Merger Arbitrage of the Month

February 2010: FirstEnergy Buying Allegheny Energy

AOTM — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:47:02 +0000

Stock: Allegheny Energy 39.69/23.60

Symbol: AYE

Buyout Terms: FirstEnergy (FE) is paying 0.667 shares of its stock for each AYE share

Est. Closing Date: March 31, 2011

Today’s date: February 11th

Today’s price: $23.60

Projections:

$/% Gain: $2.87/12.17%

Time frame: 12-14 months

Annualized return: +11.2%

January 2010: ExxonMobil Buying XTO Energy

AOTM — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:37:53 +0000

Stock: XTO Energy

Symbol: XTO

Buyout Terms: ExxonMobil is paying 0.7098 shares of its stock for each XTO share

Est. Closing Date: June 30th

Today’s date: January 14th

Today’s price: $47.58

Projections:

$/% Gain: $1.64/3.45%

Time frame: < 6 months

Annualized return: +7.5%

December 2009: Hewlett Packard Buying 3Com

AOTM — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:03:28 +0000

Stock: 3Com

Symbol: COMS

Buyout Terms: Hewlett Packard is paying $7.90 cash for each COMS share

Est. Closing Date: June 30th

Today’s date: December 1st

Today’s price: $7.40

Projections:

$/% Gain: $0.50/6.76%

Time frame: ~ 7 months

Annualized return: +11.6%

November 2009: IMS Health Buyout

AOTM — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:24:28 +0000

Stock: IMS Health

Symbol: RX

Buyout Terms: Private equity firms are paying $22.00 cash for each RX share

Est. Closing Date: March 31st

Today’s date: November 5th

Today’s price: $20.82

Projections:

$/% Gain: $1.18/5.67%

Time frame: ~ 5 months

Annualized return: +13.6%

October 2009: Baker Hughes’ Acquisition of BJ Services

AOTM — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:07:17 +0000

Stock: BJ Services

Symbol: BJS

Buyout Terms: Baker Hughes (BHI) is paying $2.69 cash plus 0.40035 shares of stock (currently $46.50) for each BJS share

Est. Closing Date: December 31st

Today’s date: October 20th

Today’s price: $20.87

Projections:

$/% Gain: $0.44/2.09%

Time frame: < 3 months

Annualized return: +10.6%

September 2009: Pfizer’s Acquisition of Wyeth

AOTM — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:03:21 +0000

Stock: Wyeth

Symbol: WYE

Buyout Terms: Pfizer is paying $33.00 cash plus 0.985 shares of stock (currently $16.23) for each WYE share

Est. Closing Date: December 31st

Today’s date: September 9th

Today’s price: $47.64

Projections:

$/% Gain: $1.35/2.83%

Time frame: < 4 months

Annualized return: +9.1%

August 2009: Merck/Schering Plough Merger

AOTM — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:20:15 +0000

Stock: Schering Plough

Symbol: SGP

Buyout Terms: Merck is paying $10.50 cash plus 0.5767 shares of stock for each SGP share

Est. Closing Date: December 31st

Today’s date: August 28th

Today’s price: $28.14

Projections:

$/% Gain: $1.07/3.80%

Time frame: ~ 4 months

Annualized return: +11.1%

July 2009: MSC Software Buyout

AOTM — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:14:44 +0000

Stock: MSC Software

Symbol: MSCS

Buyout Terms: Private equity consortium paying $7.63 cash for each MSCS share

Est. Closing Date: September 30th

Today’s date: July 9th

Today’s price: $7.47

Projections:

$/% Gain: $0.16/2.14%

Time frame: < 3 months

Annualized return: +9.3%

Update (October 2009): MSC Software attracted multiple bidders after the initial merger agreement was announced. The deal’s closing date was delayed until 10/13/09 but the final purchase price was $8.40 in cash, up from an original $7.63. That extra 10% premium resulted in annualized gains of +46.8% for merger arbs.

June 2009: Centennial Communications Buyout

AOTM — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:17:20 +0000

Stock: Centennial Communications

Symbol: CYCL

Buyout Terms: AT&T (T) is paying $8.50 cash for each CYCL share

Est. Closing Date: June 30th

Today’s date: June 5th

Today’s price: $8.38

Projections:

$/% Gain: $0.12/1.43%

Time frame: < 1 month

Annualized return: +20.9%

May 2009: Sun Microsystems Acquisition

AOTM — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:20:40 +0000

Stock: Sun Microsystems

Symbol: JAVA

Buyout Terms: Oracle (ORCL) is paying $9.50 cash for each JAVA share

Est. Closing Date: September 30th

Today’s date: May 4th

Today’s price: $9.13

Projections:

$/% Gain: $0.37/4.05%

Time frame: < 5 months

Annualized return: +9.9%