Headlines earlier this week were about new mergers and acquisitions coming down the pike, including drugmaker Abbot Laboratories buying up Solvay for $6.6 billion in cash and Xerox Corporation...div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.taipanpublishinggroup.com/~ff/taipan?a=R1lwqNmvkqc:D6Orvtr0Q_E:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/taipan?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.taipanpublishinggroup.com/~ff/taipan?a=R1lwqNmvkqc:D6Orvtr0Q_E:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/taipan?i=R1lwqNmvkqc:D6Orvtr0Q_E:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.taipanpublishinggroup.com/~ff/taipan?a=R1lwqNmvkqc:D6Orvtr0Q_E:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/taipan?i=R1lwqNmvkqc:D6Orvtr0Q_E:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.taipanpublishinggroup.com/~ff/taipan?a=R1lwqNmvkqc:D6Orvtr0Q_E:wd9GD17jvC4"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/taipan?d=wd9GD17jvC4" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.taipanpublishinggroup.com/~ff/taipan?a=R1lwqNmvkqc:D6Orvtr0Q_E:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/taipan?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/taipan/~4/R1lwqNmvkqc" height="1" width="1"/

U.S. stocks broke a three-day slide and rose more than 1% Monday as a fresh round of strategic corporate deal-making spurred hopes that normalcy is returning to the financial system.  The multi-billion dollar merger announcements signaled a resurrection in merger activity and investors picked up stocks. 

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 124 points, or 1.3% and the broader S&P 500 index rallied 19 points, or 1.8% and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 40 points, or 1.9%.  The share gains were broad based with 28 of the 30 Dow components advancing.  On the New York Stock Exchange, four stocks rose for each one that declined in price.  Only 978 million shares exchanged hands on the NYSE.  Trading was light due to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.     

In a spate of big corporate merger announcements, Abbott Labs (NYSE:ABT) said it will pay $6.5 billion for Solvay's pharmaceutical business, and

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Monday September 28, 2009

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

XRX, PWRM, ABT, CSRH, CMCSA, CVAT, FMCN

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XRX, Xerox Corp.

XRX engages in the development, manufacture, marketing, servicing, and financing of document equipment, software, solutions, and services worldwide.

XRX said Monday it will buy Affiliated Computer Services Inc. for $6.4 billion in cash and stock to create a $22 billion business that combines XRX’s copiers, printers and document management services with the “business process outsourcing” of Dallas-based ACS., joining the expensive race among technology companies to broaden their offerings.

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PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB

Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in

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U.S. stocks jumped on Monday as more merger and acquisition activity in the last days of the third quarter encouraged investors following three sessions of losses.

Xerox Corp will buy Affiliated Computer Services Inc for $6.4 billion in a cash-and-stock deal that expands the copier company into technology outsourcing and data management.

Xerox shares fell 13.4 percent to $7.77 while ACS shot up 16.7 percent to $55.06.

Abbott Laboratories said it would buy the drugs unit of Solvay in a $6.6 billion deal, giving Abbott full control of its Belgian development partner’s cholesterol treatments and exposure to emerging markets.

Abbott stock rose 3.7 percent to $49.11.

“Deal announcements are helping the market off to a good start, especially as we had a bit of selling off last week,” said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.

“People were waiting for a time to get in, and now, they have it.”

With Monday’s gains, the Dow Jones

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According to Bloomberg, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said that the budget deficit may reach 6.8% of GDP next year, 4% in 2011, and 3% in 2012.  The Duma has recommended the ousting of banking lobbyist Anatoly Aksakov, whose comments earlier this year on devaluation shook the financial market, from the National Banking Council.  Car sales fell by 54% in August, the smallest decrease (year-on-year) in four months.  Belgium's Solvay has announced it has agreed to buy Sodium Group Investments Limited's majority stake in Russia's Berezniki soda ash plant for $230.2 million, Reuters reports.  The board of General Motors has met in Detroit under pressure from the German government to elucidate their plans for Opel.  Dixy, Russia's third biggest retailer, expects retail sales to rise by up to 18% this year.  Russia has been ranked...

This morning, Depomed (DEPO) announced it has signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Merck (MRK), whereby Merck will have access to the company's technology for extended release metformin. We expect that Merck is seeking to co-formulate Depomed's metformin XR candidate with its DPP-IV agent, Januvia (sitagliptin). Merck already sells a fixed-dose combination sitagliptin-metformin as Janumet. However, Janumet must be taken twice daily because the formulation utilizes an immediate release metformin. Despite the dosing requirement, Janumet posted sales of $155 million in the second quarter 2009. We believe that Merck will look to quickly formulate Januvia with Depomed's metformin-XR product, thus allowing for once daily dosing with an improved side effect profile and tolerability over Janumet. Merck has guided total Januvia/Janumet sales in 2009 to between $2.4 and $2.7 billion. In return, Merck paid Depomed an upfront payment of $10 million in cash. Depomed ...

We are initiating coverage of DepoMed (DEPO) with a Buy rating and $5 price target. We are excited about the potential for Serada, and enhanced formulation of gabapentin that utilizes the company's proprietary AcuForm technology, for the treatment of hot flashes / vasomotor symptoms (VMS) in menopausal women.Serada is currently in two phase III trials with data expected in the fourth quarter of 2009. Gabapentin is a molecule that has been well studied in hot flashes / VMS, and meta analysis shows it is the superior non-HRT efficacy option out there. Unfortunately, the dosing requirements and side-effect profile of the drug dramatically limits prescriptions in this market.With Serada, DepoMed is a significant opportunity in our view. We see the drug as a potential $500 million or more opportunity.DepoMed is also developing its AcuForm-enhanced gabapentin molecule for the treatment of neuropathic ...

bReason for comment/bbrbr York Pharma announced today that it has returned flammazine/flammacerium to Solvay. pThe transaction was originally structured as a series of two payments, the first of which for €17 million was completed in July and the remainder of €11.5 million, to be completed by the end of the year. The first tranche of this transaction was funded by an asset-based loan provided by Fortress Credit Corporation, an offshoot of the large New York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Group with the second being funded by other investors. pGiven the extremely difficult capital market circumstances of the last 6 months, York Pharma was unable to raise the second part of this transaction in cash and had instead, negotiated with Solvay a 'vendor note' to enable the transaction to complete and York to take full posession of the drug portfolio. However, Fortress decided in light of this to ...

Reason for comment York Pharma has just announced the acquisition of CellTran, a-Sheffield based company specialised in cellular based wound care and burn dermal therapy. CellTran had been funded to the tune of around £11 million by, amongst others the Wellcome Trust and local Development Authority money. York purchased the assets of the company from its administrators for £70,000. The company is located in the same building as York's Sheffield base and has developed two cellular therapy products (Myskin (TM) and Cryoskin (TM)) that have been launched and are manufactured in a facility that is licensed by the HTA (Human Tissue Authority).

Myskin is a cultured, autologous (from the patient) silicon-based epidermal substitute that is used for the treatment of various intractable or difficult to treat wounds (diabetic foot ulcers and other non-healing wounds) as well as partial thickness burns. Cryoskin is a monolayered allogeneic

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Summary Although it has taken some time to complete, the acquisition of Solvay’s topical Derm product line has accelerated York’s push to achieve the status of a self‑sustaining Specialty Pharma company. The valuation reduction is notable but it brings the company much closer to profitability and a more certain future in this volatile capital market period.

Key points:

Investor risk appetite aside, the markets may be missing a beat here – Patient investors are likely to be rewarded handsomely as on our estimates for 2011, York would earn around 59p fully diluted (based on inking partnerships with upfront payments). At a low 6x multiple on earnings (for a 30% grower) that would imply a stock price of around £3.50-£4.00, a 20-fold gain from today’s market price.

Debt servicing and repayment under the terms negotiated looks to be comfortably doable! – On our estimation, York will have no problem paying the interest and repaying the principle of the debt taken on assuming

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