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May 2006
7-May-06
Charlotte,
NC; Oakland, CA
Wachovia Corporation to acquire the Golden West
Financial Corporation for about $26 billion in cash and
stock [1]. The combined company
will have assets of $669 billion and a market capitalization
of $117 billion [1].
April 2006
8-Apr-06
New York, NY
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
to swap its corporate trust business for The Bank of New
York Company's consumer, small-business and middle-market
banking businesses [1-2]; the transaction is valued
at about $3.1 billion [2,3].
3-Apr-06
Detroit, MI; New York, NY
General Motors Corp. to
sell a 51% controlling interest in General Motors Acceptance
Corp. (GMAC) to a consortium led by Cerberus Capital
Management, LP, and including Citigroup Inc., and Aozora
Bank Ltd., for approximately $14 billion
[1].
See
23-Mar-06.
2-Apr-06
Paris, France; Murray Hill, NJ
Alcatel to acquire Lucent
Technologies, including Bell Labs, for $13.5 billion in
stock [1-3]. Cost synergies are estimated at $1.7
billion within 3 years [1-2]; about 9,000 employees
are expected to lose their jobs [3-5].
March 2006
23-Mar-06
Leverkusen and Berlin, Germany
Bayer AG plans to acquire
Schering AG in a transaction valued at €16.3 billion
[1-2] ($19.5 billion [3]).
The expected synergy potential of the merger is about
€700 million
[1]: About 6,000 jobs may be lost
[3].
Detroit, MI
An investor group led
by affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Five
Mile Capital Partners, LLC, and Goldman Sachs Capital
Partners acquires a 78% interest in GMAC Commercial Holding
Corp. (GMACCH) from General Motors Acceptance Corporation
(GMAC) for about $8.8 billion [1].
12-Mar-06
Darmstadt and Berlin, Germany
Merck KGaA makes an unsolicited $17.4
billion cash bid for Schering AG [1].
McLean, VA; Melville, NY
Capital One Financial Corporation to acquire North Fork
Bancorp for $14.6 billion [1].
10-Mar-06
Washington,
DC
The collapse of the Dubai
Ports World (DPW) deal raises many concerns: Arabs may
invest less in the U.S.; free trade agreements with Arab
countries may be postponed or undermined; military
cooperation with Arab
"friends and allies"
may weaken [1,2]. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY),
of Jewish provenance, played a key role in blocking the deal
[1-5].
9-Mar-06Tokyo, Japan
The Bank of Japan decides to tighten credit putting an
end to easy money [1-3]. Specifically, the Bank of
Japan decides "to change the operating target of money
market operations from the outstanding balance of current
accounts at the Bank to the uncollateralized overnight call
rate" and to encourage the uncollateralized overnight
call rate to remain at 0% [1].
Dubai, UAE;
London, UK
Dubai Ports World (DPW), decides to transfer U.S.
management operations of Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Co. (P&O)
at 6 U.S. ports to a U.S. entity [1].
8-Mar-06
Washington, DC
Republicans in the US
House of Representatives vote to block Dubai Ports World's
acquisition of operations at 6 U.S. ports [1-3].
7-Mar-06
France
More than 1
million people protest
against a new French law, The
First Employment Contract (CPE), that allows employers to
fire young workers (under 26 years of age) "any time without
explanation" [1-2].
Student at about 40 universities, including the Sorbonne,
participate in the protest
[1].
French
riot police storm the Sorbonne
on 11-Mar-06 [1-3].
New York, NY
NYSE Group completes the New York Stock
Exchange/Archipelago Holdings, Inc. merger [1].
6-Mar-06
London, UK
Britain's Court of
Appeal allows the takeover of P&O by Dubai's state-owned
Dubai Ports World (DPW) [1-3].
5-Mar-06
Bangkok,
Thailand
About 100,000
Thais rally against Prime
Minister and telecom tycoon Thaksin
Shinawatra who is accused of
corruption [1-2].
San Antonio, TX; Atlanta, GA
AT&T Inc. to buy
BellSouth Corp. for about $67 billion
[1-5]. The expected net
present value of the merger: $18 billion in synergies
[1-2]. The expected job cuts after the merger: 10,000;
total AT&T job cuts: 36,000 [6].
4-Mar-06
Bangkok,
Thailand
About 100,000
Thais rally against Prime
Minister and telecom tycoon Thaksin
Shinawatra who is accused of
corruption [1-2].
3-Mar-06
Waterloo, ON; VA
BlackBerry maker
Research in Motion Ltd. agrees to settle a wireless email
infringement dispute with NTP Inc. and pay $612.5 million
[1-2].
Bangkok,
Thailand
About 100,000 Thais rally in
supporter of PM Thaksin Shinawatra
[1].
2-Mar-06
Frankfurt, Germany
The Governing Council
of the European Central Bank raises the minimum bid rate on
the main refinancing operations of the Eurosystem by 25
basis points to 2.50% [1]. Oil prices increased 18%
in Europe over 2005 [2]. The growth in the money
supply (M3) increased to 7.6% in the year to January, from
7.3% in the year to December [3].
February 2006
28-Feb-06
New York, NY; London, UK; Paris,
France; Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Tokyo, Japan
Shares of Google Inc. plunge about
7.1%,
closing at $362.62, after a comment by its CFO
regarding slow growth [1-2,10].
Global stock market indices plummet [3-10].
DJIA down 104.14 to 10,993.41 [3].
NYSE Composite down 79.06
to 8,060.61 [4].
NASDAQ Composite down 25.79 to 2,281.39 [5].
FTSE 100 down 84.40
to 5,791.50
[6].
CAC 40 down 80.07
to 5,000.45
[7].
DAX down 119.11 to
5,796.04
[8].
NIKKEI 225 up 12.48 to
16,205.43 (down
240.97 to 15,964.46 on 1-Mar-06)
[9].
27-Feb-06
London, UK and Westborough, MA;
Brooklyn, NY
National Grid Plc to
buy KeySpan Corporation for $7.3 billion in cash [1-2].
25-Feb-06
Paris, France
Suez SA and Gaz de France
plan to merge [1-2]; the plan blocks a bid from
Italy's Enel S.p.A. [3]. France has adopted a policy
of "economic patriotism" [5-6]; Italians are furious
[6].
21-Feb-06
Düsseldorf, Germany; Madrid,
Spain
E.ON AG to buy Endesa
SA for 29.1 billion euros ($34.6 billion) [1].
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