LOCAL BUSINESS
FirstEnergy ranks ninth
FirstEnergy was Akron’s highest ranked public company in a Crain’s Cleveland Business listing of firms based on market capitalization — or dollar value of shares of stock multiplied by share price. The listing of Ohio’s largest publicly traded companies was based on prices as of May 31. FirstEnergy was No. 9 at $16.3 billion.
Procter & Gamble, the Cincinnati consumer products company, was No. 1 at $210 billion.
Other area companies included on the list of 60 were: No. 15, J.M. Smucker Co. of Orrville ($10.8 billion); No. 24, Timken Co. of Canton ($5.5 billion); No. 30, RPM International Inc. of Medina ($4.4 billion); No. 33, Goodyear of Akron ($3.7 billion); No. 38, FirstMerit Corp. of Akron ($3.1 billion), and No. 51, Diebold Inc. of Green ($2 billion).
After Procter & Gamble, the remainder of the top 10 were: Eaton Corp. of Cleveland, Marathon Petroleum Corp. of Findlay, American Electric Power of Columbus, Sherwin-Williams Co. of Cleveland, Health Care REIT Inc. of Toledo, Macy’s Inc. of Cincinnati, Kroger Co. of Cincinnati, FirstEnergy, and Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati.
INVESTING
Dell’s $24 billion offer stands
Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC won’t sweeten their $24.4 billion offer to take Dell Inc. private, people with direct knowledge of the situation said.
Dell and Silver Lake are ruling out an increase because the $13.65-a-share offer they made in February represents a fair and significant premium to where the stock would trade if the deal fell apart, Bloomberg News reported.
Institutional Shareholder Services is preparing to make a recommendation to shareholders on founder Michael Dell’s buyout proposal. The investor advisory firm is leaning against the deal, people familiar with the matter said this week, and that would increase the likelihood that investors will oppose it at a shareholder meeting July 18.
Michael Dell, who founded the PC maker 29 years ago, believes he can keep control of the company in the long run even if he fails to take the company private, said one of the people familiar with the situation.
ACQUISITIONS
Cardinal may consider bid
Cardinal Health and another of the country’s big three drug distributors are vying for a stake in a German peer, according to reports.
Germany’s Celesio is a target of both Dublin-based Cardinal and rival McKesson Corp., according to two analysts who follow the industry. Celesio has hired Citigroup for advice on “a potential business collaboration,” the news agency Reuters reported.
Based in Stuttgart, Celesio has 39,000 employees in 16 countries and annual revenue of about $28 billion.
MEDIA
Payoffs alleged in Britain
News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch knew for years that journalists at his U.K. newspapers were paying public officials for tips, a British website reported, citing a recording of a conversation. “We’re talking about payments for news tips from cops: That’s been going on a hundred years, absolutely,” Murdoch, News Corp.’s chairman, told staffers, according to ExaroNews, which reported Thursday on the recording.
News Corp. continues to deal with fallout from the hacking scandal at its U.K. newspapers. Last month the company won approval of a $139 million settlement of investor litigation. British prosecutors said last month that a Sun journalist and corrections officer face criminal charges over bribes paid for information about U.K. prisons. “Mr. Murdoch never knew of payments made by Sun staff to police before News Corp. disclosed that to U.K. authorities,” the New York-based company said Thursday in a statement. “Furthermore, he never said he knew of payments. It’s absolutely false to suggest otherwise.”
Compiled from staff and wire reports.