Several companies made mergers and acquisitions or sold a stake got our attention.
Netflix (NFLX) stock price suddenly hiked more than 20% in the trading session on Wednesday and triggered a temporary suspension. The reason was that a SEC regulatory filing revealed that billionaire, CarlIcahn, acquired a 10% stake in this video and DVD rental company.
Finally, NFLX stock price finished up 13.88%, with 15.33 million shares traded, more than twice the three-month average daily trading volume of 6.27 million shares. Netflix has a market cap of $4.40 billion.
According to the report of Marketwatch, the world’s largest eyewear maker, Luxottica Group SpA (ADR) (LUX) has agreed to make the acquisition of French’s smaller rival Alain Mikli. LUX shares edged up 0.05%
Sources said this transaction would be officially announced later on Wednesday or Thursday, and might be completed by the middle of next month. Luxottica has been seeking acquisitions. The company’s CEO said last week that it is considering the acquisition of Italian eyewear retail company, Salmoiraghi & Vigano. Luxottica last week released the third-quarter net profit up 24.6% to 139 million euros; revenue rose 17% to 1.78 billion euros. LUX shares rose 0.74% on a volume of 86,517 shares, below the three-month average daily trading volume of 146,597 shares. Luxottica has a market cap of $17.70 billion.
Williams Cos. Inc. (WMB) on Wednesday announced it has agreed to sell an 83% stake in an olefins production facility and other assets to its business segment, Williams Partners LP, (WPZ) at a price of $2.36 billion in limited-partner units and cash. The partnership will also buy the former’s refinery-grade propylene splitter and pipelines in the Gulf region. WMB stock price rose 0.49% and WPZ units gained 0.37% in the regular trading session, but fell 0.39% and 0.68% in the after-hours trading session, respectively. Williams Cos has a market cap of 21.92 billion and the market cap of Williams Partners LP reached $18.30 billion.
Micron Technology (MU) said a Tokyo court has approved its $2.5 billion acquisition of Japanese memory chip maker Elpida and dismissed a rival plan promoted by a group of bondholders. Elpida is the last of Japan’s dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip makers, was driven into bankruptcy by falling chip sales and foreign competition. MU shares slid 0.82% in the regular trading session with 18.55 million shares traded, below the three-month average daily trading volume of 25.73 million shares. MU stock rallied 1.20% in the after-hours trading session. The company has a market cap of $5.52 billion.
The Middleby Corporation (MIDD) today announced to buy Nieco Corporation, a leading manufacturer of automatic broilers for the commercial food service industry . The both companies did not reveal the financial terms of the transaction. This is the second acquisition for Middleby in less than two months, the company bought Stewart Systems Global LLC in September. MIDD stock price gained 1.06% on a volume of 97,378 shares, more than the three-month average daily trading volume of 56,981 shares. The Middleby Corporation has a market cap of $2.34 billion.