John Jellinek

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Encana Will Purchase Athlon Energy

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article: Encana Corp. has agreed to acquire Athlon Energy, a Texas based, shale-oil producer to the tune of $5.93 billion USD. Encana is a Canada based firm that will help their position within the state of Texas with this purchase.

While mainly operating within the natural gas sector, Encana is seeking to improve its oil output through the transaction. Within the recent year it has been trading natural gas assets for shale-oil holdings.

The most recent acquisition with Athlons comes at a price per share of $58.50, pricing it at 25% premium to the closing price on September 26. The Initial public offering from Athlon priced at $20 a share, making the sale a 300% increase. The $1.15 billion in senior notes that Encana will absorb makes the final total for the deal $7.1billion. This is the equivalent of buying each barrel of daily production from Athlon for $236,000 per barrel at todays output levels.

Encana’s goal of increasing its oil and natural gas production to half of its output is going to be expedited to reaching the mark by 2017. Athlon, Hold 140,000 acres of property which yields around 30,000 barrels daily. CEO Doug Suttles is optimistic about the possible increase in the Permian production in Texas, expecting output to increase to near 200,000 barrels per day by 2019. In the coming years Encana will plan on spending $1 billion to boost production through drilling in the new shale-oil area.

Suttles has a vision of great potential in the offering of Athlon which he has outlined in support of his buying decision. With his outlined plan, he expects to have Encana’s liquid’s production accounting for 75% of their operating cash flow.

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PayPal Options after Split from eBay

PayPal has split from its partner for years, eBay. now Carl Icahn has many options of where to take his newly single company. Possible options for the online and mobile payment system is to buy up smaller competitors operating within their area of expertise, or look for a merger with a larger company.

Soon to come, Apple Pay will offer assumed competition to long time giant within secure internet transactions eBay. With such competition on the horizon, Icahn is looking to be aggressive in his coming decision. Freedom will be to PayPal’s advantage with the options to provide services to eBay competitors, one example being internet retail giant, Amazon. The prospect of being able to provide service to multiple companies makes PayPal stronger in comparison to the new Apple payment method.

Analysts are speculating mobile payments to spike to $58 billion by 2017 from last years numbers, grossing around $1 billion. With that type of increase there is much room to jockey for between payment firms. The showdown between the two heavy weights is looming near and there should be some serious moves made before Apple fully launches Apple Pay.

Where will PayPal go with their new found freedom? A buyout may be in the works as bigger fish are looking at PayPal with big eyes. Google, Mastercard, Microsoft,  and Visa have all attempted payments systems with varying results. The history of acquisitions within these firms, Google and Microsoft in particular, points to possible offers being made in the near future.

PayPal is a sound investment for any firm, they will collect no debt from eBay and will leave with a decent amount of cash from the separation. The coming months will be very interesting as we watch what will come of the new opportunities across multiple companies and industries.

For the original article see here.

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Charity For Gamers

Children are meant to be able to exert their energy in constant activity. The average child can never sit still, has a short attention span and needs constant cognitive stimulation. For those who are sick in hospital beds, this becomes very difficult for them. Being confined into our walls for extended periods of time while fighting an illness is exhausting and frustrating. One charity is out to make a hospital experience as pleasurable as it can be.

The Get-Well Gamers Foundation was formed to provide mental stimulation and fun to children who have fallen ill. They use donated video games along with monetary donations to bring some joy to the hospital room. In a digital age where video games are reigning supreme in the younger generations, this is an extremely appropriate form of entertainment. Get-Well Gamers began in 2001, based off of founder Ryan Sharpe’s childhood, filled with illness. He recalled the boredom that set in during his hospital stays and wanted to help those going through a similar experience.

Currently, Get-Well is in 240 hospitals and has plans for expansion from just the younger video game enthusiasts. Working with AgeTech West, they are in discussions about developing a Wii Fit gaming program for seniors with Parkinsons disease. The charity’s long term goal? To become the, “Red Cross of gamers”.

For the original article, see ocregister.com.

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Elimination At Dover

Jeff Gordon cruised through the pressure of a Chase elimination race on his way to a victory at Dover last Thursday. This season NASCAR will be using a 10-race format to eliminate drivers from every third race in the Chase. This year, Dover was marked as an elimination race.

With the next round looming, three separate winners were automatically qualified by taking checkered flags. Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano all earned berths in the next round with their wins. While Kurt Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle, and Aric Almirola were eliminated from contention for the championship.

Gordon posted his fourth win of the season at Dover while collecting his 92nd checkered flag overall in his career. Along with Gordon from Hendrick Motorsports, Kasey Kahne also qualified for the next round by grabbing the 12th and final spot in the elimination cutoff. Kahne was forced to battle the entire race in order to finish 20th overall and lock in his position in the next round of the Chase.

The Chase for the Cup Rankings, are below:

1. Brad Keselowski

2. Joey Logano

3. Kevin Harvick

4. Jimmie Johnson

5. Jeff Gordon

6. Kyle Busch

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

8. Matt Kenseth

9. Ryan Newman

10. Carl Edwards

11. Denny Hamlin

12. Kasey Kahne

The next three-race elimination round begins on October 19th at Kansas Speedway. This round will be hosted by Kansas, Charlotte, and Talladega. Nerves are at ease for the time being until the next round begins, and with a quarter of the drivers in the current field set to be eliminated, competition will be ramped up the next time the engines are started.

For the original article click here.

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Google Acquisitions

Atlanta Motor Speedway and Kasey Kahne

According to a recent article: Kasey Kahne was able to pull out a dramatic win at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday night on the way to his first checkered flag of the year, 17th of his career. Kahne is no stranger to being under pressure late in the year when the chance for the playoff chase is hanging in the balance. He made the most of his opportunity though on Sunday edging out Matt Kenseth who was also winless on the year.

In a night full of wrecks and cautions there was much excitement building up to the dramatic finish. With Kahne’s victory he rounds out the Hendricks Racing team to be qualified for the Chase, all four are now in the running.

The Chase consists of 16 possible spots available to be able to dance for the Cup. With the results on Sunday, Kahne fills the 13th spot, and Kenseth, with his second place finish, grabs the 14th spot on points.

Harvick led almost 200 of the 335 laps during the race, losing the lead during each of his pitts. With the pitts not serving him well, it seems to be a rolling trend for him this year as his car has been fast, but pitts been slow.

Restarts were what served Kahne well that night as he took advantage of race stoppage to make up lost ground and recompose himself.Apart from the drama in the ending of the race, another type of excitement found its way onto the track at Atlanta Motor Speedway. A squirrel scurried onto the track during the first half of the race causing the then leader Harvick to almost flatten him around Turn 3 and 4.

In the bigger picture of the point rankings, Jeff Gordon leads all drivers, 21 points ahead of second place Dale Jr. Gordon blew a tire out on lap 78 and was forced to rally to finish 17th overall.

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Intersection of Business and Good Nature

Toms Shoes was a bold step in the right direction as far as for-profit companies coupling with a philanthropic alter-ego. The adoption of the buy one, donate one business plan has sparked a movement in consumers fashion choices as of late. It also provides a piece of mind that the purchase a person is making is going to a cause greater than themselves. Its a liberating feeling to be able to know someone can benefit from something as little as buying shoes.

For those who do not know, Toms offers unique looking, canvas material, shoes that are produced at a low cost. When purchased by a consumer, they inform that end-user that there will be a pair of the same shoes donated to someone less fortunate who possibly has no possibility of being able to buy shoes on their own. It is from this “cause-driven” marketing that launched Toms Shoes into a well known, humanitarian, brand.

Humans want to help each other, its a natural yearning to be able to assist those in need. This allows the average person to do so at their convenience, and wear the proof of their donation on their feet everyday. Being able to market a business as a cause related entity allows for them to be viewed in a different light than their competitors. Fundraising becomes easier, even early sales may be directly affected from this charitable label.

In recent years since Toms launched, many business owners and entrepreneurs have followed this role model and used it to implement this strategy in their own firms. Being able to stand back and use Toms business model as a benchmark other companies have boosted themselves and provided great services or products for less fortunate individuals.

To see the original article concerning the combination of business and philanthropy see here.

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Dollar Store Struggle

The $8.9 billion offer by Dollar General to take over Family Dollar was rejected late August foreshadowing a long ordeal ahead. The latter mentioned dollar store company has concerns over the sale due to possible anti-trust issues. With a complete sale of ownership to Dollar General, the transaction would come into serious scrutiny by regulators. A previous offer of $8.5 billion, cash and stock deal, would have had a better chance to make it past regulators, and was more likely to be accepted, says Family Dollar.

To appease the anti-trust regulations, on top of the new offer, Dollar General would agree to close 700 stores. They believe that this would curb any legal action coming down upon the transaction. Family Dollar did not feel comfortable with the deal even with the closing of the stores.

Many believe that this merger will not raise any Federal Trade Commission alarms. In recent years they have allowed the mergers of Men’s Warehouse and Jos. A. Bank, an inter-industry transaction that was not considered to be a violation of any anti-trust regulations. Within the proposed merger at hand, combining Dollar General and Family dollar may not affect the pricing of the target market, it would more closely compete with the giant Wal-Mart. Many believe this is enough precedent and consideration of customer well being for the FTC to allow it.

While currently at a standstill, the possibilities for a transaction occurring are still possible, even probable. Should the deal go through, Dollar General would hold about 20,000 outlets totaling $28 billion in revenue.

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