Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in
Monday's session are Lufkin Industries Inc. (LUFK), Obagi Medical
Products Inc. (OMPI) and Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ).
General Electric Co. (GE) confirmed it agreed to buy Lufkin for
about $3.3 billion in cash to further expand an oil and gas
business that GE has built up via a string of acquisitions in
recent years. GE said it will pay $88.50 for each Lufkin share, a
38% premium to Friday's close. Lufkin shares rose 37% to $87.80
premarket.
Merz Pharma Group withdrew its roughly $385 million offer to
acquire Obagi Medical, citing Valeant Pharmaceuticals International
Inc.'s (VRX, VRX.T) sweetened bid for the specialty pharmaceutical
company last week. Valeant last Wednesday boosted its offer for
Obagi Medical to $24 a share, increasing the value of the proposed
deal to about $420 million from its earlier offer of $345 million.
Obagi shares dropped 5.6% to $23.99 premarket.
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (BUD, ABI.BT) and Mexico's Grupo Modelo
SAB (GPMCY, GMODELO.MX) have an "agreement in principle" with the
Justice Department to resolve a government antitrust lawsuit that
sought to block the two beer makers' proposed merger. AB InBev is
seeking to acquire the 50% of Modelo it doesn't already own. The
settlement terms include AB InBev offering to sell an additional
$2.9 billion of assets to Constellation Brands to rescue the
proposed $20.1 billion Modelo takeover. Shares of Constellation
rose 2.9% to $49.24 premarket.
Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) said the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration granted an additional breakthrough-therapy
designation for its investigational oral agent ibrutinib as a
monotherapy to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or
small lymphocytic lymphoma with deletion of the short arm of
chromosome 17. Shares rose 5.6% to $79.77 in light premarket
trading.
Watchlist:
Avon Products Inc. (AVP) will cut its global headcount by more
than 400, restructure or close some operations in Europe, Middle
East & Africa, and exit the Ireland market, continuing Chief
Executive Sheri McCoy's push to cut costs and streamline operations
for the door-to-door cosmetics vendor.
Bayer AG (BAYRY, BAYN.XE) said the New Drug Application for its
oral investigational compound riociguat has been granted priority
review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment
of two forms of pulmonary hypertension.
Dell Inc. (DELL) said it is willing to provide activist investor
Carl Icahn with the same expense reimbursement that it has offered
to its other two bidders, but only if Mr. Icahn drops his threats
to pursue a proxy fight and litigation.
Private equity firm MidOcean Partners has withdrawn its bid for
Edac Technologies Corp. (EDAC) for undisclosed reasons. Late last
month, MidOcean, along with Public Sector Pension Investment Board,
made a bid for Edac that valued the aerospace and
industrial-components maker at about $105 million, looking to trump
an earlier deal made with a private-equity firm.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded PNM Resources
Inc. (PNM) one notch further into investment-grade territory,
noting the utilities company has benefited from more-favorable
regulatory relationships in New Mexico and Texas.
Write to Anna Prior at anna.prior@dowjones.com
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