Riggs, PNC Resurrect Merger -- for Less
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The sale of Riggs National Corp.  RIGS.O to PNC Financial Services Group Inc. PNC.N was  resurrected on Thursday, with Riggs agreeing to accept a 16  percent cut in the purchase price.
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What are weekends for? In the mergers and acquisitions game, it is usually meant for structuring mega deals. That was the case with WPP Group&#39;s (Nasdaq: WPPGY) $1.
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Wall Street is expressing growing doubt that Riggs National Corp.&#39;s sale to PNC Financial Services Group Inc. will go off as planned, or even at all.
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Don't mind the mergers. Watch the valuation.
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The enterprise software company strikes a sizeable deal to get back on track.
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When Chicago power company Unicom and Philadelphia-based Peco Energy announced their merger five years ago, some in the financial community questioned the sanity of the executives involved.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Penn National Gaming Inc. is acquiring Argosy Gaming Co. for $1.4 billion cash in an effort to turn itself into the nation&#39;s third-largest operator of gambling properties.
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(InfoWorld) - Merger and acquisition news from companies as diverse as Yahoo, Cognos, and MetroPCS Communications heated up IT investor interest this week, shoring up confidence in the sector even as credit-market concerns continued to buffet the stock exchanges. After wireless carrier MetroPCS proposed a merger valued at about $5.5 billion with rival Leap Wireless, its share price Tuesday spiked $1.36 to close at $28.65. Brokerage Jefferies & Co. Wednesday then upgraded its rating on the stock from "hold" to "buy," sparking another uptick in the company's share price. Though the merged company would have about 6.2 million customers, a far cry from the 50 million-plus subscriber base that market leaders like AT&T and Verizon have, the combined company would be the fifth largest in the U.S., with a national footprint. Meanwhile, investor faith in the beneficial effects of mergers was underscored by share-price increases in all the major acquiring companies this week. Often, the acquiring company stock takes a hit because acquisition costs are usually expected to dilute earnings for a while. Business performance software vendor Cognos Wednesday said it agreed toÂ pay $339 million for Applix, a developer of performance analysis software. The company has an aggressive plan to integrate Applix's products by early next year. Company shares jumped by $0.18 to close at $41.08 Wednesday, rising further on Thursday as brokerage JPMorgan raised its rating on the shares, saying that underlying demand for the Cognos' software and services is strong. JPMorgan also said that gross margins on product sales at Cognos should also benefit from the Applix acquisition. Yahoo meanwhile continues to pursue its strategy of scooping up companies in the online advertising market, WednesdayÂ announcing a $300 million purchase of BlueLithium. BlueLithium's banner advertising network should help expand Yahoo's ad reach. The news sparked shares to rise by $0.13 to close at $24.10. Also this week, IP-based communications technology company Telanetix announced it would buy VOIP company AccessLine Communications for up to $34.9 million in cash and stock, and OracleÂ continued its buying spree.Â Oracle snapped up Netsure Telecom, a provider of network intelligence and network data integrity software, andÂ Bridgestream, a maker of software that helps companies map employee responsibilities, for undisclosed amounts. The M&A news mirrors data on venture capital funding, which in the first half of the year hit its highest point since 2001, with IT taking a big share. Now, the latest MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on Thomson Financial data, shows that a growing percentage of those funds are coming not from pure venture-capital firms, but from operating companies such as manufacturers and IT vendors. A lion's share of this corporate VC funding is also going to IT businesses. For example, corporate VC funding amounted to $1.3 billion in 390 deals in the first half of 2007, representing 21.4 percent of all VC deals -- the highest percentage of corporate venture deals and dollars since 2001, according to the report. The biggest slice of the investment pie -- 20 percent -- was taken by software companies. Intel was the biggest corporate investor, plunking down $112.3 million in 42 deals. "Corporate venture capital deals are a good measure of confidence in IT," said Claudia Fan Munce, the Chairman of NVCA's Corporate Venture Board and managing director of IBM's Venture Capital Group. While pure venture capital companies need to make investments just to stay in business, operating companies like IT vendors don't have that particular sort of pressure, she noted. Corporate VC funding and M&A "allow companies to tap into innovative new technologies and business models," she said. Â
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Riggs National Corp. said Tuesday that it lost $10 million in the third quarter, largely the result of $13 million in fees for a small army of lawyers and consultants to help it navigate a growing list of criminal, regulatory and civil matters.
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(InfoWorld) - A major Taiwanese maker of satellite radios and components stands to benefit from theÂ proposed mergerÂ between two U.S. companies, Sirius Satellite RadioÂ and XM Satellite Radio Holdings, lifting its stock higher in Taipei on Monday. Wistron Neweb Corp. (WNC), one of many spin-offs from the Acer Group when it reorganized several years ago, could grab new orders for its satellite-related components and gear if the Sirius and XM merger is approved, according to Goldman Sachs (Asia). The company may have to wait for good news, however, as the investment banker sees a long road ahead for regulatory approval of the merger. "We believe it would be a big bonus to WNC in the long-term if the merger of Sirius and XM happens, given that Sirius is likely to take the lead on procurement. However, we believe it may not occur in the near term," Goldman Sachs technology analyst Henry King said in a report Monday. Regulatory approval for the proposed deal, valued at $13 billion, could take until the end of this year, he said. Even if a deal is pushed through, it could take as long as until the second half of 2008 for the companies to consolidate their businesses and start ordering gear from a single supplier. Currently, WNC competes with several Taiwanese and South Korean rivals. WNC has long supplied Sirius with satellite radios, and the U.S. company's success has helped boost WNC's shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. News of the merger sent WNC shares up NT$2.70, or 3.1 percent, to NT$91.10 (US$2.75) on the TSE Monday, the first day trading resumed after the long Lunar New Year holiday. The main index of the exchange, the TAIEX, rose 1.2 percent on the day. Many Taiwanese factories fill orders for U.S. companies, and often benefit when certain products become popular. For example, Inventec Appliances, which makes some iPod models for Apple, saw its share price rise 30 percent on the day of its initial public offering a year and a half ago because of the popularity of the digital music player and hopes it would continue to gain followers. It was the biggest one-day rise for an initial offering in the market's history. Sirius and XM claim total subscribers of around 13.6 million, 6 million for Sirius and 7.6 million for XM. Â
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The consolidation wave in the gaming industry has taken yet another somewhat shocking turn. Wednesday afternoon, casino and racetrack operator Penn National Gaming (Nasdaq: PENN
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The Nationwide and Portman building societies announce they are to merge.
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Riggs National Corp. RIGS.O  on  Monday said its merger with PNC Financial Services Group Inc.  has collapsed, after PNC slashed its $779 million bid in the  wake of a guilty plea by Riggs' banking unit to violating an  anti-money laundering law.
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After 18 months of conflict, a friendly merger deal has been struck between Oracle Corp. and PeopleSoft Inc. after the former raised its &quot;final&quot; offer by 10 per cent.
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Competitors are publicly happy about Computer Associate&#39;s (Quote, Chart) $430 million acquisition of Netegrity (Quote, Chart), but there might be a hint of trepidation over the combination of the two security software players.
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GNC Corp. , the leading  retailer of vitamins and nutrition products, agreed to be  acquired by Ares Management LLC and the Ontario Teachers'  Pension Plan in a deal with a total enterprise value of $1.65  billion.
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Newly merged Bank of New York and Mellon bid individuality adieu.