Business Management - M&A

Only three weeks after Verso Paper’s CEO said acquiring NewPage was the key to its future, Verso announced it no longer wants to buy its rival. Why the sudden change of heart? In a mid-August interview with The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, Verso CEO David J. Paterson said that the company’s key strategy is acquiring ailing companies “to get the cost reductions we can't get on our own.”

Verso's new tack is something of a mystery. Chip Dillon, a long-time forestry industry analyst, announced yesterday that his Vertical Research Partners is dropping coverage of Verso because the company’s future is so unclear.

Hedge fund titan Steven A. Cohen wants the board of Clearwater Paper to separate the Spokane, WA-based company’s consumer products from its pulp and paper operations so either or both can be sold off, according to a regulatory filing Friday.

Clearwater calls itself the largest producer of tissue paper for private-label brands sold by grocery, drug, mass merchants and discount stores, and is a leading producer of bleached paperboard used in food packaging and commercial printing. It has 15 manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada, and reported second-quarter net income of $21.5 million on sales of $473 million.

PriscoDigital has been appointed the exclusive distributor in the United States and Canada for the Hostert Automatic Loader designed for the HP Scitex FB7600/7500 industrial printers. PriscoDigital will market, sell, install, train and service the devices, along with ancillary products that are manufactured by Hostert-Pro in Germany.

Rather than engaging in a good-faith effort to forge a union between North America’s two largest makers of magazine-quality paper, NewPage said, Verso’s owners are engaging in “tactics of holdup and delay” to weaken NewPage and hinder its emergence from bankruptcy protection.

NewPage’s bankruptcy case presents Verso “with both significant opportunities and risks,” an attorney representing holders of first-lien debt wrote to the bankruptcy court today.

NewPage is eager to exit Chapter 11 and hopes to file a plan of reorganization within 30 days, but says a proposed merger with Verso would undergo an antitrust review of at least six months.

As a national service provider for Mutoh’s wide-format printers, Bell and Howell will provide field support to the manufacturer’s warranty and extended-warranty customers in the continental United States, and will support time and materials customers with parts and labor.

RR Donnelley has signed a definitive agreement to acquire EDGAR Online in a deal valued at approximately $70.5 million. In other company news, Donnelley is closing its Danbury, CT, facility, a move that will impact 145 employees, according to Greenwich Time.

Bell and Howell and Neopost will collaborate to bring Neopost’s solutions to market as part of Bell and Howell’s new “Sprinter” series of mailing solutions. “The Neopost technology aligns perfectly with many of our customers’ business models, and allows Bell and Howell to offer the widest range of best-in-class solutions at the lowest cost of ownership,” said Bell and Howell CEO Les Stern.

Brandtjen & Kluge and The Brausse Group announced a strategic agreement in which the two companies will co-market the Brausse 1050 series of foil stamping, embossing and diecutting machines in the United States and Canada. “The combined efforts of our two organizations will result in a world class offering of equipment, training and support for our customers.”

Ferrostaal Equipment Solutions North America announced that Shanghai Electric’s automated, high-speed line of paper cutting systems are now part of Ferrostaal’s growing portfolio of solutions for commercial, in-plant and package printers in the United States and Canada.

“The acquisition of Wausau brands strengthens the breadth of our existing fine paper business with added scale in the marketplace, prospects for growth in new channels such as retail, and the opportunity to provide our customers with better service,” said Julie Schertell, president, Neenah Fine Paper.