Schaeffer's Daily Market Blog Features: Four Seasons Hotels, Microsoft, Abbott Laboratories, KOS Pharmaceuticals, and McKesson.CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the November 6 edition of Schaeffer's Market Blog are Four Seasons Hotels (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :FS), Microsoft (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :MSFT MSFT Microsoft (stock symbol) MSFT Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore (Italy) MSFT Multi-Stage Fitness Test MSFT Master of Science in Family Therapy MSFT Macalester Students for Fair Trade ), Abbott Laboratories Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is a diversified pharmaceuticals and health care company. It has over 65,000 employees and operates in 130 countries. The corporate headquarters are in Abbott Park, Illinois, a neighborhood of North Chicago, Illinois. (NYSE:ABT ABT About ABT Abteilung (German: Department) ABT Abbott Laboratories (stock symbol) ABT American Ballet Theatre ABT Associação Brasileira de Telemarketing ABT Abort ABT Availability Based Tariff ), KOS Kos also Cos An island of southeast Greece in the northern Dodecanese Islands at the entrance to the Gulf of Kos, an inlet of the Aegean Sea on the southwest coast of Turkey. Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KOSP), and McKesson (NYSE:MCK MCK McKinsey & Company (consulting firm) MCK Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (Quebec) MCK Mon Colle Knights (children's TV show) MCK Mirror Classes Kit MCK Maintenance Check ). Schaeffer's Market Blog is just one of the many free market commentaries written every day at www.SchaeffersResearch.com - the home of Bernie Schaeffer and Schaeffer's Investment Research. The Market Blog is written throughout every trading day In Business, the trading day is the time span that a particular stock exchange is open. For example, the New York Stock Exchange is, as of 2006, open from 09:30AM to 4:00PM. Trading days never take place on weekends. by Schaeffer's financial analysts and traders. They are quick insights to the day's most notable market activity from an options perspective. To have this report delivered to you free via email every day click on the following link and you'll also get an opportunity to win an iPod Nano A flash-based digital music player from Apple, introduced in 2005. Like larger iPod models, the nano has a color screen. Although the nano name suggests ultra-small "nanotechnology," the iPod shuffle is actually smaller. See iPod. . http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PROB PROB Probable/Probably PROB Problem PROB People's Republic of Bangladesh 13M&PAGE=1 . Don't forget that many of our observations are available as audio presentations that you can hear on your computer or download from Apple's iTunes Music Store to play on a portable device such as an iPod. To see the full menu of podcasts, please visit http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/commentary/podcasts/. 9:05 AM It's the Time of the Four Seasons Look for a flurry of activity on Four Seasons Hotels (NYSE:FS) today, as it received a $3.7 billion takeover offer worth $82 per share. The group of investors who tendered the offer include Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) chairman Bill Gates and Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, owner of Kingdom Hotels. The cash offer represents a 28-percent premium over the stock's closing price and 21 percent above the equity's annual high. If the deal goes through, FS Chairman and Chief Executive Isadore Sharp, who is leading the leveraged buyout leveraged buyout, the takeover of a company, financed by borrowed funds. Often, the target company's assets are used as security for the loans acquired to finance the purchase. offer, will retain his titles and be entitled to an incentive payout of $288 million. In pre-market activity, the shares have rallied to near the buyout offer of $82. 9:13 AM Hey, Abbott! This morning, news has surfaced that Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has agreed to acquire Kos Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KOSP) for $3.7 billion. The deal values KOSP shares at $78 apiece, quite the jump from the firm's Friday close of $50.09. ABT expects the deal to dilute ongoing earnings by between two and three cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. in 2007, and anticipates the transaction will be neutral to accretive in 2008 before "building to significant accretion thereafter." ABT also believes that the deal will result in unspecified one-time charges, primarily for in-process research and development and integration expense. According to Yahoo!Finance, KOSP engages in the development and commercialization of prescription products for the treatment of chronic cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory diseases. KOSP's products include Niaspan for the treatment of mixed lipid disorders; Advicor for the treatment of primary hypercholeterolimia and mixed dyslipidemia in patients previously treated with either component or who require additional lipid modification; and Azmacort product, an inhaled corticosteroid corticosteroid /cor·ti·co·ster·oid/ (-ster´oid) any of the steroids elaborated by the adrenal cortex (excluding the sex hormones) or any synthetic equivalents; divided into two major groups, the glucocorticoids and that alleviates inflammation in the lungs and is used as a treatment for asthma. ABT stated that the deal strengthens its late-stage pipeline, making note of KOSP's Niaspan and Advicor. 10:10 AM More Merger and Acquisition News Merger and acquisition news keeps rolling in this morning, as McKesson (NYSE:MCK) announced that it has agreed to acquire Per-se Technologies (PSTI PSTI PS Technologies, Inc. PSTI Personal Safety Training Inc (Spokane, WA) ) for roughly $1.8 billion, including debt. MCK made the move in order to expand its customer base and strengthen its portfolio. According to the terms of the deal, MCK will buy all outstanding PSTI shares for $28 in cash, which is a 14.5-percent premium to PSTI's Friday close. The deal is expected to close during MCK's fiscal quarter ending in March. According to MCK's chairman and chief executive John Hammergren noted, "Per-Se expands our customer base with products and services that augment and strengthen McKesson's solutions portfolio." The company also noted that it expects "synergies" will begin to be realized in the first year and that they will amount to at $50 million to $75 million on a pre-tax basis by the third year. MCK also expects to invest immediately in the future growth of the business being acquired. Currently, MCK is slightly higher, while PSTI has rocketed nearly 13 percent higher. For more information on these stocks or any stock in your portfolio, feel free to visit our Schaeffer's Equity Scorecard feature. Click here to read all of today's Market Blog: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PROB13C&PAGE=1. Take advantage of the timely Schaeffer commentaries by signing up for their free e-newsletters -- Opening View, Market Recap and Monday Morning Outlook. Click here to have the Schaeffer's commentaries delivered to you free via email every day and get entered to win an IPod Nano. http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PROB13M&PAGE=1. About Schaeffer's Investment Research (www.SchaeffersResearch.com) Schaeffer's Investment Research, founded by Bernie Schaeffer in 1981, is a financial information and trading resources company. It publishes Bernie Schaeffer's Option Advisor, the nation's leading options subscription newsletter. The firm's contrarian approach focuses on stocks with technical and fundamental trends that run counter to investor expectations. The firm's website, http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com , is recognized as one of the leading information sources for stock and options traders and was cited as the top options website by both Forbes and Barron's. Click here for more details about Schaeffer's trading methodology: http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com/method . |
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