It's almost time to close the door on 2010, and Deal Journal has chosen to mark the occasion with a look at the most important deals of the year. These mergers, acquisitions, IPOs and stock offerings may not be the biggest, but that is a boringly objective metric. Rather, we made our picks by digging into admittedly subjective criteria: what deals helped spark an important trend, catapulted an obscure company or deal maker into sudden renown, or was just plain weird? What, in short, tickled our collective fancies?
And then bring on the quibbles! Readers, let us know about where you think we got it right, and where you're sure we dropped the ball. What were the deals that captivated you this year?
***
Hewlett-Packard/3Par
Announced: September (first offer in August)
Deal Value (on announcement date): $2.1 Billion
The data storage company, which was hardly a household name, became the target of a furious ping-pong match between tech giants Dell and Hewlett-Packard. After their bids soared 83% from Dell's first lob, H-P emerged from the scrum with its $2.1 billion prize 240% more than 3Par's market value just before the initial offer.
The wild war between the two sometimes bickering giants had the technology and M&A worlds in rapt attention. The 3Par deal also encapsulated the rising demand for data storage. In the subsequent months, IBM bought Netezza for about $1.7 billion, and EMC agreed to scoop up Isilon Systems for about $2.25 billion. 3Par also proved tech companies are starting to get their grubby fingers in each other's business, with enterprise companies jumping into personal technology (see: Cisco) and consumer techies getting into business software and services (Dell, etc.).
***
Cnooc/Bridas Energy Holdings
Sinopec/Occidental Petroleum's Argentina unit
Sinopec/stake in Repsol's Brazilian offshore-oil unit
Cnooc-Bridas/Pan American Energy stake
March/$3.1 billion
December/$2.45 billion
September/$7.1 billion
November/$7.06 billion
The quartet of splashy energy deals - and many others this year ─ cemented energy and China as the biggest 2010 deal themes, as the government tries to feed the growing domestic thirst for energy. The deals led by Cnooc, the Chinese state-owned oil company, and giant refiner Sinopec also showed that China and Brazil increasingly can bypass the U.S. and do deals with each other.
And whether in China, Latin America or anywhere else, the 2010 M&A roster was energy-rich. There were $306.5 billion worth of oil and gas M&A in 2010, according to preliminary data from Dealogic, or 11% of total global M&A deal value. That's the highest year volume on record for the oil and gas sector, Dealogic said.
***
AIA Group IPO
October
$20.5 Billion
If the U.S. government's bailout of the financial world was the story for 2008 and 2009, extricating taxpayers out of those investments was the obsession for 2010 (and perhaps for 2011). Although the rescue of Citigroup and General Motors perhaps drew more attention, saving the drowning insurer American International Group cost Uncle Sam $182 billion worth of water wings. The AIA Asian life insurance business was a crown jewel of AIG, and it was stuck in a takeover tug of war with the U.S. taxpayer coming out on top.
AIG first considered an IPO of the unit, then spiked that amid a $35.5 billion takeover offer in March from Prudential PLC. In what turned out to be a wildly successful gamble for AIG, and for U.S. taxpayers, the board turned down Prudential after it knocked down the offer price twice amid stiff opposition from Prudential's shareholders. Instead, AIA sold two-thirds of the company in a Hong Kong listing that raised $20.5 billion. The IPO had folks inside AIG and the Treasury Department feeling smug, since the offering valued AIA at $36 billion higher than the first Prudential offer.
The rosier-than-expected AIA IPO arguably also cast a halo of confidence around AIG and its management, hopefully allowing the U.S. government to wriggle out of its 92% ownership in the company next year at a profit. Cross your fingers, America.
***
BHP Billiton-Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan
August (died in October)
$38.6 Billion
Two words: Brad Wall. The premier of Saskatchewan became the scourge of at least two continents, Europe and Australia, after he orchestrated the remarkable public opposition to BHP Billiton's $39 billion hostile takeover of a Canadian treasure we had never heard of, Potash Corp. Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP had everyone, including Deal Journal, scrambling to answer, what the heck is 'potash?' (It's a mined substance critical to growing food.) And, where the heck is Saskatoon? (To arrive at the capital of Saskatchewan, population 250,000, start in the metropolis of Casper, Wyo., and drive 14 hours due north until your snow tires freeze.)
In the end, this deal had everything: Protectionist harrumphing, never-materialized rumored bids from the Chinese and the Russians, a secret white knight in the form of an ad hoc collection of First Nations members, and finally a surprise block by the Canadian government. It was also the third major BHP transaction that went down in flames, making the mining giant a sad sack on par with the Los Angeles Clippers. And more deeply, the BHP-Potash fracas left even the most capitalism-supporting Westerners to ponder an uncomfortable question: how supportive are we really of foreign takeovers?
***
General Motors IPO
November
$20 billion
The 2009 bankruptcy of the century-old U.S. auto maker was a low point in American business. And while the IPO of a government-backed, wobbly as a newborn foal GM wasn't quite the Phoenix rising from the ashes, it was a remarkable turnaround. Now onto the next open issues: Winning favor for its cars, shedding more debt, continuing to repair relations with its workers and perking up the stock price further to allow the government to wriggle entirely out of its investment.
***
Special Bonus:
Apple-Next Computer
December 2006
$400 million
Yes, yes. We know this acquisition was made nearly 15 years ago.
But Apple's purchase of Next Software - the computing company Steve Jobs set up after he was bounced from Apple - started the Seer of Silicon Valley on a remarkable run of technology innovation, capped by the introduction of the iPad in 2010.
The tweener computing device helped cement Jobs's standing as one of the most lionized executives in the world. But just to end on a teeny note of iSkepticism: roughly 340 million computers will be shipped worldwide in 2010, according to iSuppli. Total sales of the iPad: 7.5 million, through Sept. 25.
And then bring on the quibbles! Readers, let us know about where you think we got it right, and where you're sure we dropped the ball. What were the deals that captivated you this year?
***
Hewlett-Packard/3Par
Announced: September (first offer in August)
Deal Value (on announcement date): $2.1 Billion
The data storage company, which was hardly a household name, became the target of a furious ping-pong match between tech giants Dell and Hewlett-Packard. After their bids soared 83% from Dell's first lob, H-P emerged from the scrum with its $2.1 billion prize 240% more than 3Par's market value just before the initial offer.
The wild war between the two sometimes bickering giants had the technology and M&A worlds in rapt attention. The 3Par deal also encapsulated the rising demand for data storage. In the subsequent months, IBM bought Netezza for about $1.7 billion, and EMC agreed to scoop up Isilon Systems for about $2.25 billion. 3Par also proved tech companies are starting to get their grubby fingers in each other's business, with enterprise companies jumping into personal technology (see: Cisco) and consumer techies getting into business software and services (Dell, etc.).
***
Cnooc/Bridas Energy Holdings
Sinopec/Occidental Petroleum's Argentina unit
Sinopec/stake in Repsol's Brazilian offshore-oil unit
Cnooc-Bridas/Pan American Energy stake
March/$3.1 billion
December/$2.45 billion
September/$7.1 billion
November/$7.06 billion
The quartet of splashy energy deals - and many others this year ─ cemented energy and China as the biggest 2010 deal themes, as the government tries to feed the growing domestic thirst for energy. The deals led by Cnooc, the Chinese state-owned oil company, and giant refiner Sinopec also showed that China and Brazil increasingly can bypass the U.S. and do deals with each other.
And whether in China, Latin America or anywhere else, the 2010 M&A roster was energy-rich. There were $306.5 billion worth of oil and gas M&A in 2010, according to preliminary data from Dealogic, or 11% of total global M&A deal value. That's the highest year volume on record for the oil and gas sector, Dealogic said.
***
AIA Group IPO
October
$20.5 Billion
If the U.S. government's bailout of the financial world was the story for 2008 and 2009, extricating taxpayers out of those investments was the obsession for 2010 (and perhaps for 2011). Although the rescue of Citigroup and General Motors perhaps drew more attention, saving the drowning insurer American International Group cost Uncle Sam $182 billion worth of water wings. The AIA Asian life insurance business was a crown jewel of AIG, and it was stuck in a takeover tug of war with the U.S. taxpayer coming out on top.
AIG first considered an IPO of the unit, then spiked that amid a $35.5 billion takeover offer in March from Prudential PLC. In what turned out to be a wildly successful gamble for AIG, and for U.S. taxpayers, the board turned down Prudential after it knocked down the offer price twice amid stiff opposition from Prudential's shareholders. Instead, AIA sold two-thirds of the company in a Hong Kong listing that raised $20.5 billion. The IPO had folks inside AIG and the Treasury Department feeling smug, since the offering valued AIA at $36 billion higher than the first Prudential offer.
The rosier-than-expected AIA IPO arguably also cast a halo of confidence around AIG and its management, hopefully allowing the U.S. government to wriggle out of its 92% ownership in the company next year at a profit. Cross your fingers, America.
***
BHP Billiton-Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan
August (died in October)
$38.6 Billion
Two words: Brad Wall. The premier of Saskatchewan became the scourge of at least two continents, Europe and Australia, after he orchestrated the remarkable public opposition to BHP Billiton's $39 billion hostile takeover of a Canadian treasure we had never heard of, Potash Corp. Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP had everyone, including Deal Journal, scrambling to answer, what the heck is 'potash?' (It's a mined substance critical to growing food.) And, where the heck is Saskatoon? (To arrive at the capital of Saskatchewan, population 250,000, start in the metropolis of Casper, Wyo., and drive 14 hours due north until your snow tires freeze.)
In the end, this deal had everything: Protectionist harrumphing, never-materialized rumored bids from the Chinese and the Russians, a secret white knight in the form of an ad hoc collection of First Nations members, and finally a surprise block by the Canadian government. It was also the third major BHP transaction that went down in flames, making the mining giant a sad sack on par with the Los Angeles Clippers. And more deeply, the BHP-Potash fracas left even the most capitalism-supporting Westerners to ponder an uncomfortable question: how supportive are we really of foreign takeovers?
***
General Motors IPO
November
$20 billion
The 2009 bankruptcy of the century-old U.S. auto maker was a low point in American business. And while the IPO of a government-backed, wobbly as a newborn foal GM wasn't quite the Phoenix rising from the ashes, it was a remarkable turnaround. Now onto the next open issues: Winning favor for its cars, shedding more debt, continuing to repair relations with its workers and perking up the stock price further to allow the government to wriggle entirely out of its investment.
***
Special Bonus:
Apple-Next Computer
December 2006
$400 million
Yes, yes. We know this acquisition was made nearly 15 years ago.
But Apple's purchase of Next Software - the computing company Steve Jobs set up after he was bounced from Apple - started the Seer of Silicon Valley on a remarkable run of technology innovation, capped by the introduction of the iPad in 2010.
The tweener computing device helped cement Jobs's standing as one of the most lionized executives in the world. But just to end on a teeny note of iSkepticism: roughly 340 million computers will be shipped worldwide in 2010, according to iSuppli. Total sales of the iPad: 7.5 million, through Sept. 25.
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