Western Union: One of the Most Quiet Spin-Offs Ever
Western Union: One of the Most Quiet Spin-Offs Ever
(via 247wallst.blogspot.com)
Jon Ogg of 24/7 Wall St. finds the lack of coverage of the Western Union spin-off "puzzling". Western Union (WU) was spun-off from First Data (FDC). As of Monday, October 2nd, it is trading as a separate company under the ticker symbol WU.
Western Union - Some were watching
I reported on the Western Union spinoff to the member of Fat Pitch Financials Contributor's Corner. Though reporting was a bit light on this one, I still saw several references to this spinoff last week.
True, Some Were
I agree there was some reporting. However, this was a very large spin-off of a well-known brand name. The Western Union name (and business) is well-known. The spin-off is huge. For those reasons, I was really surprised by how little attention this spin-off got.
On the other hand, the Hanes (HBI) spin-off didn't get a lot of attention apart from the larger Sara Lee (SLE) story, which - in my view - is actually the less interesting situation. So, this isn't solely a Western Union (WU) thing alone. Spin-offs in general get less attention than they should, because they really do provide a lot of interesting investment opportunities.
What surprised me was the lack of attention given the size and name recognition. I guess a spin-off just isn't as exciting as an IPO.
By the way, the Contributor's Corner is a great resource that mentions a lot of under-reported situations. So, it's really in a different league regarding such special situations.