Biggest Dividend

posted by Robert MacMillan on Sep 30

Like most intellectuals and sophisticates, I read the cartoons in The New Yorker before going on to all those articles filled with big words and umlauts. In doing that in the October 6 edition, I noticed that every one of them pertains to the financial crisis.

The New Yorker, which has made a market of acidic, sharp and occasionally opaque observances of upper-class life in its cartoons for decades, usually features a grab-bag of themes and illustrators in its pages. This is the first time that every cartoon is devoted to one topic, however.

While it's always more dandy to read the magazine on paper, its website features a slideshow. Enjoy the meltdown.

Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff said there was enough good material that magazine Editor David Remnick said all the submissions should reflect the turmoil. Mankoff also said he enjoys the simplicity that the cartoons bring to the complicated mix of bad debt, funny money and the complicated interdependence of the once-powerful financial firms.

"It's not that complicated; It's other people's money -- and you don't care that much about it," he said. "I think humor does act as a sort of rough-and-ready B.S. detector."

(Image courtesy of Conde Nast/The New Yorker)

posted by Yahoo! News Search Results for dividends on Sep 30

Record profits, massive share buybacks and big dividends did no spare big oil companies from the economic pain seen in almost every other financial sector during the third quarter.

posted by Yahoo! News Search Results for dividends on Sep 30

The board of directors of Genesco Inc. has declared dividends on the various classes of its preferred stock for the quarter ending November 1, 2008, payable on October 30, 2008, to shareholders of record on October 15, 2008.

posted by Anupreeta Das on Sep 30

Bailouts and shotgun weddings might be the order of the day for financial institutions, but among tech companies, hostile deals continue to win the popularity stakes. The fact that this year’s biggest hostile tech deals have failed to produce mergers — think Microsoft-Yahoo, Electronic Arts-Take Two, Cadence-Mentor – has done little to curb appetites for unsolicitied deals, which have hit record levels in the U.S.

Shareholder activism too has been on the rise, beginning with hedge fund Jana Partners’ agitation to pull CNET Networks out of its stupor — which eventually led to CBS snapping up the company best known for its tech news site. Smaller companies like Micrel and Asyst Technologies, too, have had to fend off dissident shareholders, although those stories got short shrift given the gargantuan activist-shareholder angle in Microsoft-Yahoo, courtesy Carl Icahn.

Then, there are two ongoing hostiles: Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung’s $5.8 billion unsolicited offer for flash memory maker SanDisk and Vishay Intertechnology’s $1.7 billion offer for International Rectifier. SanDisk has rejected Samsung’s offer as being too low.

Vishay, meanwhile, launched a tender offer for IRF yesterday, after the power semiconductor maker rejected Vishay’s sweetened $23-a-share bid. Friedman, Billings, Ramsay & Co analyst Craig Berger thinks the deal’s unlikely to get done.

“Both management teams have very disparate opinions about IR’s fair value,” Berger wrote in a note. Vishay seems reluctant to raise its offer again, and shareholders won’t tender their shares at $23, Berger concluded.

But if you think the spate of failed hostile deals might deter tech companies from taking that approach to M&A, think again. Tech stocks, which were smarting from the financial crisis, are even cheaper now and that, combined with the cash bounties that many tech firms have on their balance sheets, are creating new opportunities, one tech banker said.

“The stage is set,” the banker said.

What’s more, bankers said tech companies are shedding the traditional wisdom that hostile takeover attempts are no good because the assets — meaning the engineering talent — would walk out the door. And Oracle’s successful takeover of BEA Systems had a lot to do with that mindset change, they said.

Photo: Reuters file

posted by Yahoo! News Search Results for dividends on Sep 30

FelCor Lodging Trust Incorporated (NYSE: FCH) today declared its third quarter dividends. FelCor will pay a dividend of $0.15 per share on its Common Stock, $0.4875 per share on its $1.95 Series A Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock and $0.50 per depositary share evidencing its 8% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock. The third quarter dividends will each be payable on October 31, ...

posted by Robert MacMillan on Sep 30

Ask any business reporter covering the financial crisis what they were doing this weekend -- the answer is probably not "mowing the lawn" or "doing things that don't involve work."

The folks over at Fox Business Network is playing that to their advantage. A new ad, first reported by TVNewser (we think), points out that FBN was broadcasting live news this weekend while brand X, the much larger and older rival network CNBC, was mainly running taped broadcasting.

That said, CNBC was live on Sunday night with a two-hour special, but FBN is taking credit for running live coverage on Sunday morning, reporting that crucial progress had been made in Washington on the $700 billion bailout plan. At the time, spokeswoman Irena Briganti said, CNBC was airing a re-run of Suze Orman. Briganti said FBN also was running live for several hours on Saturday and Sunday while CNBC was not.

The bottom line, according to Fox? "We own this story." The bottom line, according to CNBC's Brian Steel? "Judging from our measured ratings alone, which does not include the most affluent homes and out of home viewing like trading floors and C-suites, we know Wall Street, Main Street and the investment community around the world are turning to CNBC and CNBC.com." In other words: "we think we have more viewers."

Here's the ad, which ran in today's New York Times, Wall Street Journal and on CNBC itself, at least within the New York City area on Time Warner's cable system.

(Photo courtesy of Fox Business News)

posted by Yahoo! News Search Results for dividends on Sep 30

IRVING, Texas----FelCor Lodging Trust Incorporated today declared its third quarter dividends. FelCor will pay a dividend of $0.15 per share on its Common Stock, $0.4875 per share on its $1.95 Series A Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock and $0.50 per depositary share evidencing its 8% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock.

posted by Megan Davies on Sep 30

MAC clauses have long been controversial in deals. But in a ruling out of Delaware last night on the hotly disputed Huntsman transaction, they took on a life of their own.

“… material adverse effect clauses are strange animals, sui generis among their contract clause brethren,” an opinion from Judge Lamb stated. “It is by no means clear to this court that the form in which a material adverse effect clause is drafted (i.e., as a representation, or warranty, or a condition to closing), absent more specific evidence regarding the intention of the parties, should be dispositive on the allocation of the burden of proof.”

The clause allows a buyer to terminate a deal if a material adverse change, or effect, has occured. But lawyers have in the past argued that a high bar is set on MAC clauses by courts. The Huntsman opinion only reinforces that.

“Many commentators have noted that Delaware courts have never found a material adverse effect to have occurred in the context of a merger agreement. This is not a coincidence. The ubiquitous material adverse effect clause should be seen as providing a “backstop protecting the acquirer from the occurrence of unknown events that substantially threaten the overall earnings potential of the target in a durationally-significant manner. A short-term hiccup in earnings should not suffice; rather [an adverse change] should be material when viewed from the longer-term perspective of a reasonable acquirer.” This, of course, is not to say that evidence of a significant decline in earnings by the target corporation during the period after signing but prior to the time appointed for closing is irrelevant. Rather, it means that for such a decline to constitute a material adverse effect, poor earnings results must be expected to persist significantly into the future. ” 

The opinion from the judge found that the seller “has not suffered a material adverse effect, as defined in the merger agreement, and further concludes that the buyer has knowingly and intentionally breached numerous of its covenants under that contract”.

For the full opinion click here.

posted by Yahoo! News Search Results for dividends on Sep 30

Don't go thinking that dividend investing is a sleepy way to go.

posted by Yahoo! News Search Results for dividends on Sep 30

The Board of Directors of The Hershey Company today declared quarterly dividends of $0.2975 on the Common Stock and $0.2678 on the Class B Common Stock. The dividends are payable December 15, 2008, to stockholders of record November 25, 2008.