Tonight Cramer sais he is sick of hearing about the XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), but this sort of competition-eliminating and anti-competitive merger could spurn other mergers in other sectors. Vulcan (VMC) up 11 points in anti-competitive deal to buy Florida (FRK). Whole Foods (WFMI) is anti-competitive in organics buying Wild Oats (OATS). If the democrats take the White House in 2 years Cramer said the people at the DOJ may have to start taking their jobs seriously. There is now a gun to the head of a CEO that is considering a merger to hurry up and get this done before time runs out. This could bring upside to many names so here is FIVE out of a TOP 10 LIST. If it isn’t this list, they could at least be close according to Cramer:
10- Kroger (KR) & Safeway (SWY)
9- Quest Diagnostics (DGX) & Laboratory Corp (LH)
8- Carnival Cruise (CCL) & Royal Caribbean (RCL)
7- Office Depot (ODP) & Office Max (OMX)
6- Cardinal Health (CAH) & McKesson (MCK)
Keep in mind that many of these are VERY anti-competitive and would be blocked if the DOJ actually monitored mergers, so this is sort of a ‘merger wish list’ of Cramer’s that would be horrible for consumers and great for shareholders.
Jon C. Ogg
February 21, 2007