May 2007

Posted on May 31, 2007 at 4:14 PM
Filed under: Research and development | Trends

How effective are activist hedge funds at forcing change upon — and boosting value — at the companies they target? Pretty effective, researchers at Wharton and three other business schools report in a new research paper, "Hedge Fund Activism, Corporate Governance and Firm Performance." As earlier noted Thursday in...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 31, 2007 at 10:40 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions

Still skeptical that Japan is developing a real market for corporate control? Then you haven't been following the saga of Pentax Corp., the photographic equipment and optical products maker, which just bowed to shareholder pressure to accept rival Hoya Corp.'s takeover offer of $864 million. Hoya originally made a bid...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 30, 2007 at 5:07 PM
Filed under: Corporate Strategy | Movers & Shakers

In a few days, AT&T Inc.'s COO Randall Stephenson will take the reins from Edward Whitacre as chairman and CEO. Stephenson is already talking strategy — at a recent Lehman Brothers Inc. conference, Stephenson reportedly said that he was content with AT&T's size domestically but was open to overseas...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 30, 2007 at 12:14 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Joint Ventures and Alliances

Viacom Inc. is selling its worldwide music publishing division, Famous Music, for $400 million, including $30 million in debt. The division is being acquired by a joint venture set up 12 years ago by Sony Corp. and Michael Jackson: Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Famous has a catalog of over 125,000 songs,...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 29, 2007 at 10:53 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Corporate Strategy

Houston oil explorer Pogo Producing Co. said on Monday it is selling Northrock Resources Ltd. to Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. PJSC for $2 billion in cash. Late last year, hedge fund Third Point LLC criticized Pogo's acquisition of Northrock for $1.8 billion. Third Point also pressured the firm to...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 25, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Filed under: Joint Ventures and Alliances

General Electric Co. and BP plc are hooking up to invest in projects and develop technologies that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The idea is to combine fossil fuel power generation with technology that captures and stores carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. Ultimately, GE and...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 25, 2007 at 10:14 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Corporate Strategy

Coca-Cola Co. is putting up $4.1 billion in cash for Energy Brands Inc., known as Glaceau. In August, Indian conglomerate Tata Group paid $677 million for a 30% stake for the Vitaminwater maker, at the time touting its great fit with Tata Tea's expanding global beverage business. Now it...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 24, 2007 at 1:46 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions

Thursday morning, Advanced Medical Optics Inc. confirmed it is interested in pursuing an acquisition of Bausch & Lomb Inc. On May 16, Warburg Pincus agreed to take B&L private for about $4.5 billion, including $830 million in debt. The agreement included a go-shop clause that allows Bausch & Lomb to...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 23, 2007 at 3:43 PM
Filed under: Intellectual property

Patent licensing company (some might say troll) Forgent Networks Inc. lost a patent battle with EchoStar Communications Corp. after a jury in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas declared Forgent’s digital video processing patent invalid. The legal loss shaved off a quarter of the patent firm’s market cap and...  Continue reading

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Posted on May 23, 2007 at 1:50 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Corporate Strategy | Movers & Shakers

Seattle photo giant Getty Images Inc. recently completed its acquisition of WireImage, a provider of digital photography services, for about $200 million. Getty didn't have much luck with its $342 million bid for the online imaging business of Jupitermedia Corp., which is currently looking to make some of its...  Continue reading

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