The Daily Deal articles from August 2003

The Daily Deal archives from August 2003

Western Digital finishes Read-Rite buy.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Olaf de Senerpont Domis Lake Forest, Calif., hard-disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. said Thursday, July 31, it has completed its $95.4 million acquisition of most of the assets of bankrupt Fremont, Calif., rival Read-Rite Corp....

Icahn, others push to revamp Federal-Mogul.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Soma Biswas Carl Icahn and other unsecured creditors of Federal-Mogul Corp. can hire consultants to trim the fat, and the company must pay for it. Visiting Judge Randall Newsome in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of...

Pillowtex seeks immediate use of $40M DIP.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Shanon D. Murray Pillowtex Corp. is asking a Delaware judge to approve up to $120 million in debtor-in-possession financing, $40 million of which would be immediately available on an interim basis. Congress Financial Corp., a...

Cirio to be liquidated.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Heather O'Brian in Milan After a last-ditch effort to convince creditors of Cirio Finanziaria SpA to loosen their purse strings, shareholders on Thursday, July 31, agreed to place the Italian canned food conglomerate into...

Mirant creditors hire Miller Buckfire.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Soma Biswas The creditors' committee of bankrupt Mirant Corp. picked Miller Buckfire Lewis Ying & Co. as its financial adviser after a beauty contest among four firms, according to sources. Miller Buckfire beat out Greenhill &...

NextWave, Cingular near deal.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Chris Nolter Some of the wireless spectrum licenses that the Federal Communications Commission auctioned to NextWave Telecom Inc. in 1996 could be headed for another auction shortly, though this time the process would presumably be...

Ottawa Senators gets insolvency extension.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Laura King in Toronto A bankruptcy judge has granted the insolvent Ottawa Senators hockey club an extension of its protection under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act to Aug. 25. Justice James Chadwick of the Ontario...

Conseco creditors reach settlement.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Berke Conseco Inc. on Thursday announced a settlement with preferred debt holders, setting the stage for confirmation of its reorganization plan. Holders of about $2 billion in Conseco's trust originated preferred debt...

WorldCom confirmation hearing delayed.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Chris Nolter The judge overseeing WorldCom Inc.'s bankruptcy case delayed the confirmation hearing for the company's reorganization plan by two weeks and shuffled some other dates on Thursday, July 31. Citing an already...

District Court clears ABB asbestos settlement.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Somas Biswas ABB Ltd. won final approval from a U.S. court for a $1.2 billion asbestos settlement involving its Combustion Engineering unit on Thursday, July 31. Combustion Engineering became the first asbestos bankruptcy case...

Judge clears Pacific Gas disclosure statement.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Cheryl Meyer in Los Angeles A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the disclosure statement for California energy provider Pacific Gas & Electric Co., company spokesman Ron low said late Thursday, July 31. One day earlier,...

Judge OKs sale of AmPad.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Berke Just in time for the back-to-school selling season, a Texas judge has approved the sale of bankrupt American Pad & Paper LLC to Atlanta private equity firm Crescent Capital Investments Inc. for as much as $85...

Penn Traffic can access $270M DIP.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Berke A White Plains, N.Y., judge approved a $270 million debtor-in-possession loan for bankrupt Penn Traffic Corp. on Thursday, July 31. Judge Adlai Hardin of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of...

Miltenyi Biotech buys rival's assets.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Greg Johnson Failed stem researcher Bio Transplant Inc. won court approval on Thursday, July 31, to sell its assets to Germany competitor Miltenyi Biotech GmbH for $450,000. The deal includes the intellectual property of Bio...

Layoff Roundup: week ended July 31.
August 1, 2003... Byline: David Ehrlich The number of new jobless claims in the U.S. dropped to the lowest level since February, but layoffs continue as Pillowtex Corp. files for bankruptcy -- again -- and Verizon Communications Inc. announces more cuts....

Hopewell Highway takes low road.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Shu-Ching Jean Chen in Hong Kong Chinese toll road operator Hopewell Highway Infrastructure Ltd. set its initial public offering price at the lower end of an indicative range despite booking a healthy demand from investors. ...

Netgear revs up IPO market.
August 1, 2003... Byline: David Shabelman in San Francisco Who says a technology company can't make a splash in the new issues market these days? Computer networking company Netgear Inc. began trading shares in its initial public offering Thursday and...

Wilbur Ross' ISG files to go public.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Frances McMorris Born out of the bankruptcies of other steel producers, International Steel Group Inc. has filed for a $250 million initial public offering. The Richfield, Ohio-based company filed for the offering late...

GAO: Don't blame auditors.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Jaret Seiberg Consolidation among the top accounting firms is not to blame for the corporate scandals that have plagued the business world. That's the conclusion of the General Accounting Office, which at the request of...

Canada's WasteCo Environmental is sold.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Ottawa-based Environmental Management Solutions said Thursday it is buying WasteCo Environmental Services Ltd. in a cash and stock deal valued at C$8.5 million ($6.1 million). EMS will issue 1.6 million of its common...

Chico's FAS wins the White House.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Fort Myers, Fla., casual apparel retailer Chico's FAS Inc. announced Thursday that it has agreed to purchase privately held Glen Burnie, Md., rival the White House Inc., the women's clothier, in a transaction valued at...

Coca-Cola Amatil wins Neverfail.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd., an Australian unit of Coca-Cola Co., is set to complete its A$226 million ($148 million) takeover of bottled water supplier Neverfail Springwater Ltd. Amatil already controls 90.03% of Neverfail's...

Geac Computer extends bid for Comshare.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Geac Computer Corp. of Markham, Ontario, said Thursday it has extended its $52 million offer for Michigan business software maker Comshare Inc. to midnight July 31 to permit the acceptance of late tenders. Geac said it...

Inverness Medical takes Applied Biotech.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Inverness Medical Innovations Inc., a Waltham, Mass., maker of medical diagnostics products, said Thursday that it would acquire San Diego competitor Applied Biotech Inc. in a transaction worth up to $27.58 million....

Phelps Dodge to buy rest of Chino Mines.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Copper giant Phelps Dodge Corp. said one of its subsidiaries has agreed to buy the rest of New Mexico's Chino Mines Co. it does not already own. The Phoenix mining company said that Phelps Dodge Chino Inc. would purchase...

Sun Microsystems acquiring CenterRun.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Sun Microsystems Inc. has agreed to acquire privately held software developer CenterRun Inc. for a reported $66 million in cash. CenterRun develops software used by companies to install business applications. The Redwood...

Trinity Mirror to shed Ireland news unit.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Trinity Mirror plc said on Thursday it would sell its Northern Ireland newspaper division. Up for sale are the Belfast News and the Derry Journal along with seven others. Trinity, which publishes national newspapers...

Western Digital finishes Read-Rite buy.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Lake Forest, Calif., hard-disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. said Thursday it has completed its $95.4 million acquisition of most of the assets of bankrupt Fremont, Calif., rival Read-Rite Corp. Western Digital's bid...

Taiwan to auction more of China Steel.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Shu-Ching Jean Chen in Hong Kong Taiwan, facing a budget shortfall, plans to sell a NT$37.3 billion ($1.1 billion) stake in the country's largest steelmaker. The government said Thursday, July 31, it will auction up to 16.2% of...

Belgium's KBC bulks up in Poland.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Renee Cordes and Patricia Koza Belgium's KBC Bank & Insurance Group is strengthening its presence in central and eastern Europe by becoming a majority shareholder of Warta, Poland's No. 2 insurer. KBC Insurance, a subsidiary of...

Continental backtracks on ExpressJet sale.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Lou Whiteman Continental Airlines Inc. has scrapped plans to sell 5 million shares in ExpressJet Holdings Inc. to the public because of weakness in its affiliate's share price following the deal's announcement. The two...

E.ON unloads water utility.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Andrew Bulkeley in Berlin German utility E.ON AG on Thursday, July 31, agreed to sell the country's largest water company after the auction's lower-than-expected price drew interest from an array of rivals and private equity shops....

Sanpaolo IMI offloads control of French bank.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Heather O'Brian in Milan Italian lender Sanpaolo IMI SpA has acknowledged that it is outgunned in France, agreeing Thursday, July 30, to sell a majority of its French unit to Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne. Caisses...

Antitrust violators risk forfeitures.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Jaret Seiberg in Washington Companies that complete mergers in violation of U.S. antitrust law may have more to worry about than simply seeing their deal unwound. The five members of the Federal Trade Commission have voted...

Acciona buys half of energy company.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Claire Poole Spanish power producer Corporaci?n Energ?a Hidroel?ctrica de Navarra said Thursday, July 31, that its shareholders had approved the sale of 50% of the company to Spanish construction company Acciona SA for [Euro]382.7...

HBOS backs Macdonald delisting.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Braude in London The founders and management of Macdonald Hotels plc are staging Scotland's largest public-to-private deal to date, buying up the 50% of the Heritage Hotels group that they do not already own. The...

Movers & Shakers: Aug. 1, 2003.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Heidi Moore The Carlyle Group has hired former banker Eric Fellhauer as a director in its Munich office. Fellhauer, who holds doctorate in economics, was an M&A banker with Merrill Lynch & Co. for five years in London and Frankfurt...

Wyser-Pratte irks French... again.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Samer Iskandar in Paris New York investor Guy Wyser-Pratte has emerged as the driving force behind a plan to sell France's Legris Industries for at least [Euro]188 million ($213 million) to its founders and private equity interests...

Code Hennessy hovers over Warn.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Kelly Holman Code Hennessy & Simmons LLC, a Chicago private equity group, is close to clinching its acquisition of Warn Industries Inc., a 55-year-old Clackamas, Ore.-based winchmaker from Endeavour Capital and Norwest Equity...

LBO France in talks for Materis.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Braude in London French buyout fund LBO France is in exclusive talks to acquire French specialty building materials producer Mat?ris from its private equity owners for a sum in excess of [Euro]1 billion ($1.1 billion), a...

Harvest Partners unit buys Gentek.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Kelly Holman Associated Materials Inc., a Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio-based exterior building products maker owned by Harvest Partners Inc., said Thursday it is buying building products manufacturer Gentek Holdings Inc. for $118 million...

KAGT extends Applied Graphics offer.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Kelly Holman KAGT Acquisition Corp., an affiliate of funds managed by Mt. Kisco, N.Y.-based private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. LLC, said Thursday, July 31, that it has extended the expiration of its cash tender offer for all...

Tech Movers: July 31, 2003.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Paul Bonanos One storage company's loss was another's gain this week, as Imation Corp. chief financial officer Robert L. Edwards returned to California to take the top finance spot at hard-drive maker Maxtor Corp. Edwards, who left...

StorageNetworks packs it in.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Sarah Cohen StorageNetworks Inc.said Thursday, July 31, that it would liquidate, capping a three-year decline from the company's perch as a high-tech giant with a market capitalization of $8 billion to a software industry also-ran....

Israeli VC firm clashes with backers.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Neal Sandler in Jerusalem In an unusual move, a prominent Israeli venture capital fund, Jerusalem Global Ventures, is seizing the investments of several local dissatisfied backers after they withheld further financial commitments....

Archus wins $18M backing in round 2.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Clifford Carlsen Medical device startup Archus Orthopedics Inc. has raised $18 million in a second round of venture capital led by InterWest Partners of Menlo Park, Calif., and Seattle's Polaris Ventures to develop products in the...

Datawire gets $11M.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Katherine Goncharoff Toronto-based Datawire Communications Networks Inc., a 3-year old provider of an Internet-based transaction delivery network for large money-transfer and credit card processing companies such as First Data...

Archus Orthopedics.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Redmond, Wash.-based Archus Orthopedics Inc. raised $18 million in second-round funding in a deal led by InterWest Partners and Polaris Venture Partners, to bring total equity financing to $22.45 million. The company was...

Cavium Networks.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker Cavium Networks Inc. said it had raised $18 million in a third round of venture funding. Four new investors, NeoCarta Ventures, NTT Leasing Co., China Development Industrial Bank and...

Cernium.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Video security systems developer Cernium Inc. of St. Louis said two venture firms have invested $2.8 million in the company. Lead investor Lurie Investments of Chicago joined prior investor Open Prairie Ventures of...

CharterAuction.com.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Quincy, Mass.-based luxury air travel auctioneer CharterAuction.com Inc. said it had raised $1 million in venture backing from Conyers Capital LLC of Greenwich, Conn. The 4-year-old company's Web site links buyers to more...

Datawire Communications.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Toronto-based Datawire Communications Networks Inc., a 3-year old provider of an Internet-based, transaction delivery network for large transaction processing and funds transfer companies such as First Data Corp., said it...

Renal Solutions.
August 1, 2003... Byline: The Deal Hemodialysis treatment developer Renal Solutions Inc. of Pittsburgh announced an additional $3.3 million in funding to close its first round at $18 million. Two firms, CID Equity Partners and Gazelle Tech Ventures, joined...

Air Canada to choose investor.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Laura King in Toronto Insolvent Air Canada expects to choose an equity investor by Sept. 26, according to its court-appointed monitor. In a report issued late in the night on July 31, Ernst & Young Inc. said potential bidders...

Ross wins Burlington, but loses break-up fee.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Terry Brennan Wilbur Ross may have won the right to buy bankrupt textile maker Burlington Industries for $614 million, but the court foiled his bid to also collect a $6.08 million break-up fee. A Delaware judge denied the rare...

NextWave deal comes and goes.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Chris Nolter For a few hours on the morning of Aug. 1, it appeared that a long-anticipated $1.4 billion spectrum sale deal between NextWave Telecom Inc. and Cingular Wireless LLC had finally transpired. But a jointly issued...

Despite pork flap, Farmland offers reorg plan.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Shanon D. Murray Despite significant grumbling on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill in Washington about the stalking horse bidder for its pork division, Farmland Industries is already looking ahead to emerging from bankruptcy...

Bankrupt Alliance Communications sells cable systems.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Peter Lauria St. Louis-based Cequel III LLC, the investment firm headed by former Charter Communications Inc. CEO Jerry Kent, and Classic Holdco LLC said Friday, Aug. 1, they agreed to acquire cable systems currently owned by...

Gas Natural finds bargain in Enron rubble.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Berke Two years ago, Eco-Electrica de Puerto Rico was nearly sold for $1.19 billion. But last week, Spain's Gas Natural SDG SA won clearance to buy a 47.5% stake in the Puerto Rican utility for only $177 million. The...

Judge approves DIP funds for Pillowtex.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Shanon D. Murray A bankruptcy judge approved Pillowtex Corp.'s motion to immediately access $40 million of its proposed $120 million debtor-in-possession financing package on an interim basis. Judge Peter J. Walsh in the U.S....

NextWave, Cingular near license deal.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Chris Nolter Some of the wireless spectrum licenses that the Federal Communications Commission auctioned to NextWave Telecom Inc. in 1996 could be headed for another auction shortly, though this time the process would presumably be...

Conseco reorg plan deferred.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Berke A federal bankruptcy judge deferred ruling on Conseco Inc.'s reorganization plan until Tuesday, August 12 at a hearing held on Friday, August 1. Conseco reached a principal agreement with its preferred...

Permira celebrates.
August 4, 2003... Byline: edited by John Morris No wonder the folks at Permira Advisers Ltd. are crowing. The announcement in late July that the London-based pan-European buyout house made a [Euro]3 billion ($3.4 billion) first closing of its new fund came...

Family values on the block.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Richard Morgan Freedom Communications Inc. has all the markings of a family business destined for predatory extinction. The newspaper dynasty, already into its fourth generation, has a growing faction of dissidents, backed by a...

Looking homeward, for now.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Peter Lauria in New York and Brian Cattell in London For John Malone and Liberty Media Corp., focusing on the U.S. market after being burned in Europe is a variation on the famous dictum of Willy Sutton: Malone is doing deals in the...

Dealmaker's resume: Larry Kramer.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Tara Croft It was during the last economic decline that got out of the newspaper business. "I kind of burned out," he says. He was 40, it was 1991, he'd been the executive editor of The San Francisco Examiner for five years and...

Taking Citi by storm.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Heidi Moore For most of her career as a CFO, Deborah Hopkins has been seen as a CEO-in-waiting -- first as the finance chief at General Motors Europe, then at Boeing Co. for 14 months, then at Lucent Technologies Inc. Now that...

A piece of the action.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Dennis Fitzgerald Jack Nusbaum, chairman of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, has cultivated many professional ties in his career. These days, one of the most important is his relationship with Jeff Lane, president of Neuberger Berman Inc....

Deal sense.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Jeffrey Kanige Nearly three years after its megamerger with First Union Corp., Wachovia Corp. is ready to take on the big town. The bank announced in late July that it was opening its first branches -- Wachovia calls them Financial...

Editor's letter.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Robert Teitelman This week, we're doing media. In our corporate section, we offer up profiles of Freedom Communications (http://www.thedeal.com/NASApp/cs/CS?pagename=TheDeal/StArticle&c=TDDArticle&cid=1059597957518) , deal maven...

Banks make a deal.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Robert Teitelman and Jaret Seiberg It's nice to wrap this up before you 'copter to the Vineyard or all those folks come buzzing in to visit you in your Adirondack lair. Here it is, midsummer, and Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan...

Yellow Pages Fund IPO makes auspicious debut.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Laura King in Toronto The widely anticipated initial public offering of Canada's Yellow Pages Income Fund opened Aug. 1 at C$10.60 ($7.55). The offering, which includes C$65 million from the overallotment granted to the...

Citadel takes command in IPO debut.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Peter Lauria Wall Street's radio mavens welcomed back a favored son Friday as investors sent shares of Las Vegas-based Citadel Broadcasting Corp. up 8.7% in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Citadel's warm IPO reception...

On the loose.
August 4, 2003... Byline: L.J. Davis Investment banker Herb Allen's annual conference of media barons at his Sun Valley, Idaho, hideaway ended in smiles and vague but positive comments the other week, after five days of the likes of Sumner Redstone, John...

First Asset Yield Opportunity Trust.
August 4, 2003... Byline: The Deal TORONTO -- Canada's First Asset Yield Opportunity Trust plans to sell up to 4 million units at C$25 each in an IPO. The minimum initial investment in the IPO is C$2,500 ($1,780.50), the trust said in a news release Friday....

International Steel.
August 4, 2003... Byline: The Deal Born out of the bankruptcies of other steel producers, International Steel Group Inc. has filed for a $250 million initial public offering. The Richfield, Ohio-based company filed for the offering late Thursday, July...

Permission slip.
August 4, 2003... Byline: John Merrigan A California Supreme Court ruling in an insurance case could affect the scope of buy-side due diligence and the structure of purchase and sale agreements. Insurers facing mass tort claims will also closely monitor it....

Whittled away.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Robert Willens Through the years, with the enactment of Section 368(a)(2)(C) and the various "triangular" reorganization definitions, Congress has steadily chipped away at a doctrine that traces its lineage to the two inextricably...

Astar case could affect other carriers.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Jaret Seiberg in Washington Efforts to curtail Deutsche Post World Net AG's expansion in the U.S. may affect more than just the company's pending $1 billion acquisition of Airborne Inc. and the right of Astar Air Cargo Inc. to...

After many pitfalls, Congress nears PUHCA repeal.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Shanon D. Murray in Washington The Senate approved omnibus energy legislation last week that includes a provision that repeals the Depression era law that has hindered investment in the energy industry and has blocked major mergers...

ChevronTexaco Corp. to sell assets.
August 4, 2003... Byline: The Deal San Ramon, Calif., oil giant ChevronTexaco Corp. said Aug. 1 it plans to sell $1 billion to $2 billion in assets each year for the next few years. The sales will include about 400 oil fields in North America, interests in...

Doubts surface on merger.
August 4, 2003... Byline: The Deal Aquent LLC postponed a meeting with technology consultant Computer Horizons Corp. scheduled for Aug. 1, leaving doubts about a merger between the companies. Aquent indicated it wants more financial information about...

FTC approves Suncor purchase.
August 4, 2003... Byline: The Deal Calgary, Alberta-based Suncor Energy Inc. said Aug. 1 it has received Federal Trade Commission approval to buy ConocoPhillips' Denver refinery as well as 43 Phillips-branded retail stations and associated storage, pipeline...

German utility sells HVB stake.
August 4, 2003... Byline: The Deal Continuing to whittle down to its gas and electricity activities, German utility E.ON AG on Aug. 1 sold a 4.8% stake in Munich bank HVB Group AG, booking a "a slight profit." Dusseldorf-based E.ON said it sold the stake...