Categories: OLD Media Moves

Nice story from an S-4

For those of you who have heard me lecture about finding stories in SEC filings, you know that one of my biggest pet peeves in business journalism is the fact that reporters don’t look enough at Form S-4 filings and other SEC filings related to mergers and acquisitions to write the behind-the-scenes story related to the negotiations.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to pick up my copy of The (Raleigh) News & Observer this morning and see a story about a local company that is buying a competitor based on the SEC filings related to the deal. The company is Donnelley, which publishes Yellow Pages books, and it’s buying another Yellow Pages publisher.

If you want to read the story, it can be found here.

Then, after reading the story, check out the SEC filing from which the details in the story came from: SEC filing.

It’s these type of stories that The Wall Street Journal does effectively, but smaller papers don’t do enough of, and they strip away the facade of the corporate boardroom. Two thumbs up to this reporter.

If you’re unfamiliar with S-4s, they are filed with the SEC when a company wants to issue additional stock to sell to investors. And why do companies typically want to issue new stock? To make acquisitions. And these filings often include the detailed negotiations between the two companies involved in a deal, including haggling about the price and how the new company will be operated and managed.

Recent Posts

Ledbetter: Insatiably curious and committed to journalism

Holly Sraeel of the FIN newsletter writes about its founder, James Ledbetter, who died earlier…

13 hours ago

WSJ’s Daldrup is departing for a new opportunity

Wall Street Journal project manager Till Daldrup is leaving for a new opportunity. He joined in 2019…

13 hours ago

Albuquerque Biz First hires March as a reporter

The Albuquerque Business First has hired Leah March as a reporter. March will expand the publication's coverage…

14 hours ago

NY Times’ “The Daily” hires WSJ’s Byrne

Maria Byrne has been hired as a senior editor for "The Daily," The New York Times…

17 hours ago

Inc. promotes Deczynski to senior editor

Rebecca Deczynski has been promoted to senior editor at Inc. magazine. Since joining Inc. in…

18 hours ago

The greatness of working for Jim Ledbetter

Graham Winfrey, the features editor for Inc. magazine, writes about its former editor in chief James…

19 hours ago