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Posted
Jun 27 2008, 07:37 AM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Since InBev launched its audacious $46 billion offer for Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch, investors, analysts, and proud American beer drinkers have all been awaiting word from the executive suite in St. Louis: What's it going to be, yay or nay to the Brazilian-led but Belgian-owned predator?
Yesterday, in a scathing rebuke, CEO August Busch IV didn’t just say no but made an impassioned call to arms. He called the unsolicited offer "financially inadequate" and not in the best interests of shareholders. He touted management's efforts to boost shareholder value through its Blue Ocean cost-reduction program. He stressed the brewer's global footprint. He flaunted Anheuser's renowned brand-building abilities and the power of the Budweiser and Bud Light brands. He even made it personal and told InBev CEO Carlos Brito to take his money and his big dreams elsewhere.
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Posted
Jun 25 2008, 09:15 AM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
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For Circuit City and its investors, the last couple years have been nothing but torture. Witness the epic share-price decline of nearly 90% over the past two years. Witness the glimmer of hope brought about by Blockbuster's proposed takeover offer in April, which is backed by Carl Icahn, only to see the market severely discount any chance of it happening. Witness yesterday's anticlimactic shareholders meeting where the biggest news was that activist investor Mark Wattles compared corporate due diligence to canine mating rituals.
Although things are dour, they aren't lacking in excitement: Shares in both Circuit City and Blockbuster have been wildly volatile in heavy trading as investors set the odds and outcomes of a possible pairing of the two struggling brands.
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Posted
Jun 23 2008, 06:59 AM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
InBev's $46 billion cash offer for Anheuser-Busch is turning into a global economic nightmare for those proud of their Great American Lager. It's bad enough that a Belgian brewer run by a bunch of Brazilians is trying to buyout the last of the great U.S. beer makers -- this after Miller was made South African in 2002 and Coors became part-Canadian in 2004.
But now, fate has it that the best hope for keeping Anheuser free from the clutches of foreigners rests with the Fernandez family, controllers of Grupo Modelo, the Mexican brewery famous for Corona.
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Posted
Jun 17 2008, 10:30 AM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
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In a surprising move, Warren Buffett told the Belgian newspaper De Standard this morning that he supports InBev's $46 billion cash offer for Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch. His Berkshire Hathaway owns some 35 million shares, or a 5% stake in the iconic beer maker.
The endorsement comes as a bit of a slap in the face for Anheuser CEO August Busch IV, who was trying to buy some time as indicated in this formal response sent to InBev yesterday. In fact, the Oracle of Omaha was going to grace Mr. Busch with his presence later this week to talk the deal through.
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Posted
Jun 16 2008, 10:18 AM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
As you've no doubt heard by now, Anheuser-Busch, the business behind one of America's most iconic brands, is being pursued by foreigners. Late last week, Belgian-based brewer InBev launched an unsolicited all-cash buyout offer worth some $46 billion. Not surprisingly, given a dour U.S. populace, the deal is already generating serious backlash on rumors of job cuts and brewery closings. Jokes that the famous Clydesdales could be sent to a glue factory to help pay down post-merger debt aren't helping either.
Although the deal can't be classified as a matter of national security, as was the case with high-profile acquisition attempts by Dubai Ports World and CNOOC, I have a feeling this one will strike a chord with the average guy on the street. In the words of the Economist, "Could anything symbolize America's loss of economic supremacy more clearly than for its favorite beer to fall into foreign hands?" Politicians are drooling
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Posted
Apr 04 2008, 07:55 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
There are enormous amounts of chatter about whether the markets have bottomed.
So, what's the evidence?
The market itself. Down as much as 18% in January from its Oct. 9, 2007 all-time closing high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average's loss has been trimmed to 11%. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, briefly down 20% on March 17 from October in the turmoil over Bear Stearns, is now off 12.4% from its October peak. And the Nasdaq Composite Index's loss from a peak on Oct. 31 has shrunk from 25% on March 17 to 17% on Friday. OK, let's turn the thought around. The Dow is up 8% from its lows in January. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are both up 9% and 10% off their lows on March 17. Lastly, the S&P 500 moved above its 50-day moving average on March 24, briefly dipped under it and has moved above it again. Moreover, the moving average has started to rise for the first time since November.
The Federal Reserve. Ben Bernanke & Gang have made it clear they won't allow the financial system to collapse. That was the result the Fed and many on Wall Street had feared would happen if Bear Stearns had been forced to file for bankruptcy protection. Instead, Bear Stearns has agreed to be acquired by JPMorgan Chase
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Posted
Mar 16 2008, 07:37 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
The proposed sale of Bear Stearns on Sunday to JPMorgan Chase for $2 a share, or $236 million, will keep litigation lawyers busy for years as enraged shareholders seek to recover anything from the disaster.
The losses from Bear Stearns' demise are shocking, so shocking that Asian and Australian stocks tumbled on the news. The dollar was fallling. Crude oil jumped over $111 a barrel, and European shares were expected to open lower as was the U.S. stock market.
From a peak price of $171.52 in January 2007, Bear Stearns managed to lose 98.8% of its peak market value of $20.2 billion in less than 15 months, all because the company bet everything that the housing market and the markets for securities backed by subprime mortgages wouldn't break. It did
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Posted
Nov 08 2007, 08:01 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Is Garmin lost? Based on the fact that the stock price has been heading due south for the past few weeks -- to the tune of about 28% -- it would appear that the answer to that question is yes. However, before you steer clear of the country's leading provider of in-car and handheld navigational devices you might want to dig a little deeper into the rationale behind the recent decline.
First and foremost, Garmin now finds itself in a bidding war with its European rival TomTom for Tele Atlas, which provides map data for portable navigational devices. Just yesterday, TomTom upped its original offer for Tele Atlas to about $4.3 billion, eclipsing Garmin's surprise offer by a handsome 22%. Garmin must now either cough up over $5 bln for Tele Atlas within the next few days, or see another top mapping company fall into the hands of a competitor. Nokia acquired Navteq earlier this year for more than $8 billion.
Obviously, if the company ends up paying more for its hostile run at Tele Atlas it would depress the price of the stock further as investors will question how much the purchase willl dilute future earnings growth. There's also the problem of integration should Garmin navigate its way to victory, as the company currently relies primarily on Navteq for its mapping data. The switch to Tele Atlas would not only take time, but the execution risk is very high. I think this is what is meant by the phrase "winning ugly." If Garmin decides to raise its bid and wins the battle to acquire Tele Atlas, shareholders might be in for a lot more ugly over the next year.
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Posted
Oct 22 2007, 12:02 PM
by
Robert Walberg
Howard Stern couldn't do it. Neither could NASCAR. Not even the announcement of a merger with rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XMSR) back in February could make Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) an attractive investment. So why on earth has the stock managed to outperform the NASDAQ composite over the past two months by some 22 percentage points?
In a word, timing. Over the next several weeks Sirius should be the beneficiary of several bullish catalysts. First and foremost, shareholders of both XM and Sirius are due to vote on the proposed merger in early November. No doubt the outcome will be positive. What will remain in doubt, however, is whether or not the deal will win government approval. While the experts were originally skeptical of the deal getting done, the growing sentiment on Wall Street is that the DOJ/FCC will end up endorsing the merger before the year is out. For more on this issue, see Congressman Rick Boucher's (D-VA) op-ed piece as posted on the Orbitcast blog.
Sirius is also scheduled to report earnings on October 30th. Even though the street is expecting a quarterly loss of 8 cents per share that compares to a loss of 12 cents per share during the same period last year. Additionally, revenues are projected to jump by 46% year-over-year with net subscriber growth north of 500k. For the year the company expects to have more than 8 million subscribers. Meanwhile the company will inch closer to its goal of being cash flow positive.
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