StockRumors.com Rumor Report Blog

16-May-2008 02:28:15PM; Weekly Rumor Recap: May 12 to May 16, 2008

It has been an eventful week for rumors.

The week started off with rumors supposedly coming from Credit Suisse (CS) on Monday that the Carolina Group (CG) would receive a bid from Reynolds American Inc (RAI). This takeover rumor, combined with the quarterly dividend announcement on Friday, May 9, was primarily responsible for the climb in CG from $69.20 to $74.01 on Monday and Tuesday.

Tuesday saw many takeover rumors as well. WellCare Health Plans Inc (WCG) has received a significant amount of takeover speculation over the past two weeks. On Wednesday, May 7, rumors circulated that WCG had been entertaining third-party interest from UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and Humana (HUM). On Monday, May 12, rumor had it that WellCare had received a $67 per share bid from UnitedHealth. This same rumor circulated around trading desks yet again on Friday, May 16, but at the price of $72 per share. WCG has steadily risen throughout the week, from $47.11 to over $51 per share on Friday. Since Wednesday, May 7, the stock has risen from $44.00 on takeover speculation.

On Tuesday, May 13, CrunchGear reported on a rumored merger between Helio (owned by SKM) and Virgin Mobile (VM). They had initially reported the rumors on Thursday, May 8, and they reported yet again on Wednesday, May 14, when SK Telecom came out and spoke about the VM and Helio merger rumors. Reuters also picked up on this merger chatter on May 14, citing SK Telecom saying that, "(SK Telecom) is currently exploring strategic opportunities for Helio and has engaged in preliminary discussions with Virgin Mobile USA with respect to such an opportunity."
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11-February-2008 11:34:49AM; What Should Microsoft Do Next?

Now that Yahoo (YHOO) has formally rejected the buyout offer
of Microsoft (SEPR) has had a substantial correction in price, dropping over fifty percent. This significant decline has taken the market cap of the company to only $3.11B. Even with this significant drop, however, takeover rumors continue to circulate. StockRumors.com has received and reported takeover rumors on Sepracor virtually every two months since the beginning of 2006.

Most of Sepracor's current product line deals with Asthma. They also own the drug Lunesta, which is a sleeping aid for insomnia. Sepracor is currently developing several drugs which will mostly be used to treat depression, anxiety, and epilepsy. The product line that Sepracor owns, therefore, is small and very limited. Regardless of this, the earnings of the company have been, for the most part, growing.

During the past several years takeover rumors on Sepracor have typically been with Johnson and Johnson as the acquirer. On occasion Pfizer has also been named as a possible acquirer. Sepracor is not usually mentioned as a leveraged buyout (LBO) candidate. The main reason for this is the relatively low free cash flow of the company, at only about $60M between the period of September 2006 and 2007. The Price / Free Cash Flow ratio (P/FCF) is about 53, meaning it would take 53 years of FCF to pay for the company. In addition to the low free cash flow of the company the total equity of Sepracor is at roughly only 8% of its market cap, which would make borrowing on the company difficult (8% is high for Big Pharma). Even though Sepracor would not be highly valued in the private equity market, the company is still growing and to another Big Pharma could be very attractive with a P/E of only 19.

Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) as an Acquirer

The product offering of Sepracor would fit perfectly with Johnson and Johnson. Johnson and Johnson owns many different brands and medicines for a wide variety of illnesses. On their site, Johnson and Johnson has a list of Diseases and Conditions that their products can be used to treat.
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07-November-2007 01:02:02PM; Baidu.com (BIDU $404.50), Still a Takeover Target

One year ago in November, 2006 when BIDU was just $75 per share, StockRumors.com posted an analysis of BIDU takeover rumors here: http://www.sto...

13-August-2007 02:09:29PM; BSX: A Buyout Just Waiting to Happen

Historical Rumor Data

BSX leveraged buyout rumors circulated throughout most of 2006 and 2007. A leveraged buyout has typically been mentioned as what will happen to BSX, though Johnson & Johnson has also been mentioned as being a possible acquirer.
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17-July-2007 09:45:31AM; Is HANS a Takeover Target? Analysis of Recent Rumors

One of the favorite targets of takeover rumors in the past year has been Hansen Natural Corporation (MU Leveraged Buyout and Takeover Rumors. Now, five months later we analyze further rumors on Micron.

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02-May-2007 02:18:38PM; MAMA, the Mother of All Takeover Candidates.

MAMA takeover rumors have circulated throughout much of this year, starting in January and then recurring throughout the rest of the year. GOOG has typically been the rumored acquirer, although Mark Cuban has also been rumored as being interested. YHOO has also been named on occasion as a possible acquirer.

MAMA ($5.15)

Mamma.com Inc provides search technology for the Web, for desktop space, and now has entered the mobile search/multimedia market with their new "revolutionary" plug-in (See press release from May 1, 2007).
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20-March-2007 09:10:13AM; SAY what? A takeover target?

Satyam (SAY $21.92) takeover rumors began circulating only recently. IBM has been rumored as the acquirer of SAY.

India and IT

Satyam is an Indian based IT company that offers a variety of services from application development and maintenance to infrastructure management. India is a growing market and will add millions of internet and IT users within the next few years. The opportunity for tech companies in India is immense.
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13-February-2007 11:10:49AM; The Rising Sun Over PALM

Takeover rumors have circulated around PALM throughout most of last year. After August of 2006, the rumors began to circulate with greater frequently. Leveraged buyout rumors on PALM are more recent, and were initially reported by StockRumors.com in early February 2007.

Palm Inc. (PALM $15.29)

Palm has long been known as a provider of mobile computing solutions. They currently manufacture Treo smartphones and other popular computing devices. They are an extremely well known company and have a solid reputation. When many people refer to their PDA, they will often just say �Palm�.
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16-January-2007 09:44:31AM; Could Private Equity Be Interested in MU?

StockRumors.com initially reported Leveraged Buyout rumors on MU in early December, 2006. Rumors of private equity interest circulated again in early January.

Micron Technology, Inc. (MU):

Micron develops memory products for many different applications. I was recently speaking with a friend who was leaving Arizona and applying for a job at a Micron (MU) / Intel (INTC) project in Utah. He was convinced that hard drives as we know them will soon be outdated and instead we will simply carry flash memory around with us from computer to computer - or in other words take our own work around with us wherever we go and use public kiosks instead of laptops whenever we travel. The idea would be to have everything including all of our programs and operating systems installed directly on the flash memory. My friend sees the potential for growth in flash memory to be immense.
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03-January-2007 11:43:41AM; An Analysis of Recent TLAB Takeover Rumors

StockRumors.com has recorded takeover rumors on TLAB since April, 2006. Every couple months the takeover rumors continue to spur up again. In the past few trading days the takeover rumors on TLAB have circulated yet again.

Why would TLAB be a good takeover candidate? With a market cap of almost $5B, 40% of which is held in current assets, and quarterly revenues of around $500M ($60M net) and with the international market penetration TLAB has been able to attain, they could be an attractive takeover target for a similar network based company.

Tellabs, Inc. (TLAB)

Tellabs, Inc. deals mostly with networks and network peripherals. Tellabs has been around a long time and has significant experience in the network industry. In 2000, TLAB peaked its stock price at around $75 per share. Since then the company has dropped 85% in value. EPS during that time dropped roughly 66%.
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18-December-2006 10:19:00AM; RNIN - Recent IPO, and Recent Speculation (a brief analysis of speculation):

Recent rumors on recent IPO Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc (RNIN) have been positive in nature. These days everything is going digital, everything from cameras to bank accounts.

Market Applications for Ronin

Digital signs are a more recent innovation, one that Ronin Technologies provides. The ability to change signs and displays instantly has been around for some time, however the ability to move the signs/displays and to schedule content is a more recent innovation.

Speculation has been positive recently on RNIN. Here are some possible reasons why:

Theatres, finally a solution:

As I was at the theatre this weekend, I realized just how ready the market is for such an innovation. Looking at the list of available films and the associated posters, it is hard to know exactly what the different films are. Also, considering the amount of money spent by studios on posters and displays, the time for a digital solution is at hand. For years there have not really been any significant advances or innovation regarding posters and displays for theatres.

Imagine: going into a theatre and watching trailers for the different movies by walking around to digital signs and listening to the directional sound before you actually buy the tickets. No more trying to decide which movie to watch based on a single poster, and no more will we have to watch the trailers at home before even going to the theatres.

While online-ticketing and trailer viewing are becoming more and more popular, the use of digital signs and trailers could create a whole new atmosphere for theatres.

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11-December-2006 09:33:36AM; OSTK - IchanStock.com? AmaStock.com? BayStock.com?

OSTK leveraged buyout and takeover rumors are fairly recent. StockRumors.com first reported them on December 1, 2006 when the stock was still at $15.00 per share. This takeover chatter has helped drive OSTK over 10% higher in less than two weeks.

Overstock.com:

Overstock.com is an online closeout retailer based in Salt Lake, UT that offers discounted brand name merchandise. OSTK currently has a market cap of $346M. True, OSTK earnings and growth have been negative, along with its Alexa ranking decreasing (traffic to their site), but quarterly revenues have still been almost 50% of its market cap. Much of the blame has been put on the CEO, and he recently was named second-time runner up for the "Worst CEO of 2006" (See Article)
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29-November-2006 02:23:54PM; REDF and SIFY: To Be Taken Over or not to Be Taken Over?

With the Indian internet community growing, significant interest has sprung up in Indian tech stocks.
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20-November-2006 09:29:29AM; SNDK and MRVL - takeover targets?

StockRumors.com has reported takeover rumors on MRVL since May of 2006. Takeover rumors picked up again in September and October. SNDK takeover chatter is more recent, starting in September of 2006. Merger and leveraged buyout rumors have also circulated.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.:

MRVL currently has a market cap of just over $11B with cash and securities of almost $1B and a P/E of about 35. Near the beginning of 2006 MRVL had a market cap of around $20B � almost the double of what it is valued at today. This significant drop in the valuation of the company has caused the takeover rumors to circulate.
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09-November-2006 12:17:02PM; A SIRI, XMSR Merger

After great quarters for both SIRI and XMSR, merger and takeover speculation has picked up and continued to make its way around. StockRumors.com initially reported merger and takeover rumors between SIRI and XMSR in July of 2006.
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01-November-2006 01:16:44PM; Buy your own Google for only $3B! An analysis of recent BIDU takeover rumors.

Yesterday, BIDU posted record earnings of $0.31 per share for Q3 2006. BIDU currently has a P/E around 100, and has had earnings growth of approximately 450% during the last year....

25-October-2006 01:19:12PM; Will SEPR get taken over?

SEPR has held a P/E ratio of approximately 100 for most of this year. What has justified a P/E ratio so high? Significant growth in earnings and takeover rumors are the main reasons. SEPR has had significant revenue growth (especially Q4 2005) during the past year, and has begun posting positive earnings. ...

20-October-2006 08:34:37AM; StockRumors.com In-Depth Analysis of Recent YHOO Takeover Rumors

YHOO is currently sitting right above its 52 week low, and has had a pretty bad quarter. In the last 6 months, Yahoo stock has dropped over 30%. A lot of speculation has been going around that YHOO could be a takeover target of Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Comcast (CMCSA), AOL Time-Warner (TWX), or AT&T (T).

There has been a lot of negative sentiment towards YHOO, and the negative growth does bring some concern. However, Yahoo.com is still the #1 most visited site on the internet, catching about 30% of all web traffic.
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