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"...02/04 02:31
Tyco Spent $8 Bln on Unannounced Acquisitions Over Three Years
By Rachel Layne
Exeter, New Hampshire, Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Tyco International Ltd., whose shares has tumbled 40 percent this year amid questions about its accounting, said it spent $8 billion in the past three fiscal years to make more than 700 acquisitions that were never made public.
Half of the unannounced purchases were made in the year ended Sept. 30 and cost $4.19 billion, said Tyco spokeswoman Maryanne Kane. That is equal to about 37 percent of the total $11.3 billion the company spent that year on acquisitions.
Tyco has lost about $46 billion in market value this year amid concern the company used acquisitions to mask slower growth. Bowing to shareholder demands for greater transparency in its accounting, Tyco said two weeks ago that it plans to split into four companies and pay off about $11 billion of its debt.
Disclosures of shares being returned by Tyco Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski and Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz, along with possible conflicts of interest on Tyco's board have helped to drag down the stock. Enron Corp.'s accounting lapses, management conflicts and failure has heightened concern of whether investors can trust the accounting of many companies.
In some cases the acquisitions were announced by the companies acquired or were listed on their Web sites, said Kane. The totals of the unannounced purchases were reported earlier today by the Wall Street Journal.
Swartz told the newspaper that Tyco hadn't give details of on its smaller acquisitions because they aren't ``material.'' Tyco spent about $2.3 billion in 2000 to buy 225 companies and $1.5 billion for as many as 175 companies in 1999 that weren't announced, Kane said...."
Regards, Don |
