Strategy in TECH...
The summer continues to heat up with the second major acquisition announcement in two days. Melrose, PLC, a UK-based investment company that buys underperforming companies, improves their operations, and then resells them, has acquired Nortek, Inc. in a deal that pays Nortek shareholders $86 per share – a 38% premium over yesterday’s closing price. The deal, an all-cash offer, is expected to close by the end of August.
Nortek, Inc. (Nortek) released their results for the 2016 fiscal first quarter and generally showed broad improvement,with sales gains and profit improvements in most of their segments. But not in the Custom and Commercial Air segment which had a sales decline; and especially not in their AVC segment, which saw continued sales declines and generated a loss from operations.
Nortek, Inc. released the results for its fiscal second quarter after the market’s close on Monday and took the unusual step of issuing optimistic performance guidance for the remainder of the year. The company does not typically release future performance guidance as a matter of policy, but did so in an apparent attempt to calm investor reaction to their troubling report. It didn’t work – investors reacted strongly on Tuesday by driving Nortek’s stock to a close of $75.23 per share, down sharply from the previous close of $79.88. In just a matter of hours, the total market value of Nortek collapsed almost 6%.
