Tom Taulli
California - http://taulli.com

Tom Taulli is the author of various books on finance, including The Complete M&A Handbook (Random House) and Investing in IPO's (Bloomberg Press). In addition to his writing, Mr. Taulli has appeared on high-profile television venues such as CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and has been quoted in the various print media sources such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and LA Times.

A friend of mine -- who recently came to LA -- ordered a Papa John's Int'l, Inc. (Nasdaq: PZZA) pizza. She used the Internet. All in all, it was pretty efficient.

Well, according to a recent report, Papa John's has sold about $1 billion in pizzas (over the past seven years). That's certainly a lot of dough, huh? And, as should be no surprise, the growth rate has been stunning: about 50% per year.

There is lots of competition, such as Dominos Pizza (Nasdaq: DPZ) and Pizza Hut. And interestingly enough, Pizza Hut plans to launch a web-enabled widget so you can get pizza at super-fast speeds (I'm sure this will be a big hit for Web 2.0 programmers, who tend to eat pizza at about 2 a.m.).

But, as my friend has experienced, there are some glitches. Ordering online it took two hours for her to get her pizza.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Since the onset of the credit crunch, it's been hard times for merger arbitrageurs. Simply put, there have been a variety of high-profile deals that have imploded.

And, of course, we have a new one: Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s abandonment of its proposed $47.5 billion buyout of Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

Yet, if you look at the stock price of Yahoo!, it looks like the arbitrageurs are still optimistic that a deal will happen. In fact, there is speculation that an activist fund will launch a proxy fight.

Yesterday, I met with a couple deal attorneys and we talked about IPOs. I learned that that they are currently working on an offering. Of course, the company is in the energy sector.

While the IPO market should remain listless, there are still a few sectors that are hot. Look at Colfax (NYSE: CFX), which launched its IPO today. The company priced its offering at $18 per share (the price range was $15-$17). So far in today's trading, Colfax shares are trading up 22% to $22.08.

Basically, Colfax is a major supplier of fluid handling products, such as pumps, fluid handling systems and specialty valves. The main customer groups include power generation, global navy, commercial marine and yes, oil & gas. Some of the brands include Allweiler, Fairmount, Houttuin, Imo, LSC, Portland Valve, Tushaco, Warren and Zenith. In fact, the Allweiler brand goes back to 1860.

Actually, the marketplace is highly fragmented, with more than 10,000 companies. So, with the IPO proceeds and public stock, Colfax is positioned for M&A deals (the company has already purchased 12 companies).

And the financials look pretty good. Last year, Colfax's revenues jumped 29% to $506.3 million and net income came to $64.9 million.

The lead underwriter on the deal is Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER). Also, you can find the prospectus at the SEC website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

I'm lucky. As a freelancer, I don't drive much. Although, I still don't like sky-high gas prices.

Well, in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), there's some help. That is, you'll find some cool web sites that provide some tools – even mobile applications -- to drive down the costs at the pump.

Simply put, if you spend some time, you're likely to find gas stations that provide a better deal. Actually, it's possible to save a couple hundred bucks a month.

So, where do you get these web services? Here are some examples:

• GasPriceWatch.com
• Automotive.com
• Mapquest
• AltFuelPrices.com
• interdimensionmedia.com

No doubt, if oil continues to remain at high levels, it's a good bet we'll see many more of these sites hit the Web.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

There's been lots of buzz with Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) lately. And it's to be expected -- in light of the intense competition, heavy customer churn, and the ailing stock price. For example, there were rumors that Deutsche Telekom is mulling a buyout of Sprint. Another possibility is that the company will unwind its Nextel merger.

Such things may happen. But, in the meantime, it looks like there may be another mega deal. According to a piece in the Wall Street Journal [a paid publication], it looks like Sprint is about to announce a $12 billion joint venture with Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR). Some of the key investors would include Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC).

Essentially, the new entity will roll-out a massive footprint for high-speed wireless Net access. No doubt, such a thing would be a nice thing for Google -- which needs a stronger mobile strategy -- as well as Intel, which needs to sell more chips. In other words, it's ideal for a multi-billion dollar cash call.

As for Sprint, this deal looks like a must-have. In other words, it will provide a differentiator in the tough marketplace.

There are still some big-time risks. After all, coordinating a project among a variety of heavyweights is never easy to manage.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Even though Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) revoked its buyout offer, Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares have been resilient. Actually, they are up 5% today.

Then again, the Yahoo! shareholder base is full of arbs, hedge funds and activists who want to force the company to get some type of transaction done.

Funny enough, the CEO of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang, is indicating that he's still interested in a hookup. But, of course, Microsoft seems to be pretty cool on things. After all, the firm was bidding against itself.

However, the fact remains that Yahoo!'s shareholders are perturbed. Take Gordon Crawford, who manages Capital Research Global Investors and controls roughly 16% of Yahoo!'s shares. He said he's "extremely angry at Jerry Yang" and wonders what the board was thinking. Basically, Crawford would have been happy with $34 per share.

Despite the volatility in the global financial markets, Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) has held up nicely. But according to its Q1 report, there are now signs of weakness.

Net income came to $7.8 million, or $0.14 per share, which was a 71% drop from the same period a year ago. A big culprit was the fall-off in M&A activity. Such revenues dropped 15% to $166 million.

Another issue was the corporate debt portfolio, which sustained a $28.5 million write-down. However, compared to other investment banks, this does look fairly minor. What's more, Lazard has been taking actions to improve things.

Interestingly enough, Lazard has snagged some plum advisory assignments on large capital infusions -- such as from sovereign wealth funds -- for financial institutions. This is a business that should continue to grow. And with Lazard's focus on advisory services, the firm should be in a nice position to be a major player in the space.

But in today's trading, Lazard's shares are down 2.59% to $36.53.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Aflac (NYSE: AFL), which is a major insurer, has an off-beat message – at least, according to its commercials (which involve a noisy duck).

Well, the company has made some history this week. That is, the shareholders can vote "yes" or "no" on executive compensation.

While it is non-binding, it is still important. If anything, its recognition from Aflac that its shareholders have a say on things.

Funny enough, the company really doesn't need this in terms of pacifying shareholders. After all, Aflac has been a solid performer.

However, does this mean we'll see other firms join in the trend? Perhaps some. But, when it comes to giving up a little power, you're likely to see lots of resistance in the boardroom.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Safety-Kleen got its start in 1963 as a parts washer for auto repair. However, by the late 1990s, Laidlaw bought the company and added waste disposal assets (such as for landfills). Unfortunately, a few years later, the company was mired in an SEC investigation and bankruptcy.

But after a painful restructuring, Safety-Kleen is back on track. In fact, the company has filed for a public offering.

As of now, Safety-Kleen is the largest collector, recycler and re-refiner of used oil. The company also is a provider of environmental solutions (such as containerized waste services). There are more than 200 facilities across the US, Canada and Mexico.

Customers include 420 of the Fortune 500 and more than 300,000 small-to-medium sized companies. In fact, this is a user base that tends to have recurring requirements, making for a nice revenue stream. So last year, Safety-Kleen posted $1 billion in revenues and $116.6 million in adjusted EBITDA.

Safety-Kleen has market power and a dominant brand (there is a key deal with NASCAR). And with extensive regulations, the company should continue to grow.

The lead underwriters on the IPO include Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM). You can also find the prospectus at the SEC website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

In January, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) made a gutsy move when it decided to purchase Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC). True, it would greatly expand its mortgage footprint, but it would also mean taking on lots of risk.

Of course, since then, the financials went into a swoon. In fact, the US financial system almost imploded because of the Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) debacle.

As a result, there is much skepticism that Bank of America will close its deal, as evident by remarks from an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. – Paul Miller – who thinks that Bank of America should forgo the deal.

His belief is that there will be a need for a whopping $30 billion writedown, which would be tough to swallow for Bank of America's shareholders.

Interestingly enough, there are already signs that Bank of America is getting skittish. Last week, the firm was not clear that it would back Countrywide's debt. The upshot was that S&P downgraded the debt to junk status.

And yes, in today's trading, Countrywide's stock is down 10% to $5.35.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

It's been slow, but the private equity folks are starting to warm up to dealmaking. In fact, a key deal came last week as Nordic Capital Fund VII and Avista Capital Partners agreed to plunk down $4.1 billion for ConvaTec, a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE: BMY).

ConvaTec, which focuses on wound care, has been a star performer over the years. What's more, the deal will allow Bristol-Myers to devote its resources to its core pharma business, which certainly has some challenges – especially as drugs come off patent.

In addition, the deal has a global flavor as Nordic Capital is in Europe and Avista in the US.

It also looks like Bristol-Myers is not finished with its own dealmaking. For example, the company says it plans to launch a public offering of its Mead Johnson division.

What this really looks like, however, is that all these actions, for the most part, may just be a prelude for Bristol-Myers to sell itself to a mega pharma company.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

I was convinced that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) would go hostile on Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). Microsoft is known as a tough player, right? And Yahoo seems to be a good strategic fit.

But of course, Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, has thrown in the towel on the $31 buyout offer. Apparently, he lobbed $33 per share – but the folks at Yahoo wanted $4 extra.

I can certainly understand why Ballmer doesn't want to overpay. After all, many M&A studies show that this is often deadly for dealmaking.

At the same time, Microsoft had the option of a proxy fight and a direct offer to Yahoo shareholders. However, Ballmer thought such things would be too distracting. But doesn't Microsoft have legions of attorneys and investment bankers?

While at a credit card conference recently, I met up with a data analytics expert. He talked about how companies like Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) have dominated their sectors because of their mastery of creative algorithms (for example, somehow Amazon seems to know the books I like).

Well, he also talked up myBarackObama.com. He thought this was the future of marketing; that is, using social networking to supercharge monetization.

He has a point. In fact, a recent piece in Bloomberg.com has some good thoughts on this.

Keep in mind that myBarackObama.com has extensive profiles on about 800,000 people. What's more, as members continue to interact with the site -- in terms of comments and so on -- the database gets stronger and stronger.

In other words, myBarackObama.com is a high value asset that could be instrumental for the Democrats in future elections.

OK, so what might myBarackObama.com be worth? If you look at the valuations of social networks like Facebook, the figure is likely to be substantial (by the way, Obama's Facebook page has 790,000 friends). And according to the Bloomberg piece, the estimate is that the market value is about $200 million or so.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Of course, the subprime crisis is a key element of the credit crunch. But there has also been another force: the huge build up of leveraged loans for mega buyouts.

Well, with the help of sovereign wealth funds -- and even some private equity firms, like TPG -- the subprime problem appears to be improving. And, interestingly enough, it looks like banks are also effectively dealing with the leverage loan overhang. This according to a piece in FinancialNews.com.

Basically, the backlog is now at $91 billion (which is a drop of nearly 60% so far this year). But we are already seeing signs that banks are opening up to new loans, such as with Basell's buyout of Lyondell Chemical Company. The major banks need the deal flow from private equity firms because of the juicy fees. So it's no surprise that we've seen a lot of action in getting things moving again.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

According to its conference call, things look good for NetSuite (Nasdaq: N), which offers an on-demand enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform for small and medium size businesses. Yet, it wasn't enough for investors. So far in today's trading, the stock price is down 16% to $18.72.

But, on its face, the Q1 report was strong. Revenues spiked 47% to $34.1 million and the net loss fell from $9.28 million to $2 million.

In fact, NetSuite had more than one million log-ins for the quarter and there were more than 400 new customers. Then again, the company continues to innovate – with new offerings like OneWorld, which is a good fit with multinational companies.

At the same time, NetSuite is striking key deals for distribution. For example, there is a new alliance with BT (NYSE: BT).

No doubt, Wall Street can get jittery – especially in the short run. But, NetSuite likes to say that it is gunning for the "Fortune 5 Million" businesses, which is a multi-billion market opportunity. And despite attempts from competitors – like SAP (NYSE: SAP), which recently scaled back its plans – NetSuite is still positioned nicely.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.