Courtesy of Benzinga.
The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Friday October 12, 2012:
Report Sprint Buying Remainder of Clearwire
The Rumor:
Sprint (NYSE: S) is reportedly to bid for the remainder of Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) that it does not already own, according to sources reporting on Friday.
Rumors of a possible Sprint acquisition of Clearwire surfaced on Thursday, as a prerequisite to a deal with Softbank.
Spokespersons for Sprint and Clearwire declined comment on the report.
Clearwire closed Friday at $2.32, a gain of 4.5% on almost 8 times average volume.
Ninetowns Receives Going Private Proposal of $1.80 to $2.00/Share
The Offer:
Ninetowns Internet Technology Group (NASDAQ: NINE) announced Friday that its Board of Directors has received a preliminary non-binding proposal letter, dated October 12, 2012, from certain directors and officers of the Company, including Mr. Shuang Wang, Ms. Min Dong, Mr. Xiaoguang Ren, Mr. Kin Fai Ng, Mr. Bolin Wu, Mr. Zhonghai Xu, Mr. Tommy Siu Lun Fork and affiliates of some of these directors and officers, that proposes a “going-private” transaction involving the acquisition of all of the outstanding ordinary shares of the Company not already owned by the Consortium Members at a price per share in the range of $1.80 to $2.00 in cash. Each American depositary share of the Company represents one ordinary share.
Ninetowns Internet Technology Group closed at $1.73 Friday, a gain of 60.19% on 52 times average volume.
Ecolab to Acquire Champion Technologies for $2.2B
The Deal:
Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) announced Friday that it has agreed to acquire privately held Champion Technologies and its related company Corsicana Technologies in a transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion, to be paid through a mix of approximately 75% cash and 25% stock. Champion is a Houston, Texas-based global energy specialty products and services company with approximately 3,300 employees in more than 30 countries delivering product and service-based offerings to the oil and gas industry. 2011 sales were $1.2 billion. Closing is expected to occur by year-end 2012, subject to regulatory clearance and other customary closing conditions.
Ecolab closed at $66.24 Friday, a gain of 4.04% on 2.5 times average volume.
