share for a total of $1.2 billion. Palm closed the regular session at $4.64, indicating a 22% premium.

CenturyTel and Qwest Announce Merger

Navivest — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:57:16 +0000

Telecom companies CenturyTel (CTL) and Qwest Communications (Q) are announcing this morning, that the boards of both companies have approved a merger agreement under which CenturyTel will acquire Qwest for roughly $22.4 billion, including assumption of Qwest’s outstanding $11.8 in debt.

Under the terms of the deal, Qwest shareholders will receive 0.1664 CenturyTel shares for each of their Qwest shares. CenturyTel’s shares closed at $36.20 on Wednesday, while Qwest’s shares closed at $5.24. Based on CenturyTel’s closing price on Wednesday, CenturyTel is offering $6.02 for each Qwest share.

Upon completion of the deal CenturyTel shareholders will own 50.5% of the combined entity, with Qwest shareholders owning the remaining 49.5%.

Simon Ammends Offer For General Growth Properties

Navivest — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:35:31 +0000

On February 16, mall operator Simon Property Group (SPG) announced a $10 billion unsolicited offer for bankrupt competitor General Growth Properties (GGP).

Under terms of that deal, Simon was offering $6 per share in cash, roughly $3 per share interest in Simon’s master planned communities and an offer to pay off GGP’s $7 billion in unsecured debt, which was highly unusual in that GGP’s unsecured creditors would have received 100 cents on the dollar, even though the company is currently in bankruptcy.

General Growth Properties rejected the offer, saying it would rather work through its bankruptcy.

Today, Simon Property Group released a letter to shareholders of General Growth Properties in which it stated that it is now offering to invest $2.5 billion in the reorganization of General Growth Properties. This is an alternative to an outright purchase of the company.

Under terms of the proposed deal, Simon would acquire 250,000,000 shares of GGP’s common stock, at $10 per share. Simon is proposing not to receive “any warrants or similar payment or fees in respects of its commitment to invest in GGP.” This means that current GGP shareholders will not suffer any dilution.

Simon is looking to counter a proposed plan of reorganization of GGP that is being sponsored by Brookfield Asset Management. Brookfield is offering the same $10 per share that Simon is now offering, but General Growth Properties would also offer “highly dilutive warrants” to Brookfield Asset Management under that proposed deal, which is co-sponsored by Pershing Square and Fairholme Capital.

Palm Rallies On Possible Sale of Company

Navivest — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:02:58 +0000

Shares of smartphone maker Palm (PALM), which rallied 32% last week on rumors that the company might be a buyout candidate, extended those gains on Monday, climbing 17%, on a $0.88 rise to $6.04 in the stock .

The company has reportedly retained Goldman Sachs (GS) and Qatalyst Partners, to help it find a buyer for the company.

Trade of the Day – California Pizza Kitchen

Navivest — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 05:05:39 +0000

California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI) on Friday April 9, added $2.56 to close at $20.74, a 14.08% gain, on news that management is shopping the company around.

The stock, which closed at $18.18 on Thursday, actually hit an intraday high of $24, which was also a new 52 week high.

While the news does not actually mean that management will be able to find interested parties and succeed in selling the company, we should see a bit more profit opportunities to the upside this week on the expectation.

Go long the stock here and on a $1.50 or better gain in the shares, exit, unless there is news that an interested party has emerged. If by Thursday, profit objectives have not been met, exit.

Jacobs Engineering Rallies On Takeover Rumors

Navivest — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:24:08 +0000

The stock of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc (JEC), which provides technical, professional, and construction services worldwide, rose $3.33 to $47.61, a 7.22% gain, on market chatter that the company is a takeover target, with the supposed interest coming from one or more private equity firm. TPG and Blackstone are being bandied about as the interested parties.

The shares, which have traded an average of 1.8 million shares a day over the past three months, saw volume jump to 9.7 million.