Mr. Finance

Did Inside Connections Influence Glaxo's Bid For Reliant?

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Did Microsoft Panic With This aQuantive Buy?

A latest post on the NewsVisual.com suggests that it might have paniced. Here is the excerpt from the post titled: "Microsoft Acquired aQuantive with Few Relationships"

After mapping common board, investment, non-profit, education and executive connections between Microsoft and aQuantive using IntellectSpace's Knowledge Mapping tool, too few relationships showed up that bind these two companies.

From Microsoft's side, Gregory Maffei who was its Treasurer sits on the board of Electronic Arts, where he shared a board seat with Linda J Srere -- a current board member of aQuantive. Furthermore, Charles Norski, Microsoft's current board member, also sits on Morgan Stanley's board, where it intersects with Frederic Harman, a former board and a significant shareholder of aQuantive. Lastly, David Marquardt, a board member of Microsoft, is also an investor in Atheros, a company that Price T Rowe has also an equity position, similar to aQuantive.

What is not presented on this Knowledge Map may be more telling than what is. None of the relationships involve executive positions, implying that key executives of each company did not intersect paths before. This is important, because aQuantive has a marketing culture, while Microsoft has a technology DNA, and post-acquisition cultural rifts could be a concern. Furthermore, the board of Microsoft probably worked with its financial adviser without reaching out to the target directly, therefore it may not have as intimate of an understanding of aQuantive as when the leadership of both companies are personally connected through mutual relationships.

To experience an interactive version of the Knowledge Map, following this URL using your Internet Explorer browser: fn.intellectspace.com/...

Oracle to Acquire Agile Software for $495M, 14% Premium

Here is an excerpt from May 15, 2007 post on the NewsVisual.com blog titled "Oracle Leverges the Board to Buy Agile"

The following IntellectSpace Knowledge Map illustrates common connections between Oracle and Agile board members, and shows relationships of players who likely played key roles in the acquisition discussions.

For example, the Knowledge Map shows how Larry Ellison, Chairman of Oracle, shared a board seat with Gareth Chang on Apple's board who is also a board member of Agile (past board seats are denoted by dotted blue lines).

Common relationships between Oracle and Agile also include university ties, particularly University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, and Santa Clara University. Lastly, the Knowledge Map reveals that Sun Microsystems and Flextronics connected two board members of Oracle with two board members of Agile.

It is a good indicator for both parties in an acquisition to have deep board ties, because board synergies often translate to post-merger corporate synergies.

For an interactive version of this Knowledge Map, please reference the following URL using an Internet Explorer browser: fn.intellectspace.com/...

Reuters Agrees To Merge With Thomson; Regulatory Scrutiny To Follow

Here is an excerpt from the May 4, 2007 post on the NewsVisual.com blog titled "Visual Analysis of Thomson's Possible Acquisition of Reuters"

Automatically generated Knowledge Map by IntellectSpace shows common relationships that Thomson has with Reuters. These relationships involve primarily board position and non-profit relationships.

According to the Knowledge Map (URL Below), Steven A Denning, Michael Sabia, Mary Cirillo, and John Thomson who sit on the board of Thomson have multiple ways into the board of Reuters through IBM, Cisco, Royal Dutch Shell, Council on Foreign Relations, and other organizations.

To experience an interactive version of this publicly available Knowledge Map, navigate or paste the following link to your Internet Explorer browser: fn.intellectspace.com/...

Alcan/Alcoa Merger: This One Won't Be Easy

Here is an excerpt from the May 7, 2007 post on the NewsVisual.com blog titled "Visual Map of Alcoa - Alcan's Deep Board Connections"

Alcoa's unsolicited bid for Alcan, probably involved a number of individuals who were or are deeply connected in the network of board of directors. The extend of the board interrelationships of these two organizations can be best represented by IntellectSpace's dynamic Knowledge Map (URL Below).

Most notable Board relationships between between Alcoa and Alcan include:

Alcoa - Henry Chacht - Warburg Pincus - Jeffrey Garten - Alcan
Alcoa - Franklin A Thomas - Citicorp/Citibank - H Onno Ruding - Alcan
Alcoa - Franklin A Thomas - Citicorp/Citibank - Lawrence E Fouraker - Alcan
Alcoa - Paul H O'Neill - GM - Guy Sait Pierre - Alcan
On an interactive Knowledge Map, to see the details (dates, titles, etc) of the board positions denoted by colored lines, just hover your mouse (granted that you are using Internet Explorer as your browser). To "drill down" into the details of the relationship, just double-click on a given relationship line.

An interactive version of the Knowledge Map can be found here (Internet Explorers only): fn.intellectspace.com/...

Bausch & Lomb To Be Taken Private for $4.5B; Traders Anticipate Higher Bids

Here is an excerpt from today's post on the NewsVisual.com blog titled "Warburg Pincus is Deeply COnnected to Bausch & Lomb"

An IntellectSpace Knowledge Map of Bausch & Lomb's common relationships with Warburg Pincus, involving board, executive, non-profit, investment and other business ties reveals an interesting picture about who was involved in bringing the deal together.

John Purcell, a former but a long time board member of B&L shared a board seat with senior Warburg Pincus leaders including John Vogelstein and Sidney Lapidus through board seats on Journal Register Company and Information Holdings (Ih). As a matter of fact, Warburg Pincus had a direct equity position in Information Holdings as noted in the SC 13 and Form 4 filings (green line between Ih and Warburg Pincus on the Knowledge Map).

Ronald Zarrella, current board member of Bausch & Lomb, currently shares a board seat with Avaya, that is deeply connected to Warburg Pincus directly (through an equity position - green line), and indirectly (through a common board members - Joseph P Landy - blue line).

Lastly, Jonathan S Liden, a board member of Bausch and Lomb, shares a membership on the Council on Foreign Relations with Charles R Kaye and Henry B Schacht, both of whom are deeply connected into Warburg Pincus (thick red/blue lines).

For an interactive version of the Knowledge Map that at a single glance depicts the aforementioned relationships, navigate to or paste the the following URL into your Internet Explorer browser: fn.intellectspace.com/...

Alcoa and Alcan: Don't Be Surprised if Other Mining Giants Get Involved

Alcoa's unsolicited bid for Alcan, probably involved a number of individuals who were or are deeply connected in the network of board of directors. The extend of the board interrelationships of these two organizations can be best represented by IntellectSpace's dynamic Knowledge Map (URL Below).

Most notable Board relationships between between Alcoa and Alcan include:

Alcoa - Henry Chacht - Warburg Pincus - Jeffrey Garten - Alcan
Alcoa - Franklin A Thomas - Citicorp/Citibank - H Onno Ruding - Alcan
Alcoa - Franklin A Thomas - Citicorp/Citibank - Lawrence E Fouraker - Alcan
Alcoa - Paul H O'Neill - GM - Guy Sait Pierre - Alcan
On an interactive Knowledge Map, to see the details (dates, titles, etc) of the board positions denoted by colored lines, just hover your mouse (granted that you are using Internet Explorer as your browser). To "drill down" into the details of the relationship, just double-click on a given relationship line.

An interactive version of the Knowledge Map can be found here (Internet Explorers only): fn.intellectspace.com/...

IntellectSpace's analysis involving not just board members, but also non-profit affiliations, organization memberships, investments, education and other types of relationships of the Alcoa/Alcan's board further "tangles the web."

For example: James Pasman, Henry Schacht, Klaus Kleinfield, Kenneth Dam, Paul O'Neill, Ernasto Zedillo, and James Owens (all of whom have or had a board affiliation of Alcoa) are members of the Business Council, Council of Foreign Relations, Business Roundtable, Conference Board, and Trilateral Commission.

A complete IntellectSpace Knowledge Map representing these extensive relationships is available here: fn.intellectspace.com/...

Microsoft/Yahoo: The Reasoning Is Sound

MSFT – YHOO Deal Makes Sense Because Insiders Get Along
Microsoft and Yahoo have numerous common roots among the company’s board members and executives. The importance of common relationships between board members has been noted historically because most successfully negotiated mergers involve board members who have had past relationships with one another.

In Microsoft/Yahoo case, Orlando Ayala Lozano shares a board seat with Mr. Kern, who sits on the board of Yahoo. But, probably the most important relationship is between Charles H Noski and Roy Bostock, which possibly led the way for these discussions. Microsoft board member Charles H Noski and Yahoo board member Roy Bostock both sit on the board of Morgan Stanley – so most likely Morgan Stanley will play a role on this deal, were a deal to transpire.

If the merger takes place, executives from both firms have vast common connections, thus increasing the probability that these two firms will reach a common ground early into the merger, and personality friction should be minimal. Interactive URL (PC Internet Explorers Only): fn.intellectspace.com/...

Examples of executive synergies between the two firms include the following engagements that Microsoft’s executives have in common with engagements of Yahoo’s executives:

Harvard Business School (10 common relationships)
Stanford Business School (15 common relationships)
UC Berkeley (4 common relationships)
HP (3 common relationships)
Sprint (2 common relationships)
Global Crossing (2 common relationships)
Softbank (3 common relationships)
Ask Jeeves (3 common relationships)

Interactive IntellectSpace Knowledge Map (PC Internet Explorers only): fn.intellectspace.com/...

ABN Amro Agrees to Sell Itself to Barclays for $91 Billion

How well are ABN AMRO and Barclays Connected Before the Merger?
According to IntellectSpace, only one common connection exists between the Board of Directors of Barclays and ABN AMRO. This signifies a weak relationship between the two firms and may jeopardize the merger talks between them. The following Knowledge Map shows the only common Board connection - between Matthew Hickman and Hans Joerg Rudloff via CSFB. fn.intellectspace.com/... (View in IE Explorer 4.0+ only)


However, there is a strong relationship between the banks' executives. The Knowledge Map below shows that Lazard, Bank of New York, Lehman Brothers, and other financial institutions act as a common thread between ABN Amro and Barclays. fn.intellectspace.com/... (View in IE Explorer 4.0+ only)

Common relationships between LeSalle and Bank of America can be found here: fn.intellectspace.com/...

WebEx: Shares Jump 22% on News of $3.2B Acquisition by Cisco

<b>Cisco - WebEx Acquisition was Management Influenced, Board Approved</b>

Board members of Cisco have weak connections to the board members of Web-Ex, although synergies do exist. However, the executives of these companies are strongly connected to one another. IntellectSpace's auto-generated Knowledge Map didn't reveal many significant common relationships between board members of Cisco and Web-Ex (see below), but it uncovered significant overlapping relationships among their executives. One possible explanation for why this merger came to fruition was because the executives of both firms found compelling rationale for the merger, and sought approval from their respective boards.


Following Knowledge Map shows that there are almost no common board connections:

To view an interactive vesion, follow the URL below (Only with Internet Explorers supported):

fn.intellectspace.com/...

The bottom line is that these two organizations will have inherently strong management synergies that will allow these teams to merge well, creating greater value for shareholders.


The following IntellectSpace Knowledge Map shows common executive synergies between Cisco and WebEx.

To view an interactive version of this Knowledge Map, follow this URL: fn.intellectspace.com/...

CVS Shareholders Approve Caremark Buyout; Calpers Opposes Deal

CVS/Caremark Discussions Led by Leadership



At the helm of the CVS and Caremark discussions were the Chairmen of these two companies. Caremark Chairman and CEO Edwin Crawford and CVS Chairman and CEO Terrence Murray have both sat on the Board of Directors of FleetBoston for a number of years, along with Murray’s fellow CVS Board Member Marian Heard. While these were likely to be the primary 3 people involved in these discussions, there are also many other people who could have helped to influence the outcome of the deal. Below is the Knowledge Map depicting the key relationships between the two entities:

fn.intellectspace.com/...



Knowledge Maps are automatically generated by IntellectSpace’s Knowledge Mapping technologies.

Dollar General Goes Private Equity in Leveraged Buyout

Visual Map: KKR Leverages Former Relationships to Acquire Dollar General

Kohlberg Kravits Roberts &amp; Co (KKR) is using its relationships from former successful deals to drive its current deal-flow. The most recent example of this is the acquisition of Dollar General. An IntellectSpace analysis of common connections between KKR and Dollar General reveals that the two firms are quite connected. The primary relationships between them are via Safeway, Kraft, Beatrice Co, Bruno Inc, and several universities.

Taking a closer look at the two firms’ common connections, it is likely that the acquisition discussions were spurred and led by those relationships involving Bruno’s Inc. Relationships involving this company include:

- James Hagan was the CFO of Dollar General for many years, and was the CFO of Bruno’s Inc prior to his position at Dollar General

- Kravis, Roberts, &amp; Raether all served on the board of Bruno’s while Hagan was the CFO

However, Dollar General’s former President and COO, Lawrence Jackson, may have also played a key role. Jackson spent much of his career at Safeway, where 5 KKR professionals assumed board seats – among those 5 professionals were Kravis and Roberts. Both Kravis and Roberts assuredly had relationships with both Hagan and Jackson, so the high-level discussions likely involved these 4 individuals.

Lastly, Lawrence Jackson attended Harvard Business School, along with at least 4 KKR professionals. Since HBS students are typically strong networkers, it is very possible that HBS alumni played a role in facilitating this deal.

To view an interactive version of the IntellectSpace Knowledge Map, please use a PC-based Internet Explorer to view the following URL: fn.intellectspace.com/...