M&A Weekly Recap: Avis Budget to Buy Apex Car Rentals, Facebook and Instagram a Done Deal

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to this week’s top mergers and acquisition stories:

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE:VRX) made an agreement on Monday to purchase Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation (NYSE:MRX) for $2.6 billion. The latter supplies dermatological and aesthetic pharmaceutical products, and RBC believes that it’s a good strategic fit that could add 10 percent to Valeant’s bottom line. The acquisition offer of $44 per share represents a 39 percent windfall to Medicis’ Friday close, and the transaction is the most recent in a very long list of purchases for Valeant, which has secured approximately 50 deals since Michael Pearson became chief executive in 2008. Canaccord is minimizing the possibility of higher bids from other competitors, mostly because the fit is thought to be appropriate for both firms and is supported by both boards.

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Lloyds Banking Group plc (NYSE:LYG) will divest €2 billion of primarily Irish property loans, even though the firm is likely to take a discount on the sale, according to Bloomberg. The real estate market in Ireland crashed four years ago, and Lloyds has subsequently taken £11.8 billion of impairment charges on loans in that country.

Wastewater-treatment firm Heckmann Corporation (NYSE:HEK) will acquire the privately held Power Fuels in a $381 million cash and stocks transaction. The purchase should reinforce Heckmann’s position in the area of fracking, for which it supplies equipment and water.

Shares of NTS Realty Holdings Limited Partnership (AMEX:NLP) gain more than half their price following a bid from the company founder and chairman Brian Lavin to take it private in a transaction that values the firm at approximately $58.3 million.

Mortgage servicing company Walter Investment Management Corp. (AMEX:WAC) shares soar on the agreement to acquire Reverse Mortgage Solutions for $120 million. The company’s stock will fund around 20 percent of the transaction. The management believes that the purchase will be “significantly accretive” to both cash flow and to earnings.

Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) expects to divest 16 data centers to an investment group that consists of 365 Main, Crosslink Capital and Housatonic Partners, in a transaction valued at approximately $75 million. After the sale, Equinix will have exited nine domestic markets, and the move should enable it to better concentrate upon its “most productive markets”.

Venoco, Inc. (NYSE:VQ) has extended the deadline until September 13th for Chief Executive Timothy Marquez to obtain funding by which to take the company private, marking the third such extension. A spokesperson for the board commented that “Marquez has delivered evidence of commitments covering all of the required financing for the merger.”

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE:HIG) is divesting its Retirement Plans division to Mass Mutual at a price of $400 million while it continues to bring the firm back to its core property-casualty insurance underwriting business; Hartford’s large shareholder John Paulson has demanded this turn in the company’s strategy.

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Critics of Heckmann Corporation’s (NYSE:HEK) $381 million acquisition of Power Fuels are turning into believers, as the deal gives the former a foothold in the Bakken Shale area, where its products will be used for fracking. However, Heckmann continues to resist providing earnings guidance, using the pending shareholder vote on the purchase as reason.

Shares of Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) are off modestly on Wednesday, seemingly not reacting to the late Tuesday news that ING is poised to divest its near 10 percent investment in the company. Analysts see the upcoming sale as a positive, as it gives ING more flexibility to buy a new round of Capital One stock for its United Kingdom unit.

Coated paper manufacturers Verso Paper Corp. (NYSE:VRS) and NewPage Corp. have ended their talks concerning a possible business merger. Creditors involved in the discussions have also concluded their part in the negotiations.

PepsicCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP) might become involved in the potential $2.1 billion merger between Britvic and AG Barr. Britvic, a supplier in the United Kingdom beverage industry, is looking to link up with Barr, but Pepsico entering the scene could lead to a larger merger.

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Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) should ponder a purchase of Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), says Susquehanna, in order to strengthen its credit card operation. The analyst calculates that even a purchase price of $46 per share, split between stocks and cash, would be accretive to earnings in the first year. Moreover, Discover’s management has sent signs that it would not reject the right deal.

3M Company (NYSE:MMM) is letting go of its planned purchase of Avery Dennison Corporation’s (NYSE:AVY) office and consumer-products unit, due to a promise by the United States Justice Department to aggressively pursue their antitrust lawsuit. This latest word conflicts with earlier (Wednesday) statements by both firms that the deal would be going through. For its part, the antitrust agency indicated that the deal would have harmed competition in the sale of labels and adhesive notes.

Wright Express Corporation (NYSE:WXS) will purchase the fueling firm Fleet One from two private equity companies for $369 million in cash, as it moves to broaden its footprint in the heavy truck market in North America. The buyer says that the transaction should immediately grow its adjusted income, subtracting one-time charges linked to the purchase.

Avis Budget Group. Inc. (NYSE:CAR) reports that it will acquire Apex Car Rentals, the biggest independent car rental company in New Zealand, at a price of $29 million. Apex operates a fleet of around 4,000 rental vehicles, which is only 1 percent of the magnitude of Hertz Global Holdings’ (NYSE:HTZ) $2.3 billion purchase of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. (NYSE:DTG) and 3 percent of the size of the latter’s fleet. However, the acquisition heightens Avis’ international presence, and should disabuse observers of any ideas that it’s still considering another play for Dollar Thrifty.

Merge Healthcare Incorporated (NASDAQ:MRGE) shares move up significantly, following word of its intention to explore strategic alternatives that include a potential sale of the company or a business combination.

The much anticipated merger between Glencore International plc (GLCNF.PK) and Xstrata Plc (XSRAF.PK)(XSRAY.PK) might yet be saved, prior to Friday’s vote of the latter’s shareholders, according to the Wall Street Journal. Glencore has stated that it will not give in to the demands of the leading Xstrata investor Qatar Holdings and up its offer, but if it wants the company badly enough, it could relent.

Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) has abandoned its $500 million divestiture of a thermal-coal mine in Queensland, having received no worthwhile offers, says Reuters. This latest move adds to almost $15 billion worth of proposals ditched or postponed in Australia in 2012, while prices for commodities decline. Another failed deal is Vale S.A.’s (NYSE:VALE) $500 million non-sale of a mine.

Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O) will acquire American Realty Capital Trust, Inc. (ARCT) in a stock transaction that is currently valued at $2.95 billion. The latter’s stockholders will receive 0.2874 Realty Income shares for each share they own, which are at $12.21 based on Wednesday’s close.

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) grabs the mobile applications producer Mobestream Media for an unreported sum. The purchase will help Gannett move into the mobile coupon market and also follows up on the acquisition of a Facebook ad firm in August.

Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) almost fabled acquisition of Instagram is now officially closed and the transaction’s value is worth $736 million as of Thursday. This news accompanies Instagram’s announcement that 5 billion photos have been shared through its platform. The ball is in Facebook’s court now, which hosts over 140 billion photos, to maintain Instagram as a standalone service. However, observers opine that it might look for ways to integrate it with solutions such as Open Graph and its Camera application.

MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) purchases Truaxis, which is a company that develops targeted offers to consumers, who receive them subsequent to their logging onto a bank’s website or mobile application. The buyer believes that the acquisition should enable it to provide more meaningful offers, and thus provide both merchants and financial institutions access to improved sales and customer service. The financials of the purchase were not disclosed.

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News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS) provisionally acquires Consolidated Media for A$1.94 billion, or $2 billion, in a move thought to reinforce its Australian pay TV holdings. However, Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group might make a counter offer, since it owns a 25.3 percent investment in Consolidated. News Corp. and needs a 75 percent approval at a meeting in October to win through.

The Carlyle Group (NYSE:CG) acquires the North American power generation assets from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s (NYSE:GS) Cogentrix Energy, in a transaction of which the financials were not reported. The purchased assets include coal and solar projects in Virginia, Florida, Colorado, and California, along with a development pipeline of gas and renewable power projects.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) buys Svpply.com, which is a site that provides a “curated,” photo-centric approach to shopping, while at the same time taking a cut on referral traffic. Svpply had 700,000 monthly users as of May. Some observers think that this acquisition represents eBay’s attempt to change its image, which is not really one of offering up a very polished and intuitive shopping experience.

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As several observers had predicted as late as Thursday, Glencore International plc (GLCNF.PK) has now increased its offer for Xstrata Plc (XSRAF.PK)(XSRAY.PK) to 3.05 Glencore shares from 2.8. The new proposal is still below the 3.25 shares that the major Xstrata investor Qatar holdings originally insisted upon, but it has since abandoned that requirement. The latest offer emerged after Glencore got the crucial vote by Xstrata shareholders postponed just before it was about to take place.

The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) will buy out its joint venture partner in India, which should give it full control of the chocolate division in a nation with a population of 1.24 billion. The transaction is expected close in the third quarter, with the then wholly-owned subsidiary set to be renamed Hershey India.

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Syswin Inc. (NYSE:SYSW) Chief Executive Liangsheng Chen is offering a going-private deal for the remaining 60 percent of the Chinese real estate company that he doesn’t already own. Specifically, the offer is at 50 cents per share plus $2 per ADS share, with each ADS representing four ordinary shares. This represents a 25 percent bonus to Thursday’s close.

Shares of Merge Healthcare Incorporated (NASDAQ:MRGE) lose much of Thursday’s gains, following word that its Board has hired Allen & Company to help it explore and evaluate a broad range of strategic alternatives, including a sale. In the meantime, Dougherty lowers the shares to Neutral, explaining that the firm’s fundamentals are weakening, making the determination of a value for the company all the more difficult, along with the possibility of any sale at all.

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