California International Business Report » Mergers and Acquisitions

Huge demand for California bonds

editor — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:21:45 +0000

The Sacramento business journal is reporting “huge” demands for California bonds: Investors were more enthusiastic about buying California debt than expected, putting in orders for $6.54 billion in general obligation bonds in a sale by the state Treasurer’s Office that ended Tuesday State officials had expected to sell $4 billion. The extra cash will allow officials to restart more stalled projects that were halted in December due to the state’s cash crisis. Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s office said there was “huge” demand from both individual investors and institutional buyers such as mutual funds. Officials have not determined which of 5,300 halted projects should be allowed to proceed. Until this sale, the tight credit market and the state’s prolonged budget crisis kept California out of the bond market for nine months.

Yasheng Group seeking stock exchange listing

editor — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:04:52 +0000

Agricultural holding company Yasheng Group reported a $76 million profit for 2008 as part of its goal to be listed on a major U.S. stock exchange, according to a report in the San Francisco Business Times. Yasheng Group is a Redwood City holding company focused on agriculture in China. It has about 15,000 workers. It owns seven agricultural businesses in China that grow products such as onions, potatoes, apples, alfalfa, flax, beets, wheat, apricots, sunflowers, beer barley and cumin. As part of its move towards a major stockmarket listing, Yasheng published its financial results for 2006 and 2007 in January.
According to the San Francisco Business Times,Yasheng started out in the late 1980s as GanSu Yasheng Salt Group Co., an agriculture, biotechnology and chemicals conglomerate. The group has been reorganizing itself, and this movement into the United States is part of that process. Back in China, Yasheng has switched from smaller family farms to “large scale industrial farming” and is doing research into “high breed strains” of various crops. It runs several schools for “training of potential employees” in the region. Yasheng’s operations are concentrated in GanSu Province, a part of Northwest China adjacent to Mongolia and the vast province of Xinjiang.

Seeking a listing on a U.S. stock exchange, Yasheng merged in 2004 with Nicholas Investment Co. of Temecula and took over that business’ regulatory reporting.<

Chevron will sell 2,000 Texaco stations in Brazil

editor — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:24:40 +0000

San Ramon-based Chevron Corp. will sell 2,000 Texaco gas stations and some related businesses in Brazil for about $730 million. As reported in San Francisco Business Times:

Chevron agreed to sell the businesses to Ultrapar Participações S.A., based in São Paulo. The deal requires separating out Chevron’s lubricant and oil exploration businesses, which aren’t included in the deal. The separation will take until early 2009, according to Ultrapar. Pedro Wongtschowski is CEO of Ultrapar. The company will pay the price, which is subject to a working capital adjustment, out of its cash reserves.

Ultrapar is licensing the Texaco brand name for up to five years, during which time it will phase in the use of its own Ipiranga brand name. In this deal it will also get some equity in terminal operations. Texaco is the No. 4 fuel brand in Brazil by sales volume, with sales of about 120,000 barrels per day.

Mitsubishi offers $3 billion for Union Bank of California

editor — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:14:08 +0000

Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has offered to purchase the 35 percent stake in San Francisco based UnionBanCal- parent of Union Bank of California, that’s held by the public. As reported in the San Francisco Business Times:

Japan’s largest bank my market cap sees the Union Bank branch network as a nice launch pad for its own banking ambitions in America. “We view this transaction as a first step of our growth strategies in the United States, and we will achieve greater management flexibility and aim to further strengthen our presence,” MUFG said.

MUFG unsolicited offer calls for the Japanese bank to pay $63 per share, or $2.7 billion, for the UnionBanCal shares in public hands. That was up from a previously undisclosed offer of $58 per share that the San Francisco bank’s board rejected in June as too low. The proposed transaction values the entire bank at $8.8 billion. Investors anticipate that the purchase price may be nudged higher, pushing the bank’s shares up 13 percent Aug. 12 to $65.50 at the close of New York Stock Exchange trading.

UnionBanCal operates 330 branches in California, Oregon and Washington state. Union Bank in recent years has adopted a strategy of courting business owners and affluent customers rather than trying to go head-to-head against California’s two-largest banks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The numbers don’t work for Union Bank to engage in that costly battle, given the larger banks’ ubiquitous branches and ATMs.

Craigslist charges eBay with corporate espionage

editor — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:30:08 +0000

Two California-based Internet icons- Craigslist and eBay have become involved in a bitter legal dispute. Ebay, which owns about 28 percent of Craigslist, fired the first salvo by filing suit in Delaware state court that that accused Craigslist of discriminating against eBay as a shareholder and using “clandestine meetings” to dilute eBay’s ownership stake. Craigslist has now filed a countersuit charging that eBay used its position to gather competitive information that was used to help lauch Kijiji, which many consider to be a direct competitor to Craigslist. The complaint charges that eBay code-named this its “Craigslist killer” in internal strategy discussions. Craigslist’s also alleges a plot by eBay to use its position as a minority shareholder and its position on the board to pressure Craigslist into a full-scale acquisition deal by eBay. “In the months leading up to the launch of its competing Kijiji site … eBay used its shareholder status to plant on Craigslist’s board of directors the individual responsible for launching and/or operating Kijiji,” the suit alleges. “Using the pretext that the information was necessary for Craigslist board-related matters, eBay made constant demands for confidential information in excess of what was required for that purpose”.

Disney to buy Chinese game developer

editor — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:34:18 +0000

The Walt Disney Co.’s video game arm will buy a Chinese game developer as the U.S. entertainment giant expands in China. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Disney Interactive Studios plans to buy Chinese company Gamestar, Founded in 2002, Gamestar has offices in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Wuhan, according to the company. The acquisition will contribute to his Disney’s “global growth plans” and new products, said Graham Hopper, general manager for Disney Interactive. Gamestar had previously done outsourcing work for Disney, according to the Chronicle report and terms of the deal were not disclosed. Following the acquisition, Gamestar will help with existing projects but may move on to developing original games for the Chinese market. Walt Disney Internet Group has also reached a deal with China’s Shanda Interactive Entertainment to launch Disney-themed Internet-based video games.

Sun buys open source MySQL for $1 billion

editor — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:29:18 +0000

Sun Microsystems Inc.has agreed to buy software company MySQL AB for $1 billion, a move that is expected to bolster their position with database technology and make them more competitive with Oracle Corporation: As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:

The MySQL deal lets Sun – the third-largest maker of server computers – enter the $15 billion market for database software, challenging Oracle Corp. and adding a source of service revenue. Closely held MySQL develops databases and lets customers such as Google Inc. and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange use them for free, making money from maintenance.

Sun is bolstering its software unit to offer more programs that businesses need to build Web-based systems, Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Schwartz said. Schwartz, who became CEO in April 2006, restored Sun to profit after five years of losses by cutting jobs and adding products.

“MySQL gives Sun a flagship product, the most popular open-source database technology,” said Raven Zachary, an analyst with research firm 451 Group in Portland, Ore. The purchase “offers a model for Sun to follow as it tries to sell other open-source software products

Kayak.com raises $196 million to buy SideStep

editor — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:48:58 +0000

Kayak.com, the travel search engine has completed a $196 million funding round that it will use to buy SideStep Inc. Kayak.com said it intends to maintain both the SideStep.com and Kayak.com brands and will develop and promote each site independently. As reported in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Michael Moritz of Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital will join Kayak.com’s board. Other participants include existing Kayak.com investors General Catalyst Partners of Cambridge, Mass., and Accel Partners of Palo Alto. SideStep investors involved included Norwest Venture Partners and Trident Capital, both of Palo Alto. New investors include Oak Investment Partners, which has an office in Palo Alto, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, and debt lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Gold Hill Capital.

Whole Foods Sells Henryâ€™s Markets to Smart & Final

editor — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:45:04 +0000

Whole Foods Market Inc. has completed the sale of its 35 Henryâ€™s Farmers Market and Sun Harvest Market stores to a subsidiary of Los Angeles grocer Smart & Final Inc., according to a report in San Diego Business Journal. The Austin, Texas-based company sold its two operations to Smart & Final for $166 million, including a distribution facility in Riverside. Sun Harvest stores are located in Texas, and Henryâ€™s are located in California, with 15 stores in San Diego County. â€œOur plans are to continue under the existing names and formats,â€ a spokesman told the Journal. â€œOverall what youâ€™ve seen is the model that youâ€™re going to get going forward, including the focus on natural and organic and lots of produce.â€ The sale of Henryâ€™s was the result of Whole Foodsâ€™ bid to acquire Henryâ€™s parent Wild Oats for about $565 million. Wild Oats was Whole Foodsâ€™ main rival in the natural grocery business.

SAP to acquire Business Objects for $6.8 billion

editor — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:47:24 +0000

SAP AG announced that it will buy Business Objects SA for an eye-popping $6.8 billion. SAP is an enterprise software firm based in Germany with it U.S. headquarters in Palo Alto. Business Objects is based in Paris and San Jose. Acquiring Business Objects is seen helping SAP compete with Oracle in the area of business Intelligence software that is used for risk management and corporate management.