The activity on the Merger and Acquisition front increased once again last week with seven new deals announced and four deals closing. We are also happy to report the beta launch of a new tool that will let you see the spreads on deals in almost real time. This tool automatically calculates the profits and annualized profits for all cash, cash plus stock and all stock deals during trading hours. It will also calculate the profits for deals that have special collars like the acquisition of WuXi PharmaTech (WX) by Charles River Labs (CRL) that was discussed in this blog entry. Please take our new Merger Arbitrage tool for a test drive and let us know your thoughts on how we could improve it.
The deals that closed last week include the acquisition of RiskMetrics Group (RISK) by MSCI on June 02, 2010, the acquisition of Dialysis Corporation of America (DCAI) by U.S. Renal Care on June 02, 2010, the acquisition of CNX Gas (CXG) by Consol Energy on June 01, 2010 and the acquisition of Protection One (PONE) by GTCR on June 04, 2010
The Seven New Deals include the acquisition of ev3 (EVVV) by Covidien plc (COV) for $22.5 per share in cash, the acquisition of SonicWall (SNWL) by an investor group led by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC for $11.5 per share in cash, the acquisition of DivX (DIVX) by Sonic Solutions (SNIC) for $3.75 in cash and 0.514 shares of Sonic Solutions common stock for each share of DivX, the acquisition of PET DRx Corp (VETS) by VCA Antech Inc (WOOF) for $0.34 to $0.36 per share in cash and the acquisition of OMNI Energy Services (OMNI) by Wellspring Capital Management for $2.75 per share in cash.
The other two new deals include Mediacom Communications Corporation (MCCC), which is being taken private by it’s CEO Rocco Commisso for $6 per share in cash and the acquisition of Gerdau Ameristeel Corporation (GNA) by Gerdau (GGB) for $11 per share in cash. The closing date for these two deals has not been mentioned so far.
We have also updated the information for the acquisition of car rental company Dollar Thrifty (DTG) by Hertz.