M&A Weekly Recap: Shaw SPIKES, Oracle LOVES Startups

Sykes Enterprises Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYKE), a call-center operator, will purchase at-home agent supplier Alpine Access for $150 million in cash in order to reinforce its competitive position. The buyer at the same time reduces its full-year guidance, pointing to uneven demand and a lengthened sales cycle due to macro-economic impacts.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) will acquire Xsigo as it continues to buy startups in markets that are exploding. Xsigo develops hardware and software solutions for the management of data center infrastructures, and the firm is an avid supporter of software-defined networking. eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY), British Telecom, and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) are counted as its customers.

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Shares of Shaw Group, Inc. (NYSE:SHAW) go through the roof Monday, on word that it will be bought by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (NYSE:CBI) at $46 per share in cash and stock. Shaw’s closing price on Friday was $26.69, so the offer marks a 72 percent windfall. The acquisition will have a total value of approximately $3 billion, and will create a company having 50,000 employees, a backlog of more than $28 billion, plus engineering and fabrication facilities on all continents. In addition, Shaw will do business as CB&I Shaw, and the combined company will “become fully diversified across the entire energy sector.” The buyer will use both companies’ cash and $1.9 billion in debt to finance the transaction. Meanwhile, Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) gives back all of an early pre-market jump that occurred on word of the deal. Later in the day suspicions of insider trading are surfacing regarding the proposed merger: a trader on Monday scored a big paper return on 2,000 August $29 options that he or she purchased on Thursday for 25 cents each.

Roper Industries Inc. (NYSE:ROP) acquires Sunquest Information Systems for around $1.4 billion in cash. The transaction will bring approximately $140 million (or more) of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2013. Sunquest supplies diagnostic and laboratory software solutions to healthcare providers.

Korea Development Bank reports that discussions over the possible acquisition of HSBC Holdings’ (NYSE:HBC) Korean retail banking business have ended, because the two companies failed to reach an agreement regarding employment conditions.

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Seagate Technology’s (NASDAQ:STX) fiscal fourth quarter results go by without the hard drive major indicating whether it intends to purchase OCZ Technology Group Inc. (NASDAQ:OCZ), even though much chatter claims that it will. Subsequent to the report, Seagate’s Chief Financial Officer remarked that his company would like to acquire a solid-state drive supplier, but one that has a significant share of the high-profit enterprise market. OCZ does have an enterprise footprint, but its competitor STEC, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEC) has a bigger one.

Cove Energy Plc (CNVGF.PK) shareholders who collectively own 91.4 percent of the company, are said by PTT to have accepted its acquisition offer, making the bid unconditional as to acceptances.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) shares jumped in early trading on chatter that Lenovo, which recently passed by the former for market share in China, is interested in the struggling firm. However, Nokia’s bad luck again reared its ugly head as Lenovo executive Gianfranco Lanci put the kabosh on the speculation, remarking that, “This must be a joke. There’s nothing ongoing.”

It must be a day for false acquisition hopes. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) shares shot up in early trading on reports that it might receive a takeover offer from a private equity consortium of TGP and Bain, that could bring between $3 billion and $4 billion. However (again), the company later said that “it has no knowledge of any rumored buyout plans and is not in current discussions with any firms to effect such a transaction.”

Torchmark Corporation (NYSE:TMK) will purchase the individual supplemental health product supplier Family Heritage Life Insurance Co. of America for a price of $218.5 million. The buyer says that the transaction will be immediately accretive by contributing between 1 and 3 cents to operating earnings per share in 2012, and 13 to 17 cents in 2013.

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Digital animation services company Digital Domain Media Group (NYSE:DDMG) shares spiked on the news that it will collaborate with i-banks and advisers to explore “strategic and financial alternatives.” Options could include joint ventures, divestiture of sales, minority investments, and the sale of the company itself.

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Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) paid about $400 million to acquire social media advertising services company Wildfire, say sources to CNNMoney, a price that far exceeds the $250 million reported Tuesday. Jim Edwards remarks that the deal allows Google a way in which to monitor Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) ad plans, and also aids Google’s AdSense in its competition with Facebook’s ad bidding platform.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) might make an offer for the beverage operations of Singapore’s Fraser & Neave, including its dairy and soft-drink units, all which could total as much as $3 billion in value. The rumors emerge as a battle unfolds between Heineken Nv Adr (HINKY.PK) and Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi for Asia Pacific Breweries, in which Fraser & Neave owns 40 percent, and is ready to make a decision on a $4.1 billion offer from Heineken for its holding. However, should Coke make a successful bid, the move would help it well along with its rivalry with PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP), as Fraser & Neave is set to become a dominant player in Malaysia and Singapore if a deal is realized.

Private equity Bain Capital will purchase a 30 percent stake in process management and tech services company Genpact Limited (NYSE:G) from General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital, which will keep a 10 percent investment in the firm. Bain is paying $14.76 per share, or $1 billion, which share price is somewhat below Genpact’s close Wednesday at $17.15.

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) has not increased its previous bid for Canadian home improvement retailer Rona, but instead creates a microsite to help showcase its offer to the shareholders. Currently, institutional investors support a Lowe’s-Rona merger, but the government of Quebec does not.

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AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) purchases the troubled spectrum owner NextWave Wireless, Inc. (WAVE) for as much as $650 million. Broken down, $600 million is in assumed debt, $25 million is in cash, and $25 million is in contingent payment. NextWave owns spectrum in the widely-used AWS band and the WCS band, which AT&T wants to see opened up for 4 gigabyte services. The FCC is expected to look at the deal quite carefully if its recent actions are indicators, plus due to its long history with NextWave. Incidentally, shares of the latter are up more than 400 percent in mid-afternoon trading.

One day after the disastrous tech glitch, Knight Capital Group, Inc. (NYSE:KCG) is talking to Virtu Financial regarding a merger or capital infusion, say sources that are probably linked to the former. Virtu participates in the high-speed trading arena as well. Knight shares have lost more than half their value on the day and are still falling.

Heineken’s (HINKY.PK) $50 per share bid for Asia Pacific Breweries has been okayed by Fraser & Neave’s board. The approval might push The Coca-Cola Company’s (NYSE:KO) own offer for the beverage business forward.

Vivendi Sa Adr’s (VIVHY.PK) attempts to divest its $8 billion, 61 percent investment in Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) failed to attract offers, so the former is said to be putting the idea aside. Observers were dubious that a suitor would come forward, owing to the size of the stake, along with doubts as to the gaming industry’s current state of well being. Further, Activision shares are busily selling off following its second quarter postings.

Knight Capital Group, Inc. (NYSE:KCG) has hired Goldman and Sandler O’Neill to look at finding a buyer for itself following the tech glitch horror. The firm’s books have been opened up to private equity firms along with at least one rival. Actually, Knight Capital shares move up mid-afternoon Friday, but remain way below pre-glitch levels.

McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. (NYSE:MHP) announced last week that it’s pondering a divestiture of its education division, rather than a spin-off, and now the unit has received offers from Apollo Global Management. LLC (NASDAQ:APO), and private equity firms Bain Capital, Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Cengage Learning, according to Reuters. The bids might value the entity, which is the world’s second-largest education firm by sales, at around $3 billion.

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