MaggieMoo’s International LLC, a Columbia-based ice cream parlor chain, has entered into an agreement to be purchased by NexCen Brands Inc. for an initial cost of $16.1 million.
MaggieMoo’s currently operates 184 stores throughout 36 different states.
Broken down, about $10.8 million of the acquisition will be in cash, and around $5.3 million will be in NexCen common stock, a release stated. The companies have also agreed to an earn-out arrangement that can entitle the sellers of MaggieMoo’s to get up to an additional $2 million, with about 10 percent of the amount coming in cash, and the rest in a mixture of cash and NexCen stock.
NexCen is a New York-based brand acquisition and management company.
Cubs, Under Armour reach endorsement deal
Baltimore-based Under Armour Inc. and the Chicago Cubs announced a partnership agreement Thursday that will put the first-ever signs on two outfield doors in left and right field at Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field.
The signs, 7-by-12-foot paintings of Under Armour’s signature logo, will be in place in time for the Cubs’ 2007 home season opener versus Houston, April 9, a release stated.
Under Armour also gets advertising rights to the sign space behind home plate in Wrigley Field, the second-oldest ballpark in the country.
The country’s oldest ballpark, Boston’s Fenway Park, features Under Armour’s logo on the Green Monster.
The deal is Under Armour’s most recent into the sport of baseball, where it recently debuted its line of baseball cleats.
As of Friday, Under Armour was trading at $47.31, down 25 cents, or .53 percent.
PNC-Mercantile merger approved
The U.S. Federal Reserve approved PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s (PNC) plan to merge with Baltimore-based Mercantile Bankshares Corp.
The $6 billion acquisition would make Pittsburgh-based PNC the 18th-largest depository in the U.S., with total assets of $116 billion, according a release from the Federal Reserve Board, a release indicated.
The deal, first announced Oct. 9, 2006, has PNC acquiring Mercantile’s subsidiaries in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
As of Friday, PNC Financial Services was trading at $75.60, down 1 cent or .01 percent.
Mortgage lender to be purchased by New York firm
Fieldstone Investment Corp., a Columbia-based real-estate investment trust will be purchased by C-BASS for nearly $260 million.
Following the announcement, shares of Fieldstone were trading at $4.96, up $2.36 or a staggering 90.77 percent.
A New York-based purchaser of credit-sensitive assets, C-BASS reports in a release that it expects the transaction to be completed sometime in during the next quarter. Fieldstone currently has a portfolio of about $5.7 million in loans.
The sale is related to the higher funding costs, weakening of loan demand and rising or delinquencies that have plagued other sub-prime lenders.
