On May 1, Pearson Candy Co., a regional candy manufacturer headquartered in St. Paul, bought one of Nestle’s smaller brands, Bit-O-Honey. The company plans to manufacture Bit-O-Honey at its existing plant in St. Paul along with regional favorites like the Salted Nut Roll. When people think of acquisition, they often think of highly publicized megadeals …
Category: M&A in the News
Lending Club: Why Google Is Settling for Minority Ownership
Last week Google acquired a minority stake in consumer loan company Lending Club. The exact amount Google invested was not disclosed, but it was part of a $125 million round of financing for the Lending Club. Lending Club is an online company that uses technology to match borrowers with lenders. Since its inception in 2007, …
Apple Borrows Cash
Yesterday, Apple sold $17 billion in debt offering to investors, the largest corporate-bond deal in history. Apple’s first debt-offering in over 20 years is part of its plan to return $100 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015. This plan is a response to pressure put on Apple to use their excess cash hoard …
Your Opportunity Matrix: Dropbox Acquires Mailbox
The key to growth is future demand. Any acquisition you consider needs to take this factor into account. There are multiple ways to look at demand, and it’s essential to know which one is most appropriate for your company. I use a simple but powerful tool I call the Opportunity Matrix. It’s a way of …
Valuation: Flowers Food buys Wonder Bread
Valuation is a key component of the acquisition process that is widely misunderstood, because people tend to adopt a narrow financial perspective. Valuation should be anchored in your strategic rationale for buying another company in the first place. It all comes back to your business strategy and the synergies that will be created by the …
Recent Deals: Berkshire Hathaway & 3G Capital Buy Heinz, Office Depot-Office Max Merger
Recently, there have been some fairly significant transactions, and I want to mention these and tell you what they may mean for corporate executives. The first deal we have is Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital acquiring Heinz for $23.2 billion. Really, if you include debt, that transaction looks to be just under a $30 billion …
Strategy: US Airways and American Airlines
The $11 billion merger between US Airways and American Airlines offers a striking example of current trends in mergers and acquisitions: strategic acquisitions. The US Airways and American Airlines merger is an all-stock deal that should bring cost benefits and synergies which allow the company to better handle fixed assets. In order to remain viable …
The Power of Minority Interest: Microsoft’s Interest in Dell
Although I deal primarily with mergers and acquisitions, acquisition is simply one pathway to external growth and should be considered in a broader context. One of the pathways to external growth to consider is minority interest ownership. Microsoft’s proposed buyout of Dell demonstrates many of the benefits of minority interest ownership, a surprisingly neglected tactic. …
“Go-Shop Clause”
Edelman Financial Group agreed to sell their business for $258 million which is reported to be a 43% premium over their stock price. The interesting thing is the agreement includes a 40 day “go-shop clause” where the company can seek higher bids. I have been talking about these provisions for several years and expect you’ll …
Why is Fortis Acquiring CH Energy?
Fortis, Inc (TSX: FTS), a Canadian utility company, announced yesterday that it is acquiring CH Energy Group (NYSE: CHG) for $1B in cash plus the assumption of $500K in debt, which is about 10x 2011 EBITDA. CH Energy, which is a public utility headquartered in Poughkeepsie, NY, said this about the benefits of the acquisition: …
