Archive for September, 2007
What Price Northern Rock?
How low can it go? That’s the question on the minds of many about the bid price for a buyer of Northern Rock. Of course, bid prices can be negotiated upwards, but the initial bid does set a floor of sorts on the transaction. Check out Interactive Investor and their commentary today by Richard Beddard [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Selling Northern Rock
Interactive Investor has a very thoughtful blog posting on 17 September on the topic of ‘what next for Northern Rock’, including a reference to our own comments from a day earlier and further comments on 17 September (including our article written for the BBC). It is worthwhile checking out the aforementioned blog of Interactive Investor’s editor, [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Why would anyone buy Northern Rock?
For those who don’t read the BBC website, I copy here an article on Northern Rock as an acquisition candidate that I wrote today for the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6999110.stm). This follows on the comments that I wrote late yesterday on the same topic (which can be found on this blog here). Why would anyone buy Northern [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Northern Rock as an Acquisition Candidate
Lots of speculation now in the press about Northern Rock, the beleagered mortgage bank in the UK. Not surprising, of course, now that they’ve been knocked down by the market and bailed out by the Bank of England. With a corresponding plummeting stock price, too. It can be expected that the vultures would begin to circle, [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )M&A and the value of historical perspective
Thanks to Andrew F. and his comment here which mentioned the importance of looking back to the late 1990′s in trying to keep a calm perspective on the current turmoil in the market. We have noted earlier on this blog the parallels between the arms races of the Cold War and how the merger markets [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )When will this merger wave end? Part 2
After writing the post last week on the end of this merger wave, I saw some comments on FT Alphaville from Morgan Stanley about now being the biggest market buying opportunity in a long time. Their analyst is very bullish — and this from the same Morgan Stanley analyst who urged ‘sell, sell, sell’ back in [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )When will this merger wave end?
The hottest topic in M&A circles right now is when the current merger wave will end — and is it actually already in a downturn? There are as many opinions about this as there are experts, of course. Several factors have combined to make this topical. Among others, I’d like to comment on three: Obviously, [...]
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Is this merger wave over?
Posted on Wednesday, 26 September 2007. Filed under: Business History, Commentary, Mergers |
Regular readers of this blog will know how often I look for the historical parallels to current events. It is therefore very heartening to see others do this as well. Helen Thomas at FT Alphaville has been reporting on the disappearence of the M&A market in August and September (see her two most recent articles: The [...]
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