“Bayer AG (BAYN) agreed to buy Schiff Nutrition International Inc. (SHF) for $1.1 billion to add a faster- growing vitamins and nutritional supplements business to the German drugmaker’s consumer-health unit.
Investors will receive $34 a share in cash, Leverkusen- based Bayer said in a statement today. The price is 47 percent above Schiff’s closing level Oct. 26, the most recent day of stock tradingin the U.S. Bayer also said its third-quarter profit rose 2.2 percent.”
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“NEW YORK (AP) — Prescription drug distributor McKesson Corp. is expanding its medical supplies business by buying PSS World Medical Inc. for about $1.46 billion.
McKesson said Thursday it will pay $29 per share for PSS World, a 34.3 percent premium over Wednesday’s closing price. PSS World shares finished at $21.60 Wednesday and advanced $7.09, or 32.8 percent, to $28.69 in premarket trading.
San Francisco-based McKesson values the deal at $2.1 billion including PSS World’s debt.
PSS World, of Jacksonville, Fla., had $2.1 billion in revenue in its latest fiscal year. It will become part of McKesson’s medical-surgical business. The deal requires the approval of PSS World shareholders.
McKesson expects $100 million in annual savings in the fourth year after closing.”
Comments »“Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he continues looking for a major acquisition for his Berkshire Hathaway, but he’s not willing to pay more to compete with other bidders.
Buffett says Berkshire has lost out on a couple of major acquisitions in recent years because private equity firms are bidding aggressively with borrowed money. Berkshire doesn’t borrow for acquisitions.
The Berkshire chairman and CEO said Wednesday during an interview on CNBC that Berkshire has about $40 billion cash on hand currently.”
Comments »The company was offered $38 per share or 10% above where the stock went out on Friday….
Comments »“ING Groep NV (INGA) will sell insurance assets in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand to Richard Li, a son of Asia’s richest man, for 1.64 billion euros ($2.14 billion) as local buyers seek to profit from the dismantling of one of Europe’s largest financial companies.
Pacific Century Group, controlled by Li, will buy the insurance and pension units in a sale that values the life businesses at 24.3 times estimated 2012 earnings and 1.9 times estimated book value of 865 million euros, according to a statement from ING today. Amsterdam-based ING said it’s expecting a net gain of about 1 billion euros from the sale.”
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“NEW YORK (AP) — Flush with the promise of cash from a Japanese investor, Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday said that it’s buying out the founder of Clearwire Corp. to gain majority control of the wireless network operator.
Sprint said in a regulatory filing that it will pay wireless pioneer Craig McCaw and his holding company $100 million for a 5 percent stake in Clearwire, pushing Sprint’s voting stake in the Bellevue, Wash., company to 53 percent.
Clearwire has the right to use a large chunk of the nation’s airwaves, but lacks the money to renovate and expand its network. Sprint has been struggling financially too, and hasn’t been in a position to invest in Clearwire. That changed with Monday’s announcement that Japanese cellphone companySoftbank Corp. will buy 70 percent of Sprint for $20.1 billion.”
Comments »“ASML Holding NV (ASML), Europe’s largest semiconductor equipment maker, agreed to buyCymer Inc. (CYMI) for 1.95 billion euros ($2.6 billion), its biggest deal ever, to help satisfy customer demand for more advanced technology.
Cymer investors will get 1.1502 ASML ordinary shares and $20 in cash for each stock, ASML said in a statement. That’s 72 percent more than Cymer’s close at $47.83 in New York yesterday. ASML shares fell as much as 5.6 percent today after the Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company said second-half sales will be at the lower end of the previous guidance of 2.2 billion euros to 2.4 billion euros.”
Comments »“Softbank Corp. (9984) agreed to pay $20.1 billion to acquire about a 70 percent stake in Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) as Japan’s third-biggest mobile-phone operator seeks growth overseas amid a declining local market.
Softbank will pay $12.1 billion to Sprint shareholders and the deal includes $8 billion of new capital, according to a statement today. The deal would be the biggest publicly announced outbound acquisition by a Japanese company since at least 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Entering the U.S. allows billionaire Masayoshi Son to participate in a market that’s still growing in contrast to Japan, where handset shipments tumbled 27 percent during the past five years. Sprint can fund a faster expansion of its 4G wireless network, pay down debt or make more acquisitions aimed at challenging bigger competitors Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. (T)”
Comments »“(Reuters) – Marathon Petroleum Corp said on Monday it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase BP’s Texas City refinery, three intrastate natural gas pipelines and other assets in a deal worth up to $2.5 billion.
Marathon Petroleum’s shares rose to $56.38 in pre-market trading, after closing on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange at $54.87.
The U.S. company said it will also acquire an allocation of BP’s Colonial Pipeline Co shipper history, four terminals, retail marketing contract assignments for approximately 1,200 branded sites, and a 1,040 megawatt cogeneration facility.
The refinery has capacity of 451,000 barrels per calendar day and 475,000 barrels per stream day.
The base purchase price is $598 million, plus inventories estimated at $1.2 billion, Marathon Petroleum said.
The agreement also contains an earnout provision under which MPC could pay up to an additional $700 million over six years, subject to certain conditions.”
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“UnitedHealth Group Inc. will spend about $4.9 billion to buy a majority stake in a Brazilian health benefits and care provider, as the largest U.S. health insurer leaps into an international market it says is primed for growth.
UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., said Monday that it will pay cash for about 90 percent of the outstanding shares of Amil Participacoes SA. The Brazilian company provides health and dental benefits and runs a care delivery network that includes 22 hospitals, about 50 clinics. It serves more than 5 million people.
UnitedHealth currently operates in 70 countries, and its services include expatriate coverage for people living outside their home countries. But company spokesman Don Nathan said it had only a “very small” presence in Brazil before this deal.
The insurer’s international operations also represent a relatively minor slice of UnitedHealth’s total business, which is largely focused in the United States. UnitedHealth revenue totaled $101.9 billion last year. Nathan declined to say how much of that came from international markets.”
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“Prudential Financial Inc. PRU +1.64% is close to an agreement to acquire Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.’s HIG +3.80% individual life-insurance business, and could reach a deal with its rival later today.
Prudential and Hartford have been working on details of the complex deal, which would transfer the responsibilities of policy claims from one insurer to the other and entail related reinsurance contracts, a person familiar with the talks said. Investment bankers and analysts have valued the business at about $1 billion.
A deal would be Prudential’s first big acquisition since it paid nearly $5 billion to acquire two Japanese life insurers from American International Group Inc. AIG +0.85% early last year. Prudential Chief Executive John Strangfeld said this summer that it was “critical” for the company to improve returns and find ways to effectively deploy billions of dollars of excess capital.
For Hartford, a deal would help its chief executive, Liam McGee, make good on a promise to narrow the company’s focus to property-casualty and group-benefits insurance, and mutual funds.
Representatives for Hartford and Prudential said the companies’ policy is to not comment on market speculation. The talks were reported in August.”
Comments »“Global mergers and acquisitions slumped this quarter to a level not seen since the aftermath of the financial crisis amid increasing concern the economic recovery is deteriorating.
Companies have announced $446 billion of takeovers since June 30, the smallest amount since the third quarter of 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chinese state-run oil company Cnooc Ltd.’s proposed purchase of Nexen Inc. was the only transaction to top $10 billion in the period, the data show. Acquisitions are now on pace to drop 15 percent in 2012 to $2 trillion, the lowest in three years.”
Comments »“FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The world’s largest chemicals makerBASF SE agreed to take over U.S. crop protection company Becker Underwood from buyout firm Norwest Equity Partners for $1.02 billion to boost its farming pesticides division.”
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“PROVO, Utah (AP) — Blackstone is leading a group that has agreed to buy home security providerVivint for more than $2 billion.
Provo, Utah-based Vivint is one of the largest providers of home automation and security services inNorth America. Its shareholders include Goldman Sachs, Peterson Partners and Jupiter Partners.
Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Vivint will be acquired by a fund managed by the New York-based investment firm on behalf of its private equity investors.
“Vivint is the premier provider of home technology solutions — improving customers’ lives with world-class home security, energy management, home automation, and solar energy,” Peter Wallace, senior managing director at Blackstone, said in a statement. “We believe that the company is well positioned to capture significant share of these emerging markets.”
The company said it supports more than 675,000 customers in the United States and Canada.”
Comments »“BEIJING—Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK +0.47% continued its buying streak Tuesday as it announced plans to acquire U.S.-based software company Stoneware Inc. for an undisclosed sum in a bid to expand services allowing customers to link devices directly over the Internet.
The acquisition won’t add significantly to earnings, but it will help the company add new technologies, Lenovo said in a statement.”
Comments »“Carlyle Group LP (CG), the world’s second-largest private equity firm, agreed to acquire DuPont Co.’s auto-paint unit for $4.9 billion, giving it control of the second-biggest maker of coatings for cars and trucks.”
Comments »” Kenexa Corporation (KNXA) has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by IBM (IBM) for $46.00 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $1.3B. The transaction has been approved unanimously by the Kenexa Board of Directors and the Kenexa Board of Directors recommends that Kenexa shareholders approve the transaction. Pending shareholder approval and satisfaction of regulatory and closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed during the fourth calendar quarter.”
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“M&T Bank Corp. (MTB), which counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. among its largest investors, agreed to buy Hudson City Bancorp to expand in New Jersey in a deal valued at about $3.7 billion.
Under terms of the agreement, each Hudson City shareholder will receive 0.08403 of an M&T share in the form of either M&T stock or cash.”
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“Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (HTZ), after more than half a decade of trying, struck a deal to buyDollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. for about $2.6 billion in cash and secure its place as the No. 2 player in the U.S. market.
The $87.50-a-share offer represents an 8 percent premium to Dollar Thrifty’s closing price of $81 on Aug. 24. It’s more than double what Hertz offered a little more than two years ago.”
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