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Published July 30, 2009 at 5:42 PM
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Welcome to Deal Stocks, where we focus on a handful of select public
companies involved in activity across the deal spectrum -- including
M&A, private equity, IPOs, bankruptcies and corporate
restructurings. These are the transactions that define The Deal and are
likely contributors to a stock's gains or losses. Join in the
conversation on Twitter @dealstocks.
Thursday's market session had a greenlight written all over it as traders saw a bevy of deals and strong earnings reports that encouraged them to put their money in the market. Dealmaking was led by Cablevision Corp.'s (NYSE:CVC) approval by its board for its management to pursue a spinoff of its Madison Square Garden assets and Southwest Airlines Co.'s (NYSE: LUV) bid for a discount peer. Meanwhile, the earnings season continues to look strong for some, crystallizing the notion that maybe just maybe the economy has turned the corner. Overall, the Dow finished up 83.74, or .92%, to 9,154.86 while the Nasdaq eked up 16.54, or .84%, to 1,984.30.
Here's a closer of Deal Stocks and the transactions that contributed to their movement:
- Media conglomerate Cablevision received a shot in the arm as its board will allow its management to go forward with the spinoff of its Madison Square Garden assets. The greenlight was foreshadowed in May when Cablevision said it would explore its options of an MSG spinoff. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read the full story here.)
- Frontier Airlines confirmed that Southwest made an offer of $113.6 million for the bankrupt airlines, according to MarketWatch. The offer trumps Republic Airways bid of $108 million last month.
- Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE:SNY) agreed to pay $4 billion in cash to Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) for its share in the animal health joint venture Merial. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read the full story here.)
- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) announced a deal to acquire Varian Inc. (NASDAQ:VARI) for $1.5 billion in cash, giving a 35% premium to Varian's Friday closing price. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read the full story here.)
- IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) bought predictive analytics software maker SPSS Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSS) for $50 a share in cash, or about $1.2 billion. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read the full story here.)
- Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) sold Nikko Asset Management to Sumitomo Trust & Banking for $1.1 billion. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read the full story here.)
- Cell-phone maker Ericsson AB snagged Nortel Network Corp.'s prized mobile infrastructure assets with a $1.13 billion bid. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read the full story here.)
Earnings:
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Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) beat expectations in its second-quarter financial results, posting $26 million in earnings, or 1 cent per share, up from $4 million in the year-ago period.
The company has been going through a rough patch as it sales dipped to $5.5 billion from $8 billion a year ago.
- Mastercard Inc. (NYSE:MA) reported a profit of $349 million, or $2.67 a share, compared to a loss
of $747 million, or $5.70 a share, in the year-ago period
- George White and Gerald Magpily
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VITAL SIGNS |
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Figures are calculated
according to the latest stock data available at approximately 4:30 pm
ET |
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July 30, 2009 |
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Benchmark |
Spread |
Change from previous day |
1 week ago |
1 month ago |
1 year ago |
|
LIBOR 1-MONTH |
0.28 |
-0.004 |
0.29 |
0.31 |
2.46 |
|
LIBOR 3-MONTH |
0.48 |
-0.004 |
0.50 |
0.60 |
2.80 |
|
TED |
0.30 |
-0.002 |
0.32 |
0.41 |
1.12 |
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Exchange |
Average |
Change from previous day |
1 week ago |
1 month ago |
1 year ago |
|
VIX |
25.34 |
-0.27 (-1.05%) |
23.43 |
26.35 |
|
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T-bond |
Current Price/Yield |
Price/Yield change |
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3-Year |
99-15+ / 1.68 |
0-00+ / -.005
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5-Year |
99-31+ / 2.63 |
0-05+ / -.034 |
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10-Year |
96-00.5 / 3.61 |
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