Mergers, Acquisitions , Splits & Spinoffs.......

[The Virginian]

Last time I saw anything official on the stock price it was .22 and now of course it is 00 ! But they died a slow death so most had plenty of warning.

[Value Buy]

Feb 5, 2015 18:51:51 GMT -5 The Virginian said:

Last time I saw anything official on the stock price it was .22 and now of course it is 00 ! But they died a slow death so most had plenty of warning.

Usually stocks that officially declare bankruptcy continue to trade.

I am not sure why, maybe so people who are short the stock can close positions out.

I remember when K Mart went into bankruptcy, their stock continued to trade and there would be 20 cent swings in the stock on many days, until the bitter end. 

[The Virginian]

I guess when the dust settles the courts can award stockholders anything that is left. I would guess any stock left would be held by speculators or people that forgot they even owned the stock.

[Value Buy]

When the dust settles, the stock holders are left with the burning bag sitting at the doorstep!

[The Virginian]

Exelon, Pepco reach settlement with New Jersey regulators in proposed merger
Jan 14 2015, 17:56 ET | About: Exelon Corporation (EXC) | By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor [Contact this editor with comments or a news tip]

Exelon (NYSE:EXC) and Pepco Holdings (NYSE:POM) say they have reached a settlement with staff of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approving the $6.8B merger of the two companies.
The settlement, which still requires the approval of the BPU's commissioners, would provide $62M in bill credits for Atlantic City Electric customers, an energy efficiency program, and commitments to improve the utility's reliability performance.
The proposed merger requires approvals of regulators in Delaware, Maryland and D.C.; the FERC and Virginia regulators already have approved it.

 I have POM in my portfolio -

[The Virginian]

PepsiCo reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher sales at its Frito-Lay snack business, and said it would buy back shares worth up to $12 billion.

Shares of the company, which has been under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, were up more than 3 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Pepsi also hiked its annual dividend by 7.3 percent to $2.81 per share and said it expects to return about $8.5-$9 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks this year.

[The Virginian]

Rite Aid to buy pharmacy benefit manager EnvisionRx for $2 bln
2 Hours AgoReuters
COMMENTSStart the Discussion

Feb 11 (Reuters) - Drugstore operator Rite Aid Corp said it would buy privately held pharmacy benefit manager EnvisionRx for about $2 billion.

Rite Aid said it would pay about $1.8 billion in cash and $200 million in stock.

[The Virginian]

SWEETNESS. Go Pepsi, Go Pepsi. Whoop, Whoop.

I had just added it to my new account also, in addition to my original account,  which made it even more sweeter ! Double your Pleasure, double your fun !

[The Virginian]

Orbitz and Expedia
Source: Orbitz, Expedia
Orbitz and Expedia

Online travel agency Expedia said it would buy rival Orbitz Worldwide for about $1.33 billion, as it looks to increase its customers base in a highly competitive industry.

Expedia's offer of $12 per share in cash represents a premium of 24.7 percent to Orbitz's Wednesday close.

Shares of Orbitz surged 24 percent on the news, while shares of Expedia edged up nearly 4 percent in premarket trading.


Funny how all this type of activity seems to come in Spurts !

I think we will see a lot more over the year but what I like is stock splits and spin offs that offer stock in the new companies.

[Value Buy]

I am still trying to find out details on NiSource's spin off of Columbia pipeline into a separate entity.

They sold the initial public offering last week and it rose after opening trades.

Nisource stockholders are to receive some shares sometime this summer for it, but no one seems to tell us what we receive per share we own.

Meanwhile NI stock price has moved up and down around 4% the last few days, and I do not know if it is because the utility index is whack worrying about the Fed raising rates or due to the spin off.

I wanted to sell a few hundred shares this month locking in gains, but I do not know if it is a mistake based on what I might get from the spin off this summer.

I cannot find an expiration date to lock in the spin off.

I thought after the initial spin off occurred we would see a corresponding drop in share price reflecting the money spun off to Columbia pipeline Partners.

I also have no clue how much the NI dividend may drop due to the profit from Columbia pipeline disappearing to the spin off.

I have not seen any info announced by NI to explain any of this.

[Ombud]

LBO talks - Chico's by Sycamore?

[The Virginian]

Phillips 66 Partners LP (NYSE: PSXP) has reached agreement with Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) to acquire Phillips 66’s interests in three pipeline systems. The acquisition includes one-third equity interests in the limited liability companies that respectively own the Sand Hills and Southern Hills natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline systems, and a 19.46 percent equity interest in Explorer Pipeline Company, the owner of the Explorer refined products pipeline system. In exchange, Phillips 66 will receive total consideration of $1.01 billion consisting of $880 million in cash and 1,726,914 newly issued PSXP units, to be allocated between common units and general partner units in a proportion allowing the general partner to maintain its 2 percent general partner interest. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to the Partnership and its unitholders and is anticipated to close in early March 2015.

The total transaction value, including approximately $65 million of proportional non-consolidated debt of Explorer Pipeline Company, reflects an approximate 9.5 times multiple of the forecasted full-year 2015 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) of $115 million attributable to these equity interests. Based on current projections for the twelve months ending Feb. 29, 2016, the transaction is expected to be more than 20 percent accretive to distributable cash flow of the Partnership over that period.

“This acquisition will expand our fee-based portfolio into NGL transportation and provide us with an interest in one of the largest refined products pipeline systems in the U.S.,” said Greg Garland, Phillips 66 Partners chairman and CEO. “Our addition of these diversified assets demonstrates our commitment to providing strong growth for our unitholders.”

The transaction includes Phillips 66’s equity interests in entities holding the following assets:

Sand Hills NGL Pipeline System: A 720-mile NGL pipeline system that provides takeaway service from DCP Midstream and third-party plants in the Permian and the Eagle Ford basins to fractionation facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast and the Mont Belvieu, Texas market hub. The system has a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day and is expandable up to 350,000 barrels per day with additional pumping stations.
Southern Hills NGL Pipeline System: An 800-mile NGL pipeline system that provides takeaway service from DCP Midstream and third-party plants in the Midcontinent to fractionation facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast and the Mont Belvieu, Texas market hub. The system has a capacity of 175,000 barrels per day.
Explorer Refined Products Pipeline System: A 1,830 mile refined products pipeline system, which provides connectivity to refineries and market centers from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest. The system has a capacity of 660,000 barrels per day.

The terms of the transaction were approved by the board of directors of the general partner of Phillips 66 Partners, based on the approval and recommendation of its conflicts committee, which is comprised solely of independent directors. The conflicts committee engaged Evercore Partners to act as its financial advisor and Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P. to act as its legal counsel.

www.streetinsider.com/Special+Reports/Notable+Mergers+and+Acquisitions+217%3A+%28PSXP%29%28PSX%29+%28CSIQ%29+%28EXPE%29+%28INFY%29/10277122.html

[The Virginian]

Upcoming Spinoffs
Parent Name Parent Ticker Spinoff Name Proposed Spinoff Ticker Expected Date More Info

FRP Holdings (FKA: Patriot Transportation) FRPH (FKA: PATR) Patriot Transportation PATI January 31, 2015 None Yet

General Electric GE
Synchrony Financial SYF
1) IPO 15% July 31, 2014
2) Distribution Remaining Stake - 2015 info

BHP Billiton BHP

South32 None Yet H1 2015 None Yet

Windstream Holdings WIN
Communications Sales & Leasing Inc None Yet Q1 2015 None Yet

Barnes & Noble Inc BKS
Nook Business None Yet Q1 2015 info

Baxter International BAX
Baxalta Inc (Biopharmaceuticals Business) BXLT 2015 None Yet

Almaden Minerals AAU
Early stage projects & Non-core assets None Yet June 2015 None Yet

Federal-Mogul Holdings FDML
Motorparts Division None Yet H1 2015 None Yet

eBay EBAY
Paypal None Yet H2 2015 info

Gannett Co GCI
Publishing Assets None Yet Mid 2015 info

Babcock & Wilcox Company (TBK: BWX Technologies) BWC
Power Generation Business (TBK: Babcock & Wilcox) None Yet Mid 2015 info

Masco Corporation MAS
Installations & Other Services Business None Yet Mid 2015 info

DuPont DD
Chemours CC Mid 2015 info

NiSource Inc NI
Columbia Pipeline Group CPG Mid 2015 info

Hewlett-Packard Company HPQ
PC & Printer Business None Yet November 2015 None Yet

Hawaiian Electric Industries HE
ASB Hawaii None Yet 2015 (contingent on acquisition by NextEra Energy) None Yet
Energizer Holdings ENR
Personal Care Business None Yet 2015 info

Koninklijke Philips N.V PHG
Lighting Group None Yet 2015 None Yet

E.W. Scripps Company & Journal Communications SSP & JRN
Journal Media Group (Newspaper Assets) None Yet H1 2015 (depends on merger) None Yet

Exterran Holdings EXH
International Compression & Fabrications Business None Yet 2015 None Yet

Graham Holdings Corporation GHC
Cable ONE None Yet 2015 None Yet

MeadWestvaco MWV
Specialty Chemicals Business None Yet 2015 info

Yahoo! YHOO
Alibaba Stake None Yet Q4 2015 info

JDS Uniphase Corporation JDSU
Communications & Commercial Optical Products Segment None Yet Q3 2015 info

TriMas Corporation TRS
Cequent None Yet Mid-2015 info

SPX Corporation SPW
Flow Business None Yet 2015 None Yet

Glencore Plc GLCNF
Lonmin Stake None Yet H1 2015 None Yet

Symantec Corporation SYMC
Information Management Business None Yet December 2015 None Yet

PPL Corporation PPL
PPL Energy Supply (will become Talen Energy post-merger with Riverstone) None Yet 2015 None Yet

Starwood Hotels And Resorts Worldwide HOT
Timeshare Business None Yet 2015 None Yet

Blackstone Group BX
Advisory Services (will be merged with PJT Partners) None Yet 2015 None Yet

Hertz Global Holdings HTZ
Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation HERC 2015 None Yet

Prospect Capital PSEC
1) CLO Business
2) Online Lending
3) Real Estate None Yet 2015 None Yet

Capital Southwest Corporation CSWC
Industrial Company None Yet Q3 2015 info

Manitowoc Company MTW
Foodservice Business None Yet Q1 2016 info

W.R. Grace & Co GRA
Construction Products None Yet 2016 None Yet

Fiat spa FCAU
Ferrari spa None Yet 1) IPO 10% Stake - 2015
2) Distribution remaining 90% thereafter None Yet

Comcast CMCSA
GreatLand Connections None Yet Transaction Dependent None Yet

FMC Corp FMC
FMC Minerals TBD 2015 info

Pinnacle Entertainment PNK
Property Co (REIT) None Yet 2016 None Yet

[The Virginian]

How did I miss this one ?
Sometimes it's very hard to keep up !

Reuters) - Camel cigarettes maker Reynolds American Inc's (RAI.N) shareholders approved its $25 billion acquisition of Newport menthol cigarette maker Lorillard Inc (LO.N), a deal that would combine the No.2 and No.3 U.S. cigarette companies.

The deal, announced in July, has attracted intense antitrust scrutiny as a successful merger would result in a market 90 percent dominated by just two companies.

The combined company would control about 40 percent of the U.S. cigarettes market. Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc (MO.N) leads the market with a 49 percent share.

Lorillard's shareholders also approved the deal, with about 80 percent of outstanding shares voted in favor.

Reynolds shares rose as much 2 percent to a record high in early trading, while Lorillard shares rose about 1 percent.

Reynolds said in November that it expected the Federal Trade Commission to announce its decision in late January or early February.

The company said on Wednesday that about 451 million of its outstanding shares were voted in favor of the proposal to issue stock to Lorillard shareholders for the acquisition. (bit.ly/1ywZI15)

More than 451 million shares of Reynolds were voted in favor of issuing stock to British American Tobacco Plc (BATS.L), its largest shareholder with a 42 percent stake.

The number of shares voted in favor of the two proposals separately represent about 85 percent of Reynolds' outstanding shares as of Oct. 6. Both the proposals had to be approved by Reynolds' shareholders to complete the merger.

British American said in July that it supported the deal.

Reynolds said last year that it would sell Lorillard's leading e-cigarette blu and four other brands to Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (IMT.L), to allay antitrust concerns.

Reynolds and Lorillard argue that their merger and the Imperial deal would create two strong competitors for Altria.

Imperial said that nearly all of its shares were voted in favor of the deal with Reynolds. [ID:nRSb4209Da]

Reynolds offered to buy Lorillard for $68.88 per share in cash and stock. Lorillard shareholders would receive $50.50 in cash and 0.2909 Reynolds share for each share held.

The deal is valued at $27.4 billion, including debt.

Proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services recommended this month that Reynolds' shareholders vote for the deal.

Reynolds shares were up 1 percent at $70.23 in noon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while Lorillard shares were little changed at $66.20.

[The Virginian]

HP to acquire Aruba Networks for approximately $2.7B


www.cnbc.com/id/102413681

[The Virginian]

AbbVie to buy cancer drug maker Pharmacyclics in $21 billion deal


www.cnbc.com/id/102478572

[The Virginian]

Coffee giant Starbucks announced a 2 for 1 stock split on Wednesday during its annual shareholder meeting, its first split in nearly a decade. (Tweet this)

Shareholders who hold the stock as of March 30 will get one additional share for each one they have, and the new shares will be payable April 8 and begin trading on split adjusted basis on April 9.

[The Virginian]

Kraft Foods Group and HJ Heinz merge to create The Kraft Heinz Co.

www.cnbc.com/id/102533153

[The Virginian]

Dow Chemical—Dow will spin off part of its chlorine derivatives business and merge it with Olin Corporation, creating a company with annual revenue of about $7 billion. It will get about $2 billion in cash and about $2.2 billion in Olin stock as part of the deal.

[The Virginian]

The WSJ reports Intel (INTC +5.9%) is in talks to buy FPGA vendor/foundry partner Altera (ALTR +22.7%). Shares of both companies have surged in response. With Altera currently sporting a $12.7B market cap, the deal would be the biggest in Intel's history, and one of the biggest in the chip industry's M&A/consolidation wave.
Intel struck a foundry deal with Altera in 2013, and is set to produce 14nm chips for the company. Altera's FPGAs are found in plenty of products containing Intel's Xeon server CPUs or network processors. The companies have also collaborated on a solution for Web data centers that pairs a Xeon CPU and an Altera FPGA in the same package, with the latter enabling on-the-fly programmability.
Altera archrival Xilinx (XLNX +5%) and smaller rival Lattice (LSCC +3.7%) have also spiked higher.

[The Virginian]

Reynolds American Inc. and Lorillard Inc. are expected to meet this week with members of Federal Trade Commission ahead of a final decision by the agency on whether to allow the companies to merge, according to people familiar with the matter.

A final vote by the commission could come as soon as this week, people familiar with the review said. The FTC is made up of three Democrats and two Republicans. A majority has to agree on a course of action.
Quotes in the article
Lorillard Inc

LO
▲
68.19
+1.53
+2.30%
Reynolds American Inc

RAI
▲
70.60
+1.80
+2.62%
Altria Group Inc

MO
▲
50.34
+0.34
+0.68%

FTC staffers have spent months examining Reynolds’s $25 billion planned acquisition of Lorillard, a deal announced in July. The companies are the second- and third-largest U.S. cigarette makers, behind industry leader Altria Group Inc. The merger would bring well-known cigarette brands Camel and Newport under one house and boost Reynolds’s market share to about 35% from 24%. Altria has top brand Marlboro and a 47% market share.

The face-to-face meetings will give the FTC’s five commissioners a chance to ask questions and hear directly from company representatives before making a final decision on whether to grant the tobacco deal antitrust clearance.

When Reynolds and Lorillard announced their deal last summer, they sought to address potential government concerns about competition by selling $7.1 billion in cigarette brands and other assets to Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, a U.K.-based global tobacco company.


I wonder if PM will follow suit and join the merger frenzy ? I have been holding on to PM only because of their great Dividends !

[ModE98]

WSJ: Disney gets into fantasy sports with $250M DraftKings investment
Fantasy sports is a big-money industry, and now Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) is buying a piece with a $250M investment in DraftKings, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The investment values DraftKings -- where fantasy sports fanatics play each other with real money stakes -- at about $900M, and it comes with a nice benefit: DraftKings has committed to spend more than $500M on ESPN-platform ads in the coming years.

[The Virginian]

FedEx offers to buy TNT Express for $4.8B

[The Virginian]

HE HAGUE, Netherlands — Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy British gas producer BG Group for 47 billion pounds ($69.7 billion) in cash and stock, the companies announced Wednesday. The move gives oil giant Shell a greater stake in natural gas markets in the wake of tumbling oil prices.
Quotes in the article
BG Group PLC

BRGYY
▲
13.58
+0.73
+5.68%
Royal Dutch Shell PLC

RDS.B
▲
65.48
+0.85
+1.31%

Consolidations through takeovers and mergers are among the ways energy companies are seeking to reduce costs and become more efficient as oil prices have slumped.

A joint statement said the boards of both companies are recommending that shareholders approve the deal that will create a more competitive, stronger company for both sets of shareholders in today's volatile oil price world.

Shell said the takeover will add 25 percent to its proved oil and gas reserves and 20 percent to production compared with 2014, and boost its position in new oil and gas projects in Australia and Brazil.

"Bold, strategic moves shape our industry," Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said. "BG and Shell are a great fit. This transaction fits with our strategy and our read on the industry landscape around us."

www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/shell-to-buy-bg-group-in-dollar697-billion-takeover/ar-AAazMcY

[The Virginian]

DI - The windstream Reverse Split is in conjunction of a REIT Spinoff of it's property - I'm not sure exactly how it will work but shareholders will receive stock in the new spinoff as well so I think ( I hope) it will be a wash or a positive for the shareholders (me). Time will tell. It could make Winstream a takeover target with it's property stripped out ( Not sure who the FTC would allow to do so or if anyone would want to)= We will see how it all plays out. I have a small position in it but it could be a big win or a big loss for me. Honestly it is a gamble.

[The Virginian]

GE, in a move to become a pure play industrial company, is exiting the financial services business by selling the bulk of the assets contained in its GE Capital unit and returning most of the proceeds from that disposition to shareholders in the form of a $50 billion share buyback.

GE shares rose 2 percent in premarket trading following the announcement. (Get the latest quote here.)

The company will take an after-tax $16 billion charge in the first quarter of 2015 in connection with the divestiture of GE Capital. Roughly $12 billion of that charge, which includes paying taxes on repatriated earnings, is non-cash.

GE said its intent is to create a "simpler, more valuable company" by effectively disposing of a unit whose assets are equal to that of the nation's seventh largest bank.

www.cnbc.com/id/102574744

[The Virginian]

The Uptick in Mergers and acquisitions s could be huge for us over the next couple of years. Of course not all will go through - Who knows about the Intel - Altera deal, but I like them because there is money to be made. All we can do is position ourselves with hopeful companies and wait it out. Personally I like Stock Splits and Spinoffs the best.

Corporate deals appetite hits 5-year high

The current wave of corporate takeovers and mergers is set to grow, with the appetite for deals among executives hitting a five-year high thanks to a strong dollar and low oil prices, a global survey found Monday.

A striking 56 percent of companies assessed say they intend to make acquisitions in the coming year, up from 40 percent in October, consulting firm EY said in its half-yearly report on corporate deal-making. That's the first time since 2010 that more than half of executives say they plan to make an acquisition in the next 12 months.

Read MoreLook here for next energy sector merger: Analyst

And the number of deals in the pipeline, EY noted, is up 19 percent from a year ago.
A Royal Dutch Shell platform
Eddie Seal | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A Royal Dutch Shell platform

"2015 will see a surge of new entrants and companies returning to the M&A market to generate future growth," said Pip McCrostie, EY's global head of mergers and acquisitions, or M&A.

Already in the first three months of 2015 the value of global mergers and acquisitions hit $888 billion, the highest level for the period in at least five years, according to data provider Dealogic. The second quarter appears to have started strongly with energy company Shell agreeing to take over Britain's BG Group for $70 billlion, in what is the 9th largest M&A deal ever.

The EY survey identified the oil and gas industry as one sector that is likely to see more activity in the months ahead. When oil and gas prices are low, exploration for new resources becomes a riskier prospect, so energy companies tend to try to boost growth through acquisitions.

Read MoreThe other blockbuster Blackstone deal

But deals are being struck across all sectors this year, including in technology, pharmaceuticals, health care and food, where Heinz recently said it will buy Kraft for $45 billion.

The appetite for deal-making has recovered over the past couple of years from the lows recorded in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-8 and the ensuing recession, when companies pulled back on risky investments and sought to rebuild their finances. That involved paying down debts and rebuilding cash reserves. Potentially risky undertakings such as M&A fell out of vogue and deal volumes and values slid sharply.

One reason for confidence in the outlook for the year ahead is the dollar's strength. The dollar has hit multiyear highs against a range of currencies as the strength of the U.S. economy has stoked expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates. The euro and the yen, by contrast, have fallen as the central banks of the 19-country eurozone and Japan enact loose and cheap monetary policies to help their weak economies.

Though big shifts in the value of currencies can be a challenge to multinational companies as they make planning more difficult, EY noted that companies whose revenue is largely made in a currency that has strengthened—such as the dollar—have a competitive advantage in M&A. For example, euro zone companies will look cheaper to firms that earn in dollars given that the euro has fallen about 20 percent against the U.S. currency in the past year.

"For them, the price of assets in many parts of the world will have effectively fallen and they are now taking advantage of this competitive M&A advantage to eye potential bargains in the market," said McCrostie.

McCrostie said lower commodity prices will also foster M&A activity among companies that spend a lot on raw materials, such as European chemical firms, as they could have more money available to invest.

EY's survey is based on interviews with 1,600 senior executives from large companies in 54 countries and across industries.

www.cnbc.com/id/102580263

[Value Buy]

Apr 10, 2015 5:58:23 GMT -5 The Virginian said:

GE, in a move to become a pure play industrial company, is exiting the financial services business by selling the bulk of the assets contained in its GE Capital unit and returning most of the proceeds from that disposition to shareholders in the form of a $50 billion share buyback.

GE shares rose 2 percent in premarket trading following the announcement. (Get the latest quote here.)

The company will take an after-tax $16 billion charge in the first quarter of 2015 in connection with the divestiture of GE Capital. Roughly $12 billion of that charge, which includes paying taxes on repatriated earnings, is non-cash.

GE said its intent is to create a "simpler, more valuable company" by effectively disposing of a unit whose assets are equal to that of the nation's seventh largest bank.

www.cnbc.com/id/102574744

I refuse to invest any money in GE until Jeff Immelt is out.
He has been a disaster for this company.
Why hedge fund managers and billionaire investors have not gone after this monster company for under performance is beyond me.

[The Virginian]

Verizon scoops up AOL for $4.4B
May 12 2015, 07:08 ET | About: AOL Inc. (AOL) | By: Stephen Alpher, SA News Editor [Contact this editor with comments or a news tip]

The $50 per share deal will take the form of a tender offer followed by a merger, with AOL becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Verizon (NYSE:VZ). AOL chief Tim Armstrong will continue to lead the company after the deal closes.
"Verizon's acquisition further drives its LTE wireless video and OTT (over-the-top video) strategy. The agreement will also support and connect to Verizon's IoT (Internet of Things) platforms, creating a growth platform from wireless to IoT for consumers and businesses," says the company.
Closing is expected this summer.
Source: Press Release
AOL +18% premarket to $50.25, VZ -0.95%
seekingalpha.com/news/2514836-verizon-scoops-up-aol-for-4_4b

[The Virginian]

Apr 13, 2015 17:37:32 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Apr 10, 2015 5:58:23 GMT -5 The Virginian said:

GE, in a move to become a pure play industrial company, is exiting the financial services business by selling the bulk of the assets contained in its GE Capital unit and returning most of the proceeds from that disposition to shareholders in the form of a $50 billion share buyback.

GE shares rose 2 percent in premarket trading following the announcement. (Get the latest quote here.)

The company will take an after-tax $16 billion charge in the first quarter of 2015 in connection with the divestiture of GE Capital. Roughly $12 billion of that charge, which includes paying taxes on repatriated earnings, is non-cash.

GE said its intent is to create a "simpler, more valuable company" by effectively disposing of a unit whose assets are equal to that of the nation's seventh largest bank.

www.cnbc.com/id/102574744

I refuse to invest any money in GE until Jeff Immelt is out.
He has been a disaster for this company.
Why hedge fund managers and billionaire investors have not gone after this monster company for under performance is beyond me.

I understand where you are coming from Value Buy - A lot of people feel the same way you do, but personally I am convinced that GE will break out of this rut and reward us handsomely eventually. I don't care for Immelt either. In the meantime I am building shares at a really good rate (adding about 15 shares a year by dividend reinvesting) Sometimes it not about the Share appreciation but more about the share accumulation. In five years I should have over 75 more shares than I do now.  I do expect another dividend increase in the coming year - maybe close to $1.00 per share.