| To: richardred who wrote (1872) | 2/1/2008 4:36:00 PM | | From: richardred | | | | Looks like Steve changed his mind.
>Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the company aims to pursue an independent path, focusing on up to 20 smaller acquisitions of $50 million to $1 billion each annually rather than mega-deals.
Microsoft Offers $44.6B for Yahoo
Friday February 1, 4:26 pm ET
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer
Microsoft Makes Unexpected $44.6B Bid for Yahoo; Internet Icon Is Studying It
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.
The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo's weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.
In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will "carefully and promptly" study Microsoft's bid.
With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo's stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.
The announcement lifted Yahoo's share price by almost 50 percent in morning trading, while Google fell more than 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.
In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he won't take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.
"This is a decision we have -- and I have -- thought long and hard about," Ballmer said. "We are confident it's the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo."
Besides the question of Yahoo's acceptance, Microsoft's bid also faces regulatory scrutiny in Washington and Europe. On Friday, the Justice Department said it is "interested" in reviewing antitrust issues. European Union officials declined to comment.
To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price Thursday. If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history, eclipsing last year's $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.
Since reaching a 52-week high of $34.08 in October, Yahoo shares have fallen 46 percent. Yahoo climbed $8.62 a share, or 45 percent, to $27.80 in afternoon trading. Microsoft shares fell $2.22, or 6.8 percent, to $30.38.
Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoo's shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoo's board to turn down the bid.
In a letter released Friday, Ballmer pointedly noted Yahoo's financial performance has deteriorated since Microsoft was spurned a year ago. At that time, Ballmer said he was told Yahoo believed it was better off on its own.
"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," Ballmer wrote in his letter.
Microsoft's previous offer was rebuffed by Terry Semel, who stepped aside last year as chief executive under shareholder pressure.
Microsoft sent its latest takeover offer to Yahoo late Thursday, shortly after Semel resigned as the company's chairman. The letter is addressed to Semel's successors, new Chairman Roy Bostock and the current CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, who is one of Yahoo's largest shareholders.
In a prepared statement, Yahoo said its board "will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo's strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders."
Microsoft views Yahoo as its best chance to thwart Google, which has leveraged its leadership in Internet search and advertising to emerge as an increasingly serious threat to the world's largest software maker's persuasive influence on how people interact with computers.
Google already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market, and has been widening its lead, despite concerted efforts by both second-place Yahoo and third-place Microsoft. By combining, Microsoft and Yahoo would have a 33 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.
By joining forces, Microsoft and Yahoo also would widen their narrowing advantage over Google in providing free e-mail accounts -- a service that helps foster more loyalty with users and create more advertising opportunities.
Advertisers around the world are expected to double their spending on the Internet during the next three years as more people get their news and entertainment on the Web instead of television, radio, newspapers and magazine. The trend is expected to create an $80 billion online ad market in 2010, up from an estimated $40 billion last year.
Despite an aggressive push in recent years, Microsoft's online advertising expansion hasn't paid off. Last week, the Redmond, Wash.-based company reported a 79 percent jump in its overall profit, but its online division's loss widened to $245 million.
And Yahoo has been struggling to attract more advertising even though its Web site attracts one of the biggest audiences. The Sunnyvale-based company's profit has declined for five consecutive quarters, prompting plans to cut 1,000 jobs later this month, a 7 percent reduction of its 14,300-employee work force.
Besides helping to boost its online ad revenue, Microsoft believes it could mine more profit from Yahoo by jettisoning workers and eliminating overlapping operations.
Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion in cost savings if it buys Yahoo. Microsoft executives deflected questions about how many jobs might be lost, but the company emphasized retention packages will be offered to Yahoo engineers and other key employees, including some executives.
The fate of Yahoo's brand also is unclear if Microsoft takes over. Both Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, hailed Yahoo's strong brand value but didn't commit to keeping the name alive.
AP Business Writer Jennifer Malloy in New York and AP Business Writer Jessica Mintz in Seattle contributed to this story.
biz.yahoo.com |
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| To: richardred who wrote (1888) | 2/1/2008 7:23:38 PM | | From: richardred | | | | How Microsoft-Yahoo deal can get regulatory OK
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The prospect of a stronger competitor to Google could be enough to satisfy antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe, observers say. But the size of a unified company will bring scrutiny.
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:16 PM PST, February 1, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Justice Department said today it would review Microsoft Corp.'s proposed $44.6-billion takeover of Yahoo Inc., if accepted, foreshadowing the intense scrutiny such a deal would face from U.S. and European regulators because of its size and Microsoft's previous antitrust problems.
But the prospect of a stronger competitor to Google Inc. in Internet search and advertising would overwhelm concerns about Microsoft's checkered past, antitrust experts said.
"The simple notion is competition is good for consumers," said Robert Hahn, executive director of the Center for Regulatory and Market Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. "Google may have a real rival now in online search and be subject to more competitive pressures in advertising. Regulators would take that into account."
Regulators already are paying attention.
The Justice Department's antitrust division would look at the deal if Yahoo accepted Microsoft's bid, spokeswoman Gina Talamona said. European regulators also would have to give their approval before the deal could go forward.
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), chairman of the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, promised to hold hearings.
"We will need to scrutinize the deal carefully to insure that it will not cause any harm to the competitiveness of what has been a vibrant high-tech marketplace, nor negatively impact the privacy rights of Internet users," Kohl said in a statement.
Microsoft said it expected the proposed takeover of Yahoo to receive all the necessary regulatory approvals to be completed in the second half of the year.
Antitrust regulators in the U.S. and European Union are familiar with Microsoft, dating to battles that began in the 1990s. A U.S. judge this week extended court oversight of Microsoft until November 2009. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has been monitoring Microsoft's compliance since the 2002 settlement of a landmark antitrust case against the Redmond, Wash., company for abusing its dominance in the computer operating software market.
The European Union this month announced two new investigations of Microsoft related to whether it used its dominance in word processing and spreadsheet programs to squelch rivals and illegally tied its Internet browser to its Windows operating system.
The probes followed Microsoft's decision last fall to overhaul its businesses practices and pay a $739-million fine, ending a nine-year fight with European officials over antitrust issues.
Regulators can't ignore Microsoft's "bad boy" history in competing with rivals, said Dennis Oswell, a European Union antitrust lawyer.
"You can be sure that if this was 'Company X' this deal would not receive the same amount of scrutiny," he said. "Microsoft is a very, very dominant player, and any time it goes into a neighboring market it's going raise all sorts of questions."
But Microsoft is a much smaller player in that neighboring market -- Internet search and advertising -- compared with market leader Google. European regulators might be more interested in allowing a potential Microsoft-Yahoo combination to create a strong alternative for consumers and advertisers, Oswell said.
The same calculation could take place in Washington, where regulators last year approved Google's purchase of leading online advertising company DoubleClick Inc. They might want to ensure that there is a strong competitor in that growing market, said David Lisi with the Silicon Valley law firm Howrey LLP.
But Lisi said Yahoo's strong position in instant messaging software and free Internet e-mail could lead regulators to seek assurances that Microsoft wouldn't improperly tie those products to Windows in a way that thwarts rivals.
"With respect to e-mail and instant messaging, that just gives Microsoft a much greater tool to drive advertising and also to collect information," he said.
The data collection power of a combined Microsoft and Yahoo is something federal regulators and Congress should consider, said Jeff Chester, executive director, of the Center for Digital Democracy.
"This merger poses new privacy threats to consumers everywhere," he said.
Chester's group strongly opposed Google's purchase of DoubleClick, which is being held up while European regulators study it. But given the deal's approval by the Federal Trade Commission, Chester acknowledged that the need to provide a stronger competitor to Google might ease the way for a Microsoft purchase of Yahoo.
Still, he would be worried about the three dominant Internet companies turning into two.
"These two companies will have tentacles everywhere," he said. "There will be three places in the United States that know a lot about you -- Google, Yahoo and the National Security Agency."
jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com
latimes.com |
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| To: richardred who wrote (556) | 2/1/2008 8:05:19 PM | | From: richardred | | | | Bristol-Myers' Potential Acquisitions
Cantor Fitzgerald
THURSDAY MORNING, Bristol-Myers Squibb discussed its planned divestiture/acquisition strategy -- a critical juncture in the BMS transformation, in our view -- which could position Bristol-Myers as a leading biopharma company, given the right acquisitions.
Bristol-Myers recently sold its medical-imaging business and plans to sell [ostomy subsidiary] ConvaTec to go after long-term growth via complementary pipeline products focused on unmet medical needs to position Bristol-Myers for 2012 and beyond.
While certain obvious acquisition targets come to mind, like Biogen Idec, we believe smaller-cap companies with enabling platform technologies and robust pipelines provide the sustainability Bristol-Myers needs.
Bristol-Myers' product lifecycle management strategy -- "building pipelines within products" -- of continuously layering new innovative, high-margin products into its current product franchises, first as combination therapies and migrating toward broad indications, we think, is a sustainable business model if there are underpinnings of technology diversity.
Bristol-Myers' focus on expanding biologics capabilities and innovative products, we think, will require investments in enabling platform technologies that move the company into next-generation biologicals, like its acquisition of Adnexus that provides a new molecular class combined with a low-cost manufacturing opportunity for Mabs [monoclonal antibody therapies for cancer], a critical factor for long-term success in Mab therapies as governments and other third-party payers continue to pressure prices and margins.
We think the need for Bristol-Myers and other pharma companies to cost-effectively innovate for long-term sustainability will drive demand for enabling technology platforms. We think the Adnexus acquisition is an indicator of the types of strategic acquisitions and/or alliances to expect from Bristol-Myers which point to companies like Sangamo BioSciences, Cell Genesys and ImmunoGen as likely targets due to their pipeline fit and next-generation technology platforms.
Again, we remind investors that technology-driven growth is not linear -- it is market-disruptive. We think that major corporations seeking sustainable top-line and bottom-line growth will continue to rely on access to technology platforms that can be deployed widely throughout the corporation to achieve the efficient, cost-effective product innovation required to maintain long-term market leadership.
We think that companies providing market-disruptive technologies will provide top-line and bottom-line growth that promises to reinvigorate pharma, food, energy and industrial processes -- providing a source of unique, human- and earth-friendly products while decreasing costs.
For investors, we believe our universe of platform technology companies provides a value foundation which lowers investment risk. We think the December/January selloff has created opportunities for significant upside in 2008, and we reiterate our Buy rating on our universe of market-disruptive platform technology companies: Sangamo, Cell Genesys, ImmunoGen, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Rosetta Genomics, Senomyx, Metabolix and Verenium.
online.barrons.com |
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| From: richardred | 2/4/2008 9:21:59 AM | | | | | | Ecolab to Acquire Provider of Energy, Water and Effluent Management Systems
Monday February 4, 9:03 am ET
Fast-growing Ecovation delivers lower plant operating costs and environmental sustainability solutions to food and beverage processors
ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ecolab Inc. announced it has agreed to purchase Ecovation, Inc., a Rochester, NY area-based provider of renewable energy solutions and effluent management systems primarily for the food and beverage manufacturing industry in the U.S., including dairy, beverage, and meat and poultry producers. Ecovation is growing rapidly: 2007 sales were approximately $50 million, having grown tenfold since 2005; 2008 sales are expected to exceed $100 million. Ecolab will pay $210 million but intends to sell approximately $40 million of long-term lease receivables, resulting in an effective net purchase price of $170 million. No other terms were announced.
Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Ecolab’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer commented on the announcement, saying, “This acquisition greatly expands the range of solutions Ecolab can provide to its food and beverage processing customers to help them manage food safety, water, energy and environmental stewardship. Ecovation’s technologies allow food processing plants to be more environmentally responsible while simultaneously reducing operating costs. For Ecolab, it opens exciting new growth prospects in our second largest global business and in an area where we have achieved consistent strong growth and global market leadership.”
Through the design, construction and operation of on-premise treatment facilities, Ecovation applies its proprietary processes in the areas of anaerobic wastewater treatment, solids management and air pollution control to the plant wastewater streams. These streams are then converted to cleaner water that can be recycled or released into the environment while extracting energy that can be utilized in the plant. Ecovation helps customers reduce operating costs by treating waste on their premises instead of hauling it away or operating large aerobic treatment fields that require acreage and can potentially create other environmental issues. Ecovation systems reduce plant operating costs by capturing energy from the waste and returning it to the plant, thereby increasing environmental compliance and sustainability. Ecovation’s proprietary technologies will also help food and beverage processors comply with an increasingly more difficult regulatory environment with respect to wastewater management and plant effluent discharge.
“While an emerging market, the potential for such complete plant solutions is substantial, with the U.S. food and beverage market opportunity alone exceeding $4 billion,” Baker continued. “We believe Ecolab can help further develop Ecovation’s potential by leveraging our strong and established global customer base, and delivering additional water and energy solutions for customers.
“We expect the transaction to be up to $0.01 dilutive to earnings per share in 2008, and show accretion building in 2009 and thereafter.”
Baker concluded by saying, “We are excited by the terrific potential Ecovation brings both Ecolab and its customers. We have high expectations for the business, and believe this acquisition will give us a leadership position in this critical and emerging market as well as provide solid long term growth opportunities.”
With sales of $5 billion and more than 13,000 sales-and-service associates, Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL - News) is the global leader in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection prevention products and services. Ecolab delivers comprehensive programs and services to foodservice, food and beverage processing, healthcare, and hospitality markets in more than 160 countries. More news and information is available at www.ecolab.com.
This news release contains various "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements concerning the transaction's potential impact on our earnings per share in 2008 and in future years. These statements, which represent Ecolab's expectations or beliefs concerning various future events, are based on current expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those of such Forward-Looking Statements. We caution that undue reliance should not be placed on Forward-Looking Statements, which speak only as of the date made.
Risks and uncertainties that may affect operating results and business performance are set forth under Item 1A of our most recent Form 10-K and include the vitality of the foodservice, hospitality, travel, health care and food processing industries; our ability to develop competitive advantages through technological innovations; restraints on pricing flexibility due to contractual obligations; pressure on operations from consolidation of customers or vendors; changes in oil or raw material prices or unavailability of adequate and reasonably priced raw materials or substitutes therefore; the effect of future acquisitions or divestitures or other corporate transactions; the costs and effects of complying with: (i) laws and regulations relating to the environment and to the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and use of our products, (ii) changes in tax, fiscal, governmental and other regulatory policies and (iii) changes in accounting standards, including the impact of FIN 48, which could increase the volatility of our quarterly tax rate; economic factors such as the worldwide economy, interest rates and currency movements including, in particular, our exposure to foreign currency risk; the occurrence of (a) litigation or claims, such as antitrust, patent infringement and wage/hour claims, (b) the loss or insolvency of a major customer or distributor, (c) war (including acts of terrorism or hostilities which impact our markets), (d) natural or manmade disasters, or (e) severe weather conditions or public health epidemics affecting the foodservice, hospitality and travel industries; our ability to attract and retain high caliber management talent; and other uncertainties or risks reported from time to time in our reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Except as may be required under applicable law, we undertake no duty to update our Forward-Looking Statements.
(ECL-A)
Contact:
Ecolab Inc.
Michael J. Monahan, 651-293-2809
Source: Ecolab Inc.
biz.yahoo.com |
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| From: richardred | 2/4/2008 1:07:30 PM | | | | | | QEPC-order filled today. First Buy for me in quite awhile. Nibbled to Reloaded QEPC.
Value based on forward earnings-IMO
Speculative appeal -Takeout play that CEO will try and take it private again. This time earnings are head in the right direction and the balance sheet is to, adding to the appeal. Year end review if I'm wrong.
I'm already diversified.
I'll be willing to add and hold this current stake if market turbulence drives it lower. |
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| From: richardred | 2/6/2008 1:18:56 PM | | | | | | LABL-Established a position today at 19.65.
Message 23670776
Snip>Panjabi said he hopes for an aggressive shift in the company's strategic thinking, with Bemis pursuing acquisitions to offset over-capacity in the U.S. flexible packaging market.
UPDATE 1-Bemis names new chief executive
Fri Feb 1, 2008 12:57pm EST
NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Packaging maker Bemis Co (BMS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it elected Henry Theisen as its new president and chief executive officer.
Theisen, succeeds Jeffrey Curler, who will continue as executive chairman, the Neenah, Wisconsin-based company said in a statement.
Wachovia analyst Ghansham Panjabi said in a note to clients that the timing of the announcement will likely be viewed as a surprise.
"The latter is especially true following (an) uncharacteristically weak performance out of Bemis over the past three years, during which an aggressive capex program has coincided with negative core volume growth (capex has since been reined in)," said Panjabi.
Earlier this week, while announcing its fourth-quarter and full year 2007 results, Bemis said it was substantially reducing its capital expenditure budget in 2008.
Panjabi said he hopes for an aggressive shift in the company's strategic thinking, with Bemis pursuing acquisitions to offset over-capacity in the U.S. flexible packaging market.
Shares of Bemis were up 4 cents at $27.22 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Euan Rocha and Anant Vijay Kala in Bangalore; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
reuters.com |
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| To: richardred who wrote (1893) | 2/6/2008 1:32:31 PM | | From: richardred | | | | UFPT-established a position today 6.15
>snip- Sealed Air will continue to look at acquisitions as an integral part of its growth strategy, said Chief Financial Officer David Kelsey in an interview with Reuters.
"We're not making acquisitions simply for the sake of getting larger," said Kelsey. "There has to be a positive benefit for our shareholders before we move forward."
Very generic statement, but fits SEE very well. I won't mind holding if nothing develops on other fundamentals. |
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| To: richardred who wrote (1862) | 2/7/2008 1:12:08 AM | | From: richardred | | | | AIRT -partial order filled today at 10.75 adding to current holdings. Nice Global backlog with this addition.
Air T, Inc. Announces Receipt of $14.7 Million Order from the United States Air Force
Wednesday February 6, 4:08 pm ET
MAIDEN, N.C., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Air T, Inc. (Nasdaq: AIRT - News) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary Global Ground Support, LLC has received an order for 44 mobile deicing trucks to be supplied to the United States Air Force for a total of approximately $14.7 million. The order is pursuant to Global's existing multi-year contract with the Air Force and includes the actual units, shipping costs and training courses associated with the units.
click here
Walter Clark, Air T's CEO, stated that, "This is outstanding news on the heels of our recent quarterly earnings report. We very much appreciate the Air Force's continued confidence in Global's deicing equipment and services. This delivery order along with our existing backlog will serve us well in the coming months and provide a good foundation for our next fiscal year."
Air T, through its subsidiaries, provides overnight air freight service to the express delivery industry, and manufactures, sells and services aircraft ground support and special purpose industrial equipment. Air T is one of the largest, small-aircraft air cargo operators in the United States. Air T's Mountain Air Cargo and CSA Air subsidiaries currently operate a fleet of single and twin-engine turbo-prop aircraft daily in the eastern half of the United States, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands. Air T's ground support operations, including its Global Ground Support and Global Aviations Services subsidiaries, manufacture and service aviation support and other specialized military and industrial equipment, in addition to providing airport facilities maintenance. Global Ground Support is one of the largest providers of deicing equipment in the world.
Statements in this press release, which contain more than historical information, may be considered forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements because of important potential risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the risk that contracts with major customers will be terminated or not extended, uncertainty regarding legal actions involving the Company, future economic conditions, inflation rates, competition, changes in technology or government regulation, and the impact of future terrorist activities in the United States and abroad. A forward-looking statement is neither a prediction nor a guarantee of future events or circumstances, and those future events or circumstances may not occur. We are under no obligation, and we expressly disclaim any obligation, to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Source: Air T, Inc.
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| To: ~digs who wrote (1895) | 2/7/2008 1:24:37 AM | | From: richardred | | | | UFPT also had a nice bolt on acquisition recently. Should bring sales over the 100 million mark. I haven't seen any indications yet, if it will add to earnings. RE-8k they paid just under 7 million for it with last years sales of around 13 million.
ufpt.com |
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