Archive for the 'Deals' Category
EMC buys private software company
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) shares are rising nowadays after the company announced yesterday evening it bought privately held software company Infra Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The company plus made a $3.25 per share takeover offer for Iomega Corp. (NYSE: IOM) yesterday, but it was rejected…
Murdoch turns back on Yahoo! (YHOO) deal
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) is running out of options to keep itself out of the hands of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Rupert Murdoch said that his company, News Corp (NYSE:NWS) would not pursue a deal with the portal. There had been talk about combining Murdoch’s huge social network, MySpace, with Yahoo! to cr…
Micosoft (MSFT) may go slow in Yahoo! (YHOO) integration
Good news for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) employees who thought they might lose their jobs whether the proposed buyout by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) goes through. Microsoft believes that whether it integrates the technologies of the two companies very quickly, consumers and advertisers could suffer. The FT …
Did Boeing lose a $100 billion tanker deal due to its own arrogance?
The New York Times reports that one reason Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) may have lost the $100 billion contract to build tankers — in-flight refueling aircraft — for the Air Force considering the winners — Boeing’s arch-rival, EADS, parent of Toulouse, France-based Airbus and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC…
FBI examines Countrywide Financial statements
The FBI is probing whether Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) committed securities hoax by making false statements about the mortgage bank’s deteriorating financial position.
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that a “potential issue facing the company is whether it has be…
In a recession, luxuries are the first to go
For anybody who’s been following the downfall of Sharper Image, there seems to be a pretty obvious lesson: when society are worrying about the rising cost of food and are scrimping to fill their gas tanks, high-priced doodads and assorted electronic gewgaws are the first things to go. The next t…
Disney, CBS, GE, see blue skies ahead for The Weather Channel
Whomever buys The Weather Channel will probably see nothing but blue skies.ss
According to The New York Times’ DealBook, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), General Electric Company (NYSE: GE)’s NBC, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Liber…
Bank of America’s Countrywide deal draws scorn of investor
SRM Capital Management head Jonathan Wood has been slamming Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)’s deal to acquire Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) for more than a month now, but with shares of the target company still trading at nearly a $2 reduction to the buyout price, investors seem too skeptical th…
Yahoo! (YHOO) in merger talks with instance Warner (TWX) AOL
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), still trying to prevent a deal in which it would be taken by by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), has stepped up talks with Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) about merging AOL into the big portal company. According to The Wall Street Journal, “the date Warner talks have stepped up as Yahoo tries t…
Hostile takeovers on the rise — more to come?
As an observer of markets, I’m a huge fan of hostile takeovers. Like accounting frauds, activist campaigns and battles with short-sellers, they add some drama and clash to a world that can sometimes seem a little too clubbish.
Thomson Financial’s Richard Peterson told the USA Today that there hav…
America’s big companies have a lot of cash
Recent input suggests that America’s largest industrial companies are piling up cash. The New York Times reports: “According to S.& P., the total cash held by companies in its industrial index exceeded $600 billion in February, up from about $203 billion in 1998.”
That is good news whether th…
A takeover at E*Trade? Don’t bet on it.
E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC) is naming its chairman, former JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) vice-chairman Donald Layton, to be the company’s new CEO.
The stock was trading up more than 5% on the news earlier, probably considering of speculation of a possible sale. The Wall Street Journal reported [subscriptio…
Merck nearing 85% settlement target; worth considering
For by three years Merck and Co. (NYSE: MRK) has been distracted by its pain medication Vioxx. The company voluntarily withdrew the drug from the market in the fall of 2004 following its own study that showed potential higher risk of heart attack. Law suits ensued. that wee hours, it has been re…
United Technologies offers $2.63 billion for Diebold
Maker of Otis elevators and Chubb defense systems, United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), announced Sunday that it had made an unsolicited $2.63 billion offer for Diebold Inc. (NYSE: DBD). Diebold is one of the largest makers of automated teller machines and voting machines, and United Tech’s mo…
