Phillip Morris & Swedish Match

[MN_Snuser]

My apologies if this has already been posted.

"Swedish Match rose sharply on Friday afternoon on speculation Philip Morris of the US was planning a bid."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/27b8498a-b...nclick_check=1

[snusjus]

PMUSA is trying to buy out Swedish Match? Lord help us...

[skruf_mcgruff]

I don't know as much about corporate buyouts as I probably should, but how does this work? Assuming swedish match is a public company, there isn't much anyone can do to stop PM from buying the majority right? I would really really hate to see this happen.

[tom502]

I think when this happens, the company runs as usual, just the "owner" reaps more profit. I think they did this already in S. Africa.

[MrSnusNSnuff]

I don't see this as a bad thing.

PM has extensive resources, and would be insane to change the entire lineup of Swedish Match products. They would lose their customer base, at least in Sweden and Norway. One possible side benefit of this is that we'll see more snus products for sale here in the U.S. Since they have substantial lobby power, it would help from losing snus here in the U.S. due to Federal legislation. PM realizes that cigarettes are a dying outlet for tobacco, and are looking to diversify their product line-up.

[RRK]

I don't know why but I have always liked Phillip Morris more then RJR.

[Veganpunk]

I'm kinda on the fence with this one. I see the good in it, but I could see PM f@$*ing this up as well. (I'd rather RJR not be douches and let us get Camel White back. )

[Anthony]

Checked up on this on the Bloomberg terminal. No news today, but late Friday there was this:

JPMorgan Says ‘Short’ Swedish Match Amid ‘False’ Bid Reports
2009-10-16 14:09:08.480 GMT

By Sarah Jones
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Swedish Match AB was added to
JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s so-called trading list as a “short”
bet, saying reports that Philip Morris International Inc. may
bid for the company will “prove false.”
We expect “the stock price to go down in the next two
days,” Erik Bloomquist wrote in a note to clients dated today.
“We do not think it makes sense for PMI to bid now.”
JPMorgan also reiterated its longer term “underweight”
recommendation.

[lxskllr]

I'm against change in all it's forms. Nothing good comes from change :^D

[justintempler]

Anyone notice that Philip Morris USA and PMI are 2 different companies? There are conflicting stories as to which company is the one that is interested.

Another thing to consider is Swedish Match used the proceeds of it's South African sale to help pay for a share buy back plan (which would give Swedish Match more control in the event of a takeover attempt). I don't know if the buyback was done for that reason.

[nzkiwi]

I'm to lazy to do the research, but i thought pmi had already purchased 50% of swedish match(merged). Is PMI trying to buy out swedishmatch?

As far as I know PMI and PMUSA are two seperate companies.