Hit #69

Visual Networks (VNWK) is being acquired by Danaher's Fluke division, for $75 million in cash. The offer amounts to $1.83/share, which is a discount of 31% to my average cost of $2.64/share.

While this represents a loss, I had traded Visual for short-term profits earlier, with a much larger number of shares, more than compensating for this latest loss.

For a player that commands a large share of a niche segment, Visual is selling itself cheaply. I would have expected competing bids from Computer Associates, BMC, HP or even IBM, to add to their infrastructure management offerings. Visual Networks' tools would have made it possible to use a single console to monitor more of an enterprise's IT assets. With that it mind, I had mentioned Visual as a target in an earlier post.

Danaher, a manufacturer of control systems / industrial devices, never appeared on my list of prospective buyers! But I definitely would have settled for a stock-swap, since Danaher is a solid company that has a place in any long-term portfolio.

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Previous hit - Ecost (#68)