Top 10 News Items: M&A Market Heats Up with Intel/McAfee, BHP/Potash Deals, GM Files for IPO
Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:
1. Last week was one of the hottest M&A weeks in the recent memory. Coming in as the biggest deal of the week was Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) monster $8 billion bid for the security company McAfee (NYSE: MFE). According to the terms of the deal, Intel will pay $48 for each share of McAfee. Shares of McAfee surged almost 60% on Thursday of this week. Intel shares fell 3.5% on that day as traders were skeptical about McAfee's integration into the chip company Intel.
2. Coming in at a very close second (although this deal did cause more of a buzz around the markets) was BHP Billiton's (NYSE: BHP) $130/share bid for Potash Corp. (NYSE: POT). Potash shares surged a whopping 27% on Tuesday as this deal was announced. The Potash board rejected BHP's bid, saying "the BHP Billiton proposal substantially undervalues PotashCorp and fails to reflect both the value of our premier position in a strategically vital industry and our unparalleled future growth prospects." The news stirred up the entire Ag-sector.
3. General Motors (NYSE: GM) filed its much-anticipated IPO just before the close on Wednesday in a stunning comeback from its 2009 bankruptcy and government bailout. The company plans to list on the NYSE and the Toronto Stock Exchange under its old stock symbol "GM." In its offering, the company will be selling $100 million in new common stock and $100 million in preferred stock. Following the offering, there will be 500,000,000 shares outstanding, which does not include over 100 million in warrants held by Motors Liquidation Company (OTC: MTLQQ) and VEBA.
4. Elsewhere on the M&A front: Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) announced an $18/share offer for 3PAR (NYSE: PAR), ICx Tech. (Nasdaq: ICXT) was aquired by FLIR (Nasdaq: FLIR) for $7.55/share, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) bought Osteotech (Nasdaq: OSTE) for $6.50/share, Pactiv (NYSE: PTV) was acquired by New Zealand's Rank Group for $33.25/share and also in the PE market, Phoenix Tech. (Nasdaq: PTEC) was acquired by Marlin for $3.85/share.
5. 13F filings for last quarter started pouring in this week; some notables: Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Warren Buffett, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, George Soros and John Paulson's Paulson & Co.
6. While not covered heavily by most media sources, news that Stanley Druckenmiller would be closing his Duquesne Capital shocked investors and traders around Wall Street this week. A 30-year veteran to the hedge fund industry, and considered by some to be a pioneer in the space, Druckenmiller attributed the closing to the recent economic decline which brought him dramatic stress. Prior to 2010 (the fund was down about 5% so far this year), Druckenmiller's Duquesne had never had a year in the red.
7. Some notable tech earnings this week: Dell, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL).
8. Initial jobless claims for the week ended August 14 jumped back over the 500,000 mark for the first time in many months, while continuing claims came in at 4.478 million. The readings were worse than economists estimate on the initial number but better than expected on the continuing number.
9. In the Retail space this week, investors saw earnings from Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT), Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe's (NYSE: LOW), among others.
10. More of a Main Street-aimed story than anything else, a federal court found former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich guilty of just one count of making false claims to the FBI. With as many as 23 additional corruption charges being brought against him, Blagojevich was quick to claim a victory.
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1. Last week was one of the hottest M&A weeks in the recent memory. Coming in as the biggest deal of the week was Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) monster $8 billion bid for the security company McAfee (NYSE: MFE). According to the terms of the deal, Intel will pay $48 for each share of McAfee. Shares of McAfee surged almost 60% on Thursday of this week. Intel shares fell 3.5% on that day as traders were skeptical about McAfee's integration into the chip company Intel.
2. Coming in at a very close second (although this deal did cause more of a buzz around the markets) was BHP Billiton's (NYSE: BHP) $130/share bid for Potash Corp. (NYSE: POT). Potash shares surged a whopping 27% on Tuesday as this deal was announced. The Potash board rejected BHP's bid, saying "the BHP Billiton proposal substantially undervalues PotashCorp and fails to reflect both the value of our premier position in a strategically vital industry and our unparalleled future growth prospects." The news stirred up the entire Ag-sector.
3. General Motors (NYSE: GM) filed its much-anticipated IPO just before the close on Wednesday in a stunning comeback from its 2009 bankruptcy and government bailout. The company plans to list on the NYSE and the Toronto Stock Exchange under its old stock symbol "GM." In its offering, the company will be selling $100 million in new common stock and $100 million in preferred stock. Following the offering, there will be 500,000,000 shares outstanding, which does not include over 100 million in warrants held by Motors Liquidation Company (OTC: MTLQQ) and VEBA.
4. Elsewhere on the M&A front: Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) announced an $18/share offer for 3PAR (NYSE: PAR), ICx Tech. (Nasdaq: ICXT) was aquired by FLIR (Nasdaq: FLIR) for $7.55/share, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) bought Osteotech (Nasdaq: OSTE) for $6.50/share, Pactiv (NYSE: PTV) was acquired by New Zealand's Rank Group for $33.25/share and also in the PE market, Phoenix Tech. (Nasdaq: PTEC) was acquired by Marlin for $3.85/share.
5. 13F filings for last quarter started pouring in this week; some notables: Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Warren Buffett, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, George Soros and John Paulson's Paulson & Co.
6. While not covered heavily by most media sources, news that Stanley Druckenmiller would be closing his Duquesne Capital shocked investors and traders around Wall Street this week. A 30-year veteran to the hedge fund industry, and considered by some to be a pioneer in the space, Druckenmiller attributed the closing to the recent economic decline which brought him dramatic stress. Prior to 2010 (the fund was down about 5% so far this year), Druckenmiller's Duquesne had never had a year in the red.
7. Some notable tech earnings this week: Dell, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL).
8. Initial jobless claims for the week ended August 14 jumped back over the 500,000 mark for the first time in many months, while continuing claims came in at 4.478 million. The readings were worse than economists estimate on the initial number but better than expected on the continuing number.
9. In the Retail space this week, investors saw earnings from Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT), Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe's (NYSE: LOW), among others.
10. More of a Main Street-aimed story than anything else, a federal court found former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich guilty of just one count of making false claims to the FBI. With as many as 23 additional corruption charges being brought against him, Blagojevich was quick to claim a victory.
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