Thomas Kirchner's Page

We live in an era of bumps in merger payments that the buyer thought had been negotiated, and Google (GOOG) is about learn this the hard way in its $106 million acquisition of On2 Technologies (ONT). As the stock market continues to rally shareholders whose companies get acquired are… Continue

The extent to which the buyout of American Community Properties Trust (APO) by Federal Capital Partners is flawed was revealed in the company's recent proxy filing. One of the unhappy shareholders, Paul J. Isaac, was given the opportunity to continue to own ACPT even after the buyout. The other shareholders will forgo the… Continue

ETFs have been encroaching the turf of active managers for some time and are now taking head on hedge funds. The promise of hedge funds at ETF costs is very appealing but raises the inevitable question: can they do it? The upcoming IQ Arb Merger Arbitrage ETF (ticker will be MNA) is an example of one that is likely to fail.



The first thought is, of course, you get what you pay for. If this line of thinking has some validity, then alpha-generating talent is well worth paying 2/20 for.… Continue

Survivorship and backfill bias in hedge fund returns have been written about extensively. A recent article in Hedge Fund Alert drew out attention to yet another problem with the reporting of hedge fund returns. It turns out that last year's carnage has left so many hedge funds underwater that the returns posted for this year are not actually what you will earn if you are a new… Continue

It is doubtful that the buyout of the Hiland MLP (HLND and HPGP) by billionaire Harold Hamm will get… Continue