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Community Health makes all-cash bid for Tenet
Business Law Info |
2011/04/19 11:05
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Hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. on Monday revised its $3 billion offer for rival Tenet Healthcare Corp. to an all-cash bid.
Community Health is now offering $6 per share in cash. In December, it had gone public with a bid of $5 per share in cash and $1 per share in stock. At the time, the offer was a premium of about 40 percent to the Dallas company's shares.
But Tenet's board rejected that offer, and adopted a "poison pill" measure to fend off the bid.
Tenet's shares have recently been trading above $6.
But the company said Monday it will review the revised offer and make a recommendation. It said shareholders should take no action for now.
Tenet shares fell 26 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $6.40 in afternoon trading while Community Health shares dropped $1.74, or 5.5 percent, to $30.16 after falling as much as 14.3 percent earlier in the session.
Community Health Systems runs 130 hospitals in 29 states, and focuses on fast-growing and non-urban markets. Tenet runs 50 hospitals spread across 11 states, and most of its facilities are in urban and suburban communities. |
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S&P cuts long-term outlook for US debt to negative
Business Law Info |
2011/04/17 16:17
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Standard & Poor's Ratings Service cut its outlook Monday on the United States' sovereign debt, saying there is a one in three chance it will downgrade the rating on the debt in the next two years.
The agency lowered the long-term outlook to "Negative" from "Stable."
It reaffirmed its investment-grade credit ratings on the U.S. long- and short-term debt itself, but said the ratings are at risk from the country's growing deficit.
S&P said the U.S. has a high-income, diversified and flexible economy that has helped it to encourage growth while containing inflation.
But the country's ballooning deficit could offset those positives over the next two years.
The agency noted that the deficit grew to 11 per cent of gross domestic income in 2009. That is much higher than the average of two per cent to five per cent in the previous six years.
S&P said it has little confidence that the White House and Congress will agree on a deficit-reduction plan before the fall 2012 elections. By that time, the measures won't go into effect until the fiscal year 2014.
"We see the path to agreement as challenging because the gap between the parties remains wide," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Nikola G. Swann.
Mary Miller, assistant secretary for financial markets, said S&P "underestimates the ability of America's leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation."
President Barack Obama and Congress are working on ways to reduce budget deficits over the long term, she said. |
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Attorneys for NFL players meet with judge
Business Law Info |
2011/04/12 18:21
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Attorneys for the locked-out NFL players arrived at federal court on Tuesday to meet with the judge who will oversee court-ordered mediation with the league. The attorneys met with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan, with Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller in attendance. All declined comment. The NFL's attorneys are scheduled to meet with Boylan on Wednesday before the sides begin mediation Thursday. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered the mediation on Monday with the lockout at one month and counting. Nelson is still considering a request from the players to lift the lockout imposed by owners after the players dissolved their union, clearing the way for the court fight. The meetings will help get Boylan caught up with the arguments on both sides, setting the table for the first face-to-face negotiations between the players and the league since talks broke off March 11 in Washington and the collective bargaining agreement expired. |
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IBM files court motion to depose Daniels, aide
Business Law Info |
2011/03/31 15:36
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Gov. Mitch Daniels and his chief of staff were both deeply involved in Indiana's decision to outsource the automation of welfare intake, and they should provide depositions in lawsuits over IBM Corp.'s cancelled $1.37 billion contract in the project, a lawyer for the company argues in a brief filed this week in Marion Superior Court. The brief filed Tuesday by IBM attorney Andrew Hull notes Daniels at one point told a state employee union representative that the decision to upgrade Indiana's welfare eligibility system would "be made by me and me alone" and that Daniels personally signed the contract with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM. It also contends Chief of Staff Earl Goode was directly involved in all stages of the project from its inception to, after Daniels fired IBM in October 2009, the creation of a hybrid system that uses both automated intake and more face-to-face contact between state case workers and clients. "Both Governor Daniels and Mr. Goode were intimately involved in all stages of the project, including key events at issue in this lawsuit," Hull wrote in the brief.
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Delaware court upholds Barnes & Noble ruling
Business Law Info |
2011/03/04 14:44
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The Delaware Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by billionaire Ron Burkle in a lawsuit challenging a poison pill plan adopted by Barnes & Noble Inc. after he doubled his stake in the company. After hearing arguments Wednesday, the court on Thursday affirmed a judge's ruling last year upholding the poison pill plan, which limited a shareholder's stake in the company to 20 percent. Burkle argued that New York-based Barnes & Noble had created an unfair playing field favoring the family of chairman and founder Leonard Riggio, which owns more than 30 percent of its common stock. Burkle waged an unsuccessful proxy fight after the ruling but said he would continue to press for changes at the nation's largest brick-and-mortar book seller.
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Murdoch firm to pay Insignia $125 million
Business Law Info |
2011/02/10 17:12
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Rupert Murdoch's News America Marketing has agreed to pay a whopping $125 million to settle a years-long lawsuit brought by tiny Insignia Systems Inc. that alleged Murdoch's people unfairly interfered and lied in attempt to take business from the Plymouth company, which provides in-store promotions. The settlement, which is more than Insignia's market value and more than four times its 2009 revenue, was reached a day after the trial commenced before U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis. The deal was announced after the markets closed Wednesday. Insignia's stock has traded lately at more than $6.50 per share, a five-year high and partly in anticipation by traders that Insignia would win a favorable outcome in light of recent, similar settlements reached by other competitors of News America, which is part of Murdoch's News Corp. holdings. Insignia shares closed at $7.57, up 3 percent in Wednesday's trading. Under the settlement, New York-based News America will pay Insignia $125 million and Insignia will pay $4 million in return for a 10-year business arrangement that gives Insignia access to some News America clients. Insignia had sought more than $250 million in damages. |
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