| To: Susan G who wrote (383) | 5/3/2000 9:16:00 PM | | From: Susan G | | | | |
OK, some good news to report now...DLJDirect personally called all "frequent" or high volume traders today to give them another toll free number which will be easier to get through on when you need to get through quickly. Now THIS is quite an improvement. |
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| To: PAFOOFNICK who wrote (385) | 8/29/2000 5:04:59 PM | | From: Susan G | | | | Wow, nice move. Could continue tomorrow it looks like. Missed it totally as I don't follow the stock anymore, and I had cnbc on mute all day <g>
I traded the stock back when it was in the 30s for a nice gain. |
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| To: Susan G who wrote (386) | 8/29/2000 7:29:44 PM | | From: solstice | | | | DLJ to be bought out?
Buying Strength: DLJ a Tempting Target
By Dan Colarusso
Associate Editor
8/29/00 7:11 PM ET
If Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ:NYSE - news) does strike a deal to be acquired, its new owner will get a firm that has spread itself into many of Wall Street's most lucrative businesses.
The takeover action on Wall Street recently has been focused on firms with lots of brokers catering to retail investors, namely UBS' (UBS:NYSE ADR - news) July agreement to acquire PaineWebber (PWJ:NYSE - news).
But DLJ, which is reportedly in talks to be acquired, has become a force in several areas. It's the seventh-largest U.S. investment bank, one of the largest trade execution and clearing firms and the seventh-largest online brokerage. It also has about 500 brokers servicing wealthy individual investors. What it lacks, however, is a huge asset-management business that generates a steady stream of fee revenue to offset the more cyclical investment banking and trading businesses.
Still, DLJ's majority shareholder, AXA Financial (AXF:NYSE ADR - news) of France, is reportedly soliciting bids for the firm and getting a strong response. AXA, the world's largest insurance company, owns about 70% of DLJ.
DLJ and AXA didn't return calls seeking comments.
It's unclear what a buyer would pay for DLJ, though CNBC reported it would fetch $90 a share. UBS is paying about 18 times PaineWebber's estimated earnings this year. Trading at $86.50, up 31%, or $20.94, Tuesday, DLJ already is near that level, so there may be limited upside potential from here.
"Typically, you see stronger firms buying somewhat weaker ones, but in the case of DLJ, it's a strong firm that's getting acquired," says one Wall Street veteran.
"DLJ has chosen its business spots extremely well, and then executed its plans well," says money manager Michael Holland, who doesn't hold shares of DLJ in his Holland Balanced fund. "You tend to think that when DLJ decides to partner up with someone -- knowing its history -- the firm will do something smart."
Among the rumored suitors are Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers (LEH:NYSE - news). Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman declined to comment.
CS First Boston ranks fourth among U.S. equity underwriters, according to CommScan Equidesk, but an acquisition of DLJ would make it bigger and more diverse. It's best known for its technology investment-banking franchise, a unit which, under the guidance of Frank Quattrone, has become a Silicon Valley force.
CS First Boston and many other investment-banking firms also are on the hunt to add low-cost distribution to individual investors to their mixes. The combination of DLJ unit DLJDirect's (DIR:NYSE - news) online business and DLJ's boutique brokerage, which caters to wealthy individuals, could be a pipeline through which an investment bank could pump valuable initial public offering business.
Meanwhile, the specter of DLJ being acquired is likely to add even more fuel to the sector's M&A bonfire. Lehman and Bear Stearns (BSC:NYSE - news) have been among the most talked-about targets.
Both firms are similar in makeup to DLJ, although with a market cap of $17 billion Lehman is considerably larger. DLJ's market cap is about $12 billion, while Bear's is just under $7 billion. The stocks have run up considerably. Lehman shares have risen about 60% since May 1, while Bear's stock has popped about 40% since then. With Tuesday's performance, DLJ shares have almost doubled in that period.
Not everyone's sold. Goldman Sachs brokerage analyst Richard Strauss warned in a report last week that investors should "avoid the takeout trap -- which in this category typically is a dud."
Well, maybe not this time.
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| To: Susan G who wrote (386) | 8/29/2000 9:18:50 PM | | From: PAFOOFNICK | | | | | Im glad you got out at thirty, I sold some and am in for a free ride, but the ride has been hectic. Im curious if this will be more of a spike than the original ipo. ? |
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| To: Henry Niman who wrote (389) | 8/30/2000 8:43:15 AM | | From: Rob C. | | | | We are not included in the deal.
30 Aug 08:35
Shareholders of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, which is 70% owned by AXA
Financial Inc. (AXF), will receive cash for their stock. AXA and its affiliates
will receive $5.75 billion in Credit Suisse Group stock and $2.39 billion in
cash.
The aquisition doesn't include various issues of DLJ preferred stock, debt
and the tracking stock of DLJdirect Inc. (DIR).
Donaldson Lufkin has 127.8 million shares outstanding.
(MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 08-30-00
08:35 AM |
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| To: Henry Niman who wrote (391) | 8/30/2000 9:13:42 AM | | From: Rob C. | | | | Henry,
I like this...
Credit Suisse First Boston could benefit from the deal in several ways. Not only will the acquisition boosts its U.S. presence, it also would be helped by DLJ's strength in high-yield bonds.
On Tuesday, DLJ's stock (DLJ: news, msgs) reached a 52-week high of 82 1/4, up 16 7/16 on volume of more than 6 million shares.
DLJdirect (DIR: news, msgs), a tracking stock for DLJ's online operation, also posted a big gain, rising 2 1/4, or 28 percent, to 10 3/16 as of 4 p.m. Eastern time.
To some observers, suitors might view DLJdirect, an established online service, as one of the brokerage's biggest assets.
Analysts have said the speculation about DLJ itself gained currency because it followed a period when PaineWebber agreed to be acquired by UBS and Bear Stearns said it might be looking for a suitor of its own.
Those developments have been seen as a prelude to what could turn into a new buying spree of securities firms.
Regards,
Rob |
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| To: Henry Niman who wrote (391) | 8/31/2000 4:09:57 PM | | From: Rob C. | | | | =DJ POINT OF VIEW: Is Renaming DLJdirect Counterproductive?
31 Aug 13:49
By Gene Colter
A Dow Jones Newswires Column
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Imagine you have a young but high-profile business with
nearly 1 million customers.
Now figure that you spent roughly $250 to lure each of those customers for a
total of $250 million. A lot of that figure represents advertising campaigns to
get your name out there so that people remember it.
What's your next move? Why, change your name, of course.
Sound odd? That's what the new owner of DLJdirect Inc. (DIR) may be planning,
though the parent appears to be debating the rechristening of the online
brokerage.
Credit Suisse Group (Z.CSG) Chairman and Chief Executive Lukas Muhlemann sent
a letter to shareholders Thursday saying DLJdirect will become CSFBDirect as
part of the $11.5 billion transaction in which Credit Suisse will acquire
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. (DLJ). But Muhlemann later said in a
conference call that the unit wouldn't be rebranded. Credit Suisse' Chief
Financial Officer Richard Thornburgh further muddied the issue by saying
there's a "high likelihood" of rebranding but later adding Credit Suisse would
ultimately do "what is in the best interest of shareholders," according to a
report by Dow Jones Newswires' Cheryl Winokur Munk.
Herewith, some advice to Credit Suisse on the matter.
As everyone on Wall Street knows, CSFB stands for Credit Suisse First Boston,
the investment-banking business created when First Boston merged with Credit
Suisse back in the late 1980s.
But Wall Streeters know just as well the history of DLJ, a venerable name
that had begun to gain some recognition on Main Street, too, in the guise of
DLJdirect. (The example at the top of this column is at least somewhat based on
real numbers: By the latest reckoning, the Web broker has about a million
accounts worldwide. In the first quarter, the firm spent an average of around
$262 to capture each new account, according to a Salomon Smith Barney analyst.)
Wall Street may grumble, but it can adapt.
No disrespect to Main Street, but the average consumer doesn't do as well
with change, and you have to figure that hanging a new sign on DLJ's brokerage
business will at least lead to confusion in the minds of some customers and
potential customers.
To be sure, the alternative - keeping the DLJdirect name - might look odd
when you consider that Credit Suisse has its name on most everything else in
its empire. Indeed, the new CSFB/DLJ operation will be called simply Credit
Suisse First Boston.
But, though the image managers and spin doctors might have you believe
otherwise, there's still a difference between the way institutions and end
customers accept some kinds of change.
Many companies with a consumer brand acknowledge this when renaming after a
takeover or merger. For example, Germany's Daimler made sure to keep the word
"Chrysler" after it bought the company. It did so because it knew the average
customer would take more readily to DaimlerChrysler than Daimler-Benz and
associate (hopefully) good feelings about the Chrysler product with the new
name.
No one is suggesting that DLJdirect is anywhere near the brand that one of
the Big Three automakers is. In fact, those million accounts rank it only as
No. 7 in the online brokers field, according to Salomon Smith Barney estimates.
But building a brand means sticking with the name or coming up with a
powerful catalyst to establish the new handle in the public's mind.
And sometimes that catalyst isn't always a happy one. Just ask Verizon
Communications (VZ), whose creation from the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic
was something of a mystery - sorry, James Earl Jones - before its labor
problems made headlines.
Meantime, back on Wall Street, investors who own any of the 12% of DLJdirect
tracking stock that DLJ offered in May 1999 have their own problems, but not
because of any potential name change.
Their stocks got left out of the CSFB/DLJ deal and will continue to trade
separately. Shares of DLJdirect debuted at $20, hit a high $40 and now trade at
less than $9. The only thing these holders may get is a new ticker symbol.
-By Gene Colter, Dow Jones Newswires 201.938.2068
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 08-31-00
01:49 PM
Copyright 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. |
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