A serenade for the affections of Talen Energy Corporation (NYSE:TLN) might develop after lawyers acting on behalf of its investors said on Friday they are probing whether a takeover deal is good enough.
The news was enough to send Talen to the top of the risers of the S&P Midcap 400 index.
Lawyers Pomerantz LLP are investigating claims concerning the proposed acquisition of Talen by privately-held Riverstone Holdings LLC.
The investigation concerns whether the Talen directors are breaching their fiduciary duties by failing to adequately maximise shareholder value. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Talen shareholders will be entitled to receive $14.00 in cash for each share of Talen common stock held.
However, the merger price is below a recent analyst target price of $26.70 per share.
On Friday, Talen shares were changing hands at $13.98, up 17.1% on the day, and a smidgeon below the merger offer price. Briefly, the stock held $14.03 intraday.
Meanwhile, the S&P 400 was down 0.3% at 1,503.
But not all takeover targets enjoy stock price upside. Consider the misfortunes of CST Brands Inc (NYSE:CST).
Despite being on investors' radars following a Reuters report on Thursday that the convenience store operator is a takeover target, the stock was lower on Friday.
Reuters reported that Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard and 7-11 parent Seven & I Holdings had submitted offers to acquire CST.
Yet, the stock was 2.4% lower at $43.88 on Friday. An opportunity to get in?
It looks like social network Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has been listening to the concerns of investors, suppliers and users about CEO Mark Zuckerberg's influence. They now are minded that perhaps should he decide to leave his management position, it might not be a bad idea to remove his majority voting control of the company.
The proposal needs the backing of shareholders, at Facebook's annual general meeting on June 20 although some cynics may view the initiative as another slick variety of good public relations rather than active investor relations. Zuckerberg is, after all, still a young man.
Facebook shares were down 0.3% at $118.57 on Friday.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares celebrated after the company weathered an embarrassing episode on Thursday when the company's App Store crashed for more than two hours. Services were now fully restored and the share price was up 0.3% at $97.99.
The banking sector was having a rough time. At least it happened on a day when US non-farm payrolls, although up, disappointed hugely. It might be said that in a sense that poor jobs data as well as numbing hopes of economic growth, were intertwined with an earnings warning from Citigroup (NYSE:C).
The United States' third-biggest bank by total assets, Citigroup is looking at a difficult second quarter earnings result, according to its CEO Michael Corbat.
The bank's second-quarter net income will be about 25% below year-ago levels and flat compared with this year's first quarter Corbat told investors.
Citigroup shares were down 3% at $45.57 on Friday.