As fears of a recession continue, stock prices continue to recede, and
nothing, not even positive deal news, seems to be curbing selloffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday ended a miserable week on a
miserable note, losing 312.20 points to close at 8,378.95, its lowest
finish in over five years.
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Despite Precision Drilling Trust on Thursday having reaffirmed its
commitment to buy U.S. counterpart Grey Wolf Inc. for $2 billion,
shrugging off fears about the credit crisis, the collapse of oil prices
and the weakening Canadian dollar, Grey Wolf slid 7.56% to close at
$5.99 per share.
Real estate investment trust Developers
Diversified Realty Corp. agreed Friday to sell 13 properties
to a new joint venture with an unnamed institutional investor for $890
million, to help the company clean up its balance sheet and reduce
debt. However, shareholder are not happy with the
$260 million-plus in proceeds expected to be generated from the sale as
its shares dropped 4.94% to close at $8.08 Friday.
National City
Corp. shareholders were none to happy about the low ball deal it got
from Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc., which agreed Friday to
buy the troubled Cleveland-based bank for $5.5 billion in stock, or about
$2.23 per share, representing an 18.9% discount from National City's
Thursday closing price of $2.75. National City tumbled 24.73% to close
at $2.07 per share Friday.
Even a jolt of shareholder activism did
little to boost Nobel Learning Communities Inc.'s stock on Friday. The
private school operator, which is in the process of mulling a $186
million, $17 per share bid from Knowledge Learning Corp., received a
letter from activist shareholder Wynnefield Capital Management LLC,
which was posted in a late Thursday SEC filing, urging the company to
accelerate the sale process as well as consider other alternatives.
Nobel's stock slipped 4.2% to close at $13. - Michael Rudnick
