Corporate News

Dover (DOV) Latest Diversified Industrial to Announce Streamlining; More to Follow? May 23, 2013 01:26PM

Dover Corporation (NYSE: DOV) stock opened higher on Thursday amid heavy volume. The move is tied to news that Dover will pursue a tax-free spin of certain Communication Technologies businesses including Knowles, Sound Solutions and Vectron.

Commenting Deutsche Bank analyst John G. Inch, "While we argue that the proposed transaction does not necessarily 'unlock value' per se due to only modest SOTP valuation upside, Dover could become more palatable to investors who might otherwise have shied away due to Comm Tech."

Interestingly, Inch pointed out that a number of other diversified industrial have recently made moves to streamline operations.

"We note that Dover's announcement follows a string of portfolio streamlining actions (some of which driven by activists) by other diversified industrial companies over the past few years (e.g. ITT (NYSE: ITT) and Tyco (NYSE: TYC)) and more recently (GE Capital (NYSE: GE), Ingersoll Rand (NYSE: IR), ITW (NYSE: ITW), Timken (NYSE: TKR) and SPX Corp (NSYE: SPW) ). Consequently, it begs the question – which industrial company could be next?"

Inch didn't offer up answers, but the question itself might be enough to stir interest in the space.

Deutsche Bank has a Hold rating on Dover Corp. with a price target of $80.00

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Dover Corp. (NYSE: DOV) click here. For more ratings news on Dover Corp. click here.

Shares of Dover Corp. closed at $76.41 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $50.27-$78.38.

Tessera (TSRA), Starboard Reach Agreement Over Board Composition May 23, 2013 11:52AM

Tessera Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSRA) announced it has entered into a settlement agreement with Starboard Value LP (“Starboard”) regarding the composition of the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”). Pursuant to the agreement, after the Company’s upcoming 2013 Annual Meeting (the “Annual Meeting”), the Board will consist of 10 directors, including six of Starboard’s nominees and four of the Company’s nominees.

Upon the execution of the agreement, Robert J. Boehlke and Anthony J. Tether resigned from the Board effective immediately. The Board was then expanded from eight to 12 members. The six Starboard nominees, Tudor Brown, George Cwynar, Peter A. Feld, Tom Lacey, George Riedel and Don Stout, were appointed to the Board to fill the resulting vacancies. The Company agreed to nominate a total of 10 nominees for election to the Board at the Annual Meeting, including the six Starboard nominees, as well as John Chenault, Richard S. Hill, Christopher A. Seams and Timothy J. Stultz from the Company’s slate. John H.F. Miner and David C. Nagel have each agreed not to stand for re-election to the Board at the Annual Meeting.

To allow additional time for stockholders to vote on the revised slate of director nominees as indicated in the settlement agreement with Starboard, Tessera also announced that the scheduled Annual Meeting will convene today solely for the purpose of adjourning the Annual Meeting to June 7, 2013, to be held at the Company’s corporate headquarters at 3025 Orchard Parkway San Jose, California 95134. Tessera will prepare and mail to stockholders a proxy statement supplement in connection with the agreement with Starboard. The record date for stockholders entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting remains April 12, 2013.

Starboard will withdraw its notice of nomination of persons for election as directors and vote its shares at the Annual Meeting for all 10 of the Company’s nominees.

In addition, the newly configured Board will promptly appoint an interim CEO from among the Starboard slate of nominees. Richard S. Hill, currently interim CEO and executive chairman, will return to his prior role as non-executive chairman. Upon the Board’s eventual appointment of a successor to the interim CEO, one of the directors from the Company’s slate, other than Mr. Hill, will step down from the Board. Furthermore, the Company’s nominees John Chenault and Timothy J. Stultz, Ph.D., will remain in their roles as chair of the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee, respectively.

Elan (ELN) Rejects Royalty Pharma's $12.50/Share Bid May 23, 2013 11:41AM

Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN) announced that its Board of Directors, after careful review and consideration and with the assistance of its executive management team as well as outside financial and legal advisors, has determined that privately held investment firm Royalty Pharma's revised offer (“Royalty Pharma Offer") announced on Monday May 20, 2013 to acquire all of Elan's shares for $12.50 per share through its shell subsidiary Echo Pharma Acquisition Limited, substantially undervalues the company.

Commenting specifically, Mr. Robert A. Ingram, Chairman of Elan Corporation, plc, said "The revised offer from Royalty Pharma continues to grossly undervalue our company's current business platform and our future prospects. This offer is no more than an opportunistic attempt to acquire our company at a substantial discount at our Shareholders' expense. Put simply, for Royalty Pharma to win, you our Shareholders must lose. Accordingly, the Board unanimously and without reservation rejects the revised Royalty Pharma offer."

Mr. Ingram's letter to Elan Shareholders is set out in full in the schedule to this announcement.

Elan shareholders are strongly and unequivocally advised to TAKE NO ACTION in relation to the Royalty Pharma offer.

Shareholders will also receive in the coming days a shareholder circular and Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting (“EGM”) to be held on June 17, 2013 in connection with the recently announced transactions, decisively transforming the company, which are to be voted on by Shareholders at the Company's forthcoming EGM on June 17, 2013.

Elan’s financial advisors are Citigroup, Davy Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley and Ondra Partners. Its legal advisors are A&L Goodbody and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP.

AMD (AMD) Looks to Outdo Intel (INTC) in Battle of Performance Tablets with Latest SoC Offerings May 23, 2013 11:30AM

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is flat on the session amid an earlier announcement that the company is launching chips it plans to pit against Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) Clover Trail and lower-end Ivy Bridge Core i3 processors in tablets. The chips are said to be better than ARM Holdings (Nasdaq: ARMH)-based chips and are able to run traditional software on the x86 platform.

The release is below:

AMD launched three new additions to its 2013 A-Series and E-Series Mobile Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) lineup -- delivering solutions ideally positioned to address today's evolving PC market with dramatically increased performance and power efficiency, as well as a portfolio of unique user experiences, and superior gaming and graphics:

* The 2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU (formerly codenamed "Temash") -- the world's first 28nm, quad-core x86 system-on-a-chip (SoC) APU designed for touch small form-factor notebooks, tablets, and hybrids 13-inches and below;

* The 2013 AMD Mainstream APU (formerly codenamed "Kabini") -- the first and only quad-core x86 SoC solution for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks;

* New, low power versions of the 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU (formerly codenamed "Richland") -- offer the best graphics and compute in a performance APU for premium ultrathin notebooks.

These new APUs are designed to effectively balance the needs of a wide range of new and traditional mobile PC users and are available beginning today from the world's top computer manufacturers, including products announced today from Acer and HP.

2013 AMD Mobile APU Platform Details

2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU

• World's first 28nm, quad-core x86 SoC APU, delivers the best graphics experience of any SoC on the planet for touch small form-factor notebooks, tablets and hybrids, 13-inches and below, enabling a superior HD media experience and high-end gaming.
  
• Available as AMD A-Series APUs, this new platform comes in dual (A4) and quad-core (A6) configurations, combining "Jaguar" x86 Central Processing Unit (CPU) cores with Graphics Core Next AMD RadeonT HD 8000 Series graphics.
  
• Up to 172 percent more CPU performance per watt and up to 212 percent better graphics performance per watt than its predecessor(1,2), and up to 12 hours of resting battery life(3).
  
• Up to 45 percent longer battery life and nearly five times more GPU performance than the competition(4,5).
  
• Full support for 1080p touch display capability and full Microsoft Windows compatibility, including support for "Windows Blue."

2013 AMD Mainstream APU

• Best-in-class graphics and first-in-class x86 quad core SoC delivers the ideal balance between function and affordability for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks.
  
• Combine either two or four "Jaguar" x86 CPU cores with Graphics Core Next AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics, enabling stunning visual performance and all-day battery life(6).
  • Quad core 2013 Mainstream APUs, a part of the 2013 AMD A-Series APU family (A4 and A6 models), are the first and only quad-core x86 solution for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks.
    
  • Dual core versions are AMD E-Series APUs, with E1 and E2 models available.
  
  
• Up to 132 percent better visual performance per watt and up to 127 percent better productivity performance per watt, plus up to 25 percent better power efficiency than previous generations(7,8,9), with up to 11 hours of idle battery life(10).
  
• Up to 88 percent better graphics performance, up to 33 percent better gaming performance and up to 29 percent faster file compression than the competition(11,12,13).

2013 AMD Elite Performance APU

* Top-of-the-line AMD A-Series APUs with A8 and A10 models that deliver the best graphics and compute in a performance APU, including elite performance and battery life, innovative features for the evolved PC user experience, and the most entertainment, all at a great value for premium ultrathin notebooks.
* Up to 12 percent better productivity performance and between 20-40 percent better visual performance than the previous generation(14,15), including up to 51 percent more power efficiency in HD video playback(16) and up to 13 hours of resting battery life(17).
* Between 39-72 percent better gaming performance on today's leading games than the competition(18).

2013 AMD Mobile APU User Experiences All AMD APUs are designed to deliver the best user experience for the computing activities that matter most to consumer today. AMD is uniquely positioned to do this due to its breadth of experience that spans not only the traditional x86 compute architecture that's best suited for productivity-focused tasks like word processing and spread sheets, but also graphics processing for today's new user interfaces, and media- and graphics-intensive workloads. And the three new AMD APUs announced today offer a multitude of features related to looking at, and interacting with, mobile devices in a new way.

• AMD Elite Experiences Software -- Leverage the power of the combined compute and graphics cores in AMD Elite APU Platforms to accelerate a suite of available software experiences that can dramatically expand and enhance the user experience:
  • AMD Gesture Control(19) -- Control basic functions using hand gestures;
  • 
    
  • AMD Face Login(20) -- Quickly log in to Windows and other browser-based sites;
    
  • AMD Screen Mirror(21) -- Wirelessly share content with any supported TV or display.
  
  
• AMD Radeon" Graphics with DirectX? 11.1 support -- Enjoy discrete-level performance for crisp & sharp photos, movies and games.
  
• AMD Dock Port -- Use up to four external monitors and sync to other devices through a single connection.
  
• AMD AllDay" Power -- Stay unplugged with long battery life.
  
• AMD Start Now technology(22) -- Boot up or resume from hibernate in seconds.

Boeing (BA) Reports Drop of 24 Net New 737 Orders Last Week May 23, 2013 11:09AM

Boeing (NYSE: BA) updated its O&D page for the week.

Changes since last update: 107 new orders (SWISS six 777s and Unidentified Customer(s) 101 737s). In the Changes category, reduced 737 net orders by 24.

Boeing shares are up 1.4 percent.