Merger Monday: Schulze Gets into Best Buy, Hertz Nabs Dollar Thrifty, and So On (BBY, HTZ, DTG, IBM, KNXA, MTB, HCBK, PROJ)

Plenty of action on the merger and acquisition front today, with founder Richard Schulze getting an okay from the board of Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) to conduct his due diligence; Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) finally closing a deal for Dollar Thrifty Group Inc. (NYSE: DTG); International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) acquiring social business firm Kenexa Corp. (NYSE: KNXA); M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) acquiring Hudson City Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK); and a private equity deal to take Deltek Inc. (NASDAQ: PROJ) private. Here are some details.

Best Buy has reached agreement under which founder Richard Schulze “will be granted access to certain due diligence information and permission to form an investment group with private equity sponsors in furtherance of making a fully financed proposal to acquire the Company.” In exchange, if Schulze should finally make an offer for Best Buy that is rejected by shareholders, he has agreed not to pursue an acquisition until January 2013. Best Buy’s shares are up 6.2% on the announcement, to $18.39 in a 52-week range of $16.25 to $28.53.

Hertz has agreed to an all-cash acquisition of Dollar Thrifty for $87.50 a share, or a total of about $2.3 billion. Hertz also has an agreement with Macquarie Capital and another company to sell Hertz’s Advantage unit for an undisclosed amount. That transaction likely was needed to get past antitrust concerns. Shares of Dollar Thrifty are up 7.4% on the news, but they had been rising steadily in anticipation of this deal closing.

IBM agreed to pay $46 per share in cash for Kenexa, or a total of about $1.3 billion. Kenexa is a provider of cloud-based social business software and services. Shares are up 41.6% at $45.88 in a 52-week range of $13.96 to $33.99. IBM’s shares are off 0.6% at $196.66 in a 52-week range of $158.76 to $210.69.

M&T Bank has agreed to acquire Hudson City Bancorp in an all-cash deal worth $3.7 billion, or $7.22 per share. The purchase price is a premium of 12% to Hudson City’s closing price on Friday. This could be a signal that more consolidation is on the way for regional banks. Hudson City’s shares are up 16.5% at $7.50 in a 52-week range of $5.09 to $7.62.

Private equity firm Thomas Bravo has acquired business software maker Deltek for $950 million, or $13 per share, a discount of 7.1% to Friday’s closing price. Thomas Bravo said that the share price has risen 24% since Deltek talked about sale prospects in June. Including the assumption of debt, the total value of the deal is $1.1 billion. Deltek’s shares are down 7.6% this morning at $12.95 in a 52-week range of $5.47 to $14.99.

Paul Ausick