Navivest Stocks and Options Blog » merger

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.

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%.

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.

SandRidge and Arena Announce Merger

Navivest — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:02:10 +0000

Independent oil and gas producers, SandRidge Energy (SD) and Arena Resources(ARD), announced on Sunday April 4, that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Arena Resources shareholders will receive a total of $40 per share in cash and stock for each share of their Arena common stock. with Arena Resources shares closing at $34.26 on Friday, this represents a 16.75% premium. SandRidge shares closed at $7.85 on Friday.

The $40 per share offer is broken down as follows; 4.7771 shares of SandRidge common stock and $2.50 in cash.

With oil prices on a steady rise, while gas prices have been heading, SandRidge began a strategic shift in 2009 towards more oil production and expoloration and according to SandRidge, “the transaction uniquely positions SandRidge as one of the largest producers of West Texas conventional oil and gas. The oil opportunities will come primarily from drilling and development of shallow, low risk reservoirs located on the Central Basin Platform (“CBP”), a part of the Permian Basin in West Texas.”

Massey Energy Shares Fall On Stock Offering

Navivest — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:30:01 +0000

Coal producer Massey Energy, (MEE) should be very active in Tuesday trading. The shares are off almost 4% in after hours trading on Monday, after the company announced that it is selling 8.5 million shares of its stock.

The company is planning to use the proceeds to fund its purchase of privately held Cumberland Resources, a deal which Massey announced on Wednesday March 17.

The stock is off $1.95 to $48.90 in after hours trading on Monday.

Massey Energy Shares Rallying On Acquisition

Navivest — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:18:58 +0000

Coal producer Massey Energy (MEE) is a strong performer today, on the company’s news that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cumberland Resources, a privately held coal producer, for $960 million, in a cash and stock deal. Massey Energy is offering $460 million in cash and the balance, or $320 million, in Massey stock.

Cumberland Resources, which owns 416 million tons of coal reserves, had 2009 coal revenue of $550 million. The company posted 2009 EBITDA of $115 million.

Cumberland Resources produces both steam coal, which is used by power generating plants and metallurgical coal, which is used in the production of steel. Massey believes that the acquisition will strengthen its position in the metallurgical coal arena.

Cumberland currently produces 4.8 million tons of metallurgical coal annually and 800,000 tons of that is sold into the metallurgical coal market. After the acquisition, Massey will be producing 5 million tons of metallurgical coal.
Massey shares are up $2.95 to $53.17 for a gain in early trading.

Simon Property Group May Raise Offer For General Growth

Navivest — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:01:42 +0000

Mall operator Simon Property Group (SPG), which on February 16, made public a $10 offer for competitor General Growth Properties (GGP), is reportedly looking into sweetening the deal, after GGP rebuffed it’s initial offer in a letter to SPG that was released the same day Simon Property Group made public its offer.

In the letter, General Growth Properties, which is currently in bankruptcy, stated “We and our board of directors have given considerable thought to your indication of interest and have concluded based on discussions with other interested parties that it is not sufficient to preempt the process we are undertaking to explore all avenues to emerge from Chapter 11 and maximize value for all the Company’s stakeholders.”

The initial $10 billion offer translated into $9 per share, but a new offer would have to be above $15 per share as GGP shares are currently at $15.10.

Simon Property Group’s initial offer, which included paying off GGP’s unsecured creditors 100% of what they are owed, plus “accrued interest”, is usually a very unlikely outcome for debt holders of bankrupt companies.