Watson Pharmaceuticals agrees to buy Ascent Pharmahealth for $375 million Australian ($396 million), and the deal will be immediately accretive to 2012 earnings. This will turn Watson into the fifth-largest generic pharmaceuticals firm in Australia and the largest in Singapore. It will also give the company footholds in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand.
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Gannett’s USA Today division has acquired Fantasy Sports Ventures. Fantasy Sports Ventures is the owner of sports site The Big Lead. Gannett has been looking to bolster its online presence to offset declining print subscription and advertising revenue, like many others in the business.
Collective Brands shares are down after more takeover talks develop. Bloomberg speculates the company “may extract the biggest takeover premium of any apparel retailer in the world.” PSS may attract interest from private equity firms and rivals such as Wolverine World Wide when bids are due next week, and could be worth up to $27/share based on the value of its separate businesses.
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Meredith is acquiring Allrecipes.com for $1.75 million. Meredith believes Allrecipes.com is the number one digital food site, and expects the acquisition to dilute the fiscal year 2012, which ends in June earnings per share by $0.10. However, it will be “modestly accretive” to fiscal year 2013 earnings per share. Meredith also reported second fiscal quarter revenue of $328.7 million, which was down 10% year-over-year, and earnings per share of $0.70. Both missed by $13.5 million and $0.03, respectively.
Transocean jumps higher on word Petrobras is acquiring a stake in the offshore drilling company. Transocean is holding its gain while Petrobas noses down from its session high.
Rio Tinto is down as it announces it now has a majority stake in Ivanhoe Mines . Enough shares were purchased that it brought its interest to 51%.
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