| To: richardred who wrote (3849) | 11/26/2014 11:37:32 AM | | From: richardred | | | | A little bit of long term confidence in REXX. I don't think oil is going the way of the dinosaurs any time soon.
Rex Energy (NASDAQ:REXX) Director Lance T. Shaner bought 487,800 shares of Rex Energy stock on the open market in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $8.78 per share, with a total value of $4,282,884.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,214,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,224,934. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC
americanbankingnews.com |
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| To: richardred who wrote (3654) | 12/2/2014 11:11:38 AM | | From: richardred | | | | The Home Depot Enters into Definitive Agreement to Purchase the Hardware Solutions Business Unit from HD Supply
HD Supply Enters into Definitive Agreement to Sell its Hardware Solutions Business Unit to The Home Depot ATLANTA - December 2, 2014 - HD Supply (NASDAQ: HDS) and The Home Depot® (NYSE: HD) today announced they have entered into an agreement for The Home Depot to purchase substantially all of the assets of HD Supply Hardware Solutions, formerly known as Crown Bolt, a leading supplier of fasteners and builders hardware to retailers in the United States. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of fiscal year 2014 subject to obtaining customary regulatory approvals. "After a detailed evaluation, we determined that selling our Hardware Solutions business is in the best interests of our associates and HD Supply shareholders," said Joe DeAngelo, CEO of HD Supply. "HD Supply Hardware Solutions and The Home Depot have a long-standing and natural partnership. The Home Depot is Hardware Solutions' largest customer and accounts for approximately 98 percent of its annual sales."
HD Supply Hardware Solutions was The Home Depot's 2013 Hardware Vendor of the Year, recognized for providing
top-notch service and quality to The Home Depot stores.
"Our companies have had a long-standing relationship," said Craig Menear, CEO and president, The Home Depot. "By formally bringing the business into The Home Depot family, we expect to further enhance our supply chain capabilities and hardware product offerings."
About HD Supply: HD Supply (www.hdsupply.com) is one of the largest industrial distributors in North America. The company provides
a broad range of products and value-add services to approximately 500,000 customers with leadership positions in maintenance, repair and operations, infrastructure and power and specialty construction sectors. Through approximately 650 locations across 48 states and seven Canadian provinces, the company's approximately 16,000 associates provide localized, customer-driven services including jobsite delivery, will call or direct-ship options, diversified logistics and innovative solutions that contribute to its customers' success.
About The Home Depot: The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,269 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2013, The Home Depot had sales of $78.8 billion and earnings of $5.4 billion. The company employs more than 300,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.
Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, including, among others, statements regarding the anticipated acquisition of HD Supply Hardware Solutions by The Home Depot, are forward-looking statements. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of HD Supply Hardware Solutions and The Home Depot and members of their respective management teams, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based, and generally are identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "seeks," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "should" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are beyond HD Supply's and The Home Depot's ability to control or predict. Such factors include, but are not limited to, any conditions imposed in connection with the acquisition, the satisfaction of various other conditions to the closing of the acquisition contemplated by the purchase agreement, and other factors discussed in HD Supply's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as amended, for the fiscal year ended February 2, 2014, The Home Depot's Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q for the quarterly period ended November 2, 2014, and their other respective filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties should be considered in evaluating any forward-looking statements contained herein.
twst.com
Re:Lowes
Message 28956971 |
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| From: Cautious_Optimist | 12/15/2014 11:25:19 AM | | | | | | My insane rants about F and TWTR
Big cash-ready tech has got to be looking at a strategic edge in transportation as that industry evolves and morphs with tech and the web..
The visionary buyers would include Google, Apple, Microsoft etc.
Imagine if Apple engineers and mindset were brought to make iCars. Or GOOG could get into the game. Or MSFT wanted to go on offense, for once.
Ford (F) is blipping on my M&A radar. I write this on a day where Deutsch Bank downgrades the company and the market's knees wobble and buckle predictably.
At 40% of sales; reasonable 2.3 times book, with a good position in efficient and shall we say, inefficient transportation including trucks and autos...
Ford did not need a bailout. And it comes with a global manufacturing and distribution presence.
It would be a blockbuster; but you have to prepare for everything in life -- who would have thought the John Lester would be a Chicago Cub? :-|
FULL DISCLOSURE: I drive a Toyota, and it has been bedy-bedy-gooud to me.
I'm also sticking to my wild belief in TWTR as an M&A target, though it is getting lonely here. TWTR is valued as a fad social network stock; but I think not yet understood or valued as a media zeitgeist. Despite the management issues, Twitter is the bottleneck for valuable and/or super timely information. The ultimate newspaper/newscast/unique gossip source. The ultimate tops down AND bottoms up communications platform. With a layout that works for advertisers without driving users away. Someone's gonna get interested at $23B with what I predict will be a billion users by 2018 and a minutes/eyeballs rival to Facebook and radio/TV/written media networks.
But the downside of TWTR is justifying the market cap with less than 250 million users today, at a crossroads of usability and innovation. And cynicism for the management team to optimize opportunity.
We shall see.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm in for a nice chunk and losing a couple bucks/share now. And not feeling as comfortable as I did at IPO with this management team. But I feel Mr. market has discounted the negative sentiment and it isn't exactly an Ebola center there.
Vaht? You'd rather hold XOM or GLD as time marches on?? |
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| To: Cautious_Optimist who wrote (3866) | 12/29/2014 2:02:00 PM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | I am in complete agreement with your comments about Twitter. It is a very valuable piece of real estate if someone can figure out what to do with it.
Google has stated that they want to partner with the automobile manufacturers rather than to actually manufacture a driverless vehicle: Message 29860529
Since most of the auto companies are already working on their own driverless vehicles and probably don't want to become dependent upon Google's technology, Google might have to acquire an auto manufacturer if they want to become a serious player in the industry. Ford would be a good candidate, although I think that the market severely punish Google's stock price if they made an offer for Ford.
My two favorite acquisition/dismemberment candidates for 2015 are Yahoo and eBay/PayPal. Someone is going to take a run at Yahoo and try to force them to monetize their stake in Alibaba.
A Handful of Blockbuster E-Commerce Acquisitions That Could Happen in 2015
By Jason Del Rey
Re/code
December 29, 2014, 9:21 AM PST
It’s rare to see a billion-dollar M&A deal in the e-commerce industry, but there’s a chance we could see more than one in 2015 thanks to a confluence of events. Alibaba, flush with valuable stock following the biggest IPO ever, is poised to make big moves. The planned separation of eBay and PayPal could make both acquisition targets. And a group of giant but slow-growing startups could decide their best bet is to be bought by a major industry player. Here are five possible commerce and payments deals that would make waves in 2015, plus a short list of other M&A possibilities.
Alibaba buys eBay
EBay’s announcement that it would spin off its payments unit PayPal in 2015 was also a tacit acknowledgement that both businesses were for sale. The e-commerce industry loves to speculate that Alibaba — with its $263 billion market value — might want to gobble up eBay. Alibaba has no legitimate consumer presence in the U.S., which eBay would help with, and the two marketplaces could combine to challenge Amazon in emerging areas overseas. Plus, they both pride themselves on the same differentiator with Amazon: They don’t compete against their own vendors.
Other possible suitors: Google, Amazon.
Walmart buys PayPal
Not the sexiest M&A possibility — especially for PayPal employees — but sources say the idea has been discussed by Walmart execs in the last few months. For Walmart, a deal for PayPal could accomplish several things: Give it a proven payment method with a giant consumer base to challenge Apple Pay in mobile payments, while replacing the retailer-backed app CurrentC, which has yet to launch. If Walmart embedded PayPal as the de facto payment option on Walmart.com, it could help reduce the credit card fees Walmart pays card issuers since many PayPal users fund their PayPal purchases through their bank account rather than a credit card. It also could give Walmart leverage in negotiating these fees with several financial services companies.
One hurdle: If Walmart has previously discussed a PayPal deal with eBay and wants to purchase PayPal after its split with eBay, it could mess with the tax-free nature of the spinoff for eBay.
Other possible suitors: Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Visa.
Walmart buys Wish
Wish, a mobile shopping app, is on fire. It has been one of the Top 10 shopping apps on the iPhone for much of this year and recently closed a large undisclosed investment from Yuri Milner’s DST Global that sources say valued the app maker at $1 billion or more. The app lets shoppers buy clothes and accessories directly from Chinese manufacturers, for insanely low prices that Walmart would be proud of. An image-heavy layout plus an algorithm that fine-tunes what products are shown based on browsing behavior translates to highly engaged users.
Other possible suitors: Any low-priced retailer.
Google buys Postmates
Google has an Amazon problem. Every time an online shopper searches for a product on Amazon instead of Google, Google loses a chance to show lucrative product search ads to the shopper. The Google Express program is Google’s grab at those product searches. The service lets online shoppers buy goods on Google and get them delivered from local stores on that very day. One problem: Google’s current delivery operation is very expensive and not sustainable, according to several industry sources. As a result, Postmates‘ technology, which matches customer orders to be picked up from local stores with a network of on-demand couriers in the area, could be very attractive.
Other possible suitors: Uber, Amazon.
Twitter buys Stripe
Okay, I admit this one is a real long shot, especially with Stripe recently being valued at $3.5 billion. But it’s worth a mention. If Twitter really is serious about building an e-commerce business, it may want its own backend payments provider that’s dead simple for merchants big and small to use. Another use case: Stripe’s payments service gets baked into Twitter’s new mobile app development service Fabric, cementing it as the full-service toolbox app developers flock to.
Other possible suitors: Any company with deep pockets that wants to make selling stuff online easier.
Honorable mentions: T.J.Maxx buys Gilt Groupe, Urban Outfitters buys Nasty Gal, Amazon buys Instacart, Whole Foods buys Blue Apron, Alibaba buys Snapdeal, Nordstrom buys Bonobos, UPS buys Shyp.
recode.net
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| To: richardred who wrote (3865) | 1/2/2015 6:11:22 AM | | From: richardred | | | | Deal Makers Notched Nearly $3.5 Trillion Worth in ’14, Best in 7 Years
By almost every measure, 2014 was a time for deal makers to pop the corks of their Champagne bottles.
The year was one of the best for mergers and acquisitions since the passing of the financial crisis. Some 40,298 transactions — worth nearly $3.5 trillion — were announced worldwide in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters, fulfilling the hopes of an industry that has bet on such a resurgence for some time. It was the biggest year in deals since 2007.
Many of the factors responsible for the rebound in mergers activity since the tumult of 2008 have existed for years. Debt financing is cheap and plentiful, and stock prices have climbed steadily, giving corporate buyers a more valuable currency to offer potential targets.
Perhaps the biggest change, deal makers say, is that corporate boards and management teams have come to realize that their ability to expand their companies on their own has become more difficult. A substantial move, like acquiring a major competitor or complementary business, is now seen as necessary to move the needle.
And with some semblance of predictability having descended upon the markets — the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 11.4 percent last year, with only a few bouts of heart-stopping volatility — boards feel more comfortable taking the plunge.
Investors have also supported more aggressive growth measures. The stock prices of acquirers continued on average to rise, indicating that shareholders backed those transactions.
“The large equity institutions are giving companies the benefit of the doubt in this market,” said Peter A. Weinberg, a co-founder of the boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners. “This opens up a range of possibilities beyond the default use of capital, which is repurchasing stock. If shareholders say ‘stay still,’ it’s very difficult to do anything bold.”
The busiest sectors for the year have been the oil and gas industry, with 11.7 percent of the merger market and $409 billion worth of transactions, and the pharmaceuticals industry, with 6 percent market share and $210 billion worth of deals.
Yet the biggest deals of the year, including the assumption of debt, have been game-changing takeovers in the telecommunications industry. Comcast has bid for a nationwide footprint with its $45 billion proposal to buy Time Warner Cable, while AT&T hopes to gain greater scale by buying DirecTV in a deal valued at $49 billion.
The question now is whether the confluence of factors that enabled the merger revival will carry over into 2015 . Corporate advisers contend that investors have shown a remarkable ability to cope with a surge of headline-grabbing news, like the flare-ups in Ukraine and the Middle East and the Ebola outbreak.
And the possibility of the Federal Reserve’s raising interest rates has been well telegraphed and factored into companies’ decision-making.
Not even the plummeting of oil prices has dented the enthusiasm of would-be buyers. Indeed, leveraged buyout executives — who have been left out of the deal feeding frenzy, outbid by strategic buyers — have been salivating at the prospect of new acquisition targets.
“There’s comfort with the new normal, postcrisis,” Mr. Weinberg said. “C.E.O.s and boards know there’s always going to be uncertainty.”
dealbook.nytimes.com |
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| To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (3867) | 1/6/2015 4:44:38 PM | | From: Cautious_Optimist | | | | SunTrust's Peck Lists 10 Reasons Why a Twitter (TWTR)/Yahoo! (YHOO) Combo Could Make Sense1:15 PM ET, 01/06/2015 - StreetInsider
streetinsider.com
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Robert Peck weighed in on a possible Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)/Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) combo after it was suggested by Ross Levinsohn (former Yahoo! CEO) on CNBC earlier that Twitter should buy Yahoo!’s core, should Yahoo spin out its Asian assets.
Commenting on if the hypothetical scenario is feasible, Peck said: "Should Yahoo! spin its Asian assets, leaving Yahoo!’s core plus its ~$9b of net cash, it could be worth ~$6-9b assuming a 5-7x multiple on Yahoo’s core ~$1.3b EBITDA (ex the acquired ~$9b of net cash). Twitter’s FD market cap currently is ~$27b and the company has ~$3.6 of net cash (assuming the convert becomes equity). Hence, assuming a ~30% premium to buy the core at the $9b high end of the range, it would imply a price of ~$12b for the core ex cash. While Twitter could apply a good portion of its cash toward the deal, it would need to raise more debt or a significant component of equity in any potential transaction."
Peck provided 10 reasons the deal could make sense:
1) Technology Coupling –- It would be a marrying of traditional "1.0 and 2.0" tech platforms.
2) Display – it would couple Yahoo’s publisher, exchange and network programmatic expertise with Twitter’s Native and DR attractive inventory
3) Search – it would couple Yahoo’s organic and Bing partnership search expertise, with Twitter’s market leading "real time" search
4) Mobile – it would couple Yahoo’s emerging Gemini & Flurry mobile platform with Twitter’s MoPub network’s leadership
5) Content Form – it would couple Yahoo’s long form Tumblr content with Twitter’s short form, providing all options platform for users and advertisers
6) Video – it could couple Yahoo’s video & original content offerings with Twitter’s Vine, video cards, and Amplify opportunity.
7) Audience – both Yahoo! and Twitter have strong audience in: sports, news, finance, and entertainment, which would leverage each other’s content
8) Targeting – it would combine Yahoo’s demographic data with Twitter’s interest graph data, providing even more targetability
9) Geographic – it would combine Yahoo’s strong domestic reach with Twitter’s more international skewed reach
10) Cost Synergies – Removing duplicate efforts and excess R&D needed to have the capabilities of the other, could expand over margins.
price target of $58.00
For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Twitter, Inc. click here. For more ratings news on Twitter, Inc. click here.
Shares of Twitter, Inc. closed at $36.38 yesterday. |
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| To: Cautious_Optimist who wrote (3869) | 1/6/2015 4:59:32 PM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | Interesting. I wonder who would run the combined company. Costello, Mayer or a player to be named later?
Twitter was up today on rumors that Carl Ichan is amassing a stake. I can see him pushing for the combination. |
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