By: Dylan Sikes - AllPennyStocks.com News

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

On Monday, both Bay Street and Wall Street shuttered their doors in observance of Labor Day in both countries. It may be a day of rest to celebrate the social and economic achievements of the working class in decades gone by, but corporations seemed to have been awfully busy finalizing deals that were released on Tuesday when the markets re-opened. Some deals were enormous, paced by Verizon Corp. (NYSE:VZ) agreeing to spend a whopping $130 billion to buy Vodafone out of its U.S. wireless business. In the deal, Vodafone is getting $58.9 billion in cash, $60.2 billion in Verizon stock and another $11 billion in other transactions. It is the third largest corporate transaction in history. Shares of VZ have slid 3 percent with the news.

In a deal that seems paltry by magnitude, Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) said it is shelling-out $7.2 billion to buy Nokia Corp.’s (NYSE:NOK) handset business. As part of the deal, Nokia’s Canadian CEO Stephen Elop, who used to be head of Microsoft’s business software division, is returning to Microsoft as head of the mobile device business. Some are already pegging Elop as a potential candidate to replace Microsoft’s retiring chief executive Steve Ballmer. Shares of Microsoft are down about 6 percent on the news and NOK shares have jumped ahead by 30 percent.

Though the deals weren’t in the billions of dollars, Canadian equities are responding more favorable towards companies announcing merger and acquisition activity.

CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSX:MBA) reported that it has signed a definitive agreement with Loyalist Group Limited (TSX-Venture:LOY) to sell its subsidiary King George International College & King George International Business College, collectively called KGIC. Loyalist is paying $13.5 million for the business, broken down into an upfront payment of $9.5 million at closing and $4 million six months later. CIBT will continue to run its KGIC operations in China as exclusive licensee.

CIBT bought KGIC for $4.5 million in March 2010 when it had about 5,000 international students and was generating $16.19 million annually. As it sells it to Loyalist, KGIC has over 8,000 international students and generated about $25 million in revenue during the fiscal year ended August 31, 2013.

Shares of MBA are up by 50 percent at 34.5 cents, while shares of Loyalist have risen 1.6 percent to 64 cents.

In another Canadian deal announced Tuesday morning, Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX-Venture:FCU) has inked a non-binding letter of intent to buy Alpha Minerals Inc. (TSX-Venture:AMW) for $7.67 per share. In a share transaction, the proposal is for shareholders of Alpha Minerals to receive 5.725 shares of Fission for each share of Alpha held, which at the closing price of Fission on August 23 (the day prior to Fission making an initial offer), represents a 14.5-percent premium to the price of Alpha Minerals. Fission’s first offer was for 5.3 shares of FCU for each AMW share, or about $7.26 per share at the time.

Fission’s goal is to get full control of the Patterson Lake South joint venture, which it currently splits 50/50 with Alpha.

Further, Alpha shareholders will get all of the shares of an unnamed new company to be spun-out for the purpose of holding all of Alpha’s non-cash assets and obligations other than their interest in the Patterson Lake South project. Fission will also spin-out a similar company for assets outside of the project and give the shares to current shareholders. Each new company will get $3 million in cash to fund future programs as well.

Shares of FCU have slipped 3.7 percent at $1.29 after initially moving upward in morning trading and shares of AMW are holding gains of 4.2 percent at $7.20. Both companies have had a strong year to date with each company rising about 350 percent in 2013.

Copyright © 2013 AllPennyStocks.com. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of AllPennyStocks.com's content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AllPennyStocks.com. AllPennyStocks.com shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.