Thursday, June 03, 2004

Takeover hints embedded in public info!

One of the tracks i follow is acquisition hints in public announcements/interviews etc. Here is a brief list (that i recall) from the last month or so :

  • Boeing top execs in interviews have said that they are interested in acquiring some defence-related companies. I assume the idea is to offset the growing competition in the commerical aircraft space from Airbus/Embraer etc.
    Who are the potential targets ? I haven't done much research but Engineered Support Systems (EASI) seems to be a good one.
    I am not interested in EASI since it has received a lot of attention lately, and hence it is fairly or overvalued.
  • Interactive Corp. has made a series of acquisitions and has indicated that more is to come. Hotels.com, Expedia, Lending Tree, Hotwire.com, Ticketmaster were the earlier buys. Who next ? My guesses - Doubleclick (i own a few), Homestore, .. ?
  • Cendant CEO said recently that it is looking to buy companies after a break from its earlier acquisition spree. Europe is said to be the sphere of interest. So ? I think Ebookers (EBKR) and LastMinute.com (LMIN) are good bets. I own a few of Ebookers.
  • Microsoft has repeatedly said that they will disclose what they will do with all that cash by end of June. After settling at an amazing pace over the last few weeks, a big one-time dividend payout or a takeover may be in sight. If it is a takeover, who can it be ? Some fund managers think it will be Symantec. While i think the target area is right (anti-virus), Symantec is too big to swallow, Network Associates (NET)or Trend Micro (TMIC) are better candidates. I own a few of both.
  • RedHat raised a few hundred million in a bond offering and hinted that the cash will be used for an acquisition. This one i have no idea as to who the candidates are.

I will add more as i remember. I am interested in knowing if you know of others who belong to this category. Also feel free to point out other targets for the above likely buyers.

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