One of the tasks I’ve recently been assigned is to make a list of all the companies purchased by another company, and the price paid for each. My formerly boundless confidence in the Internet has been shaken by the experience.
The company is Newell Rubbermaid, and a list of acquired companies is right on their website, since buying companies is a major part of their business strategy. However, digging up the prices paid is a little harder. In some cases, I’ve found news stories or SEC filings that report the price; but for others, I can’t find a damn thing.
Newell Rubbermaid is a public company, and the accountant assures me that public companies are required to disclose details like that price of a sale to the SEC. I think that I’m not looking in the right place.
I’ve tried Edgar Online, Edgar via the SEC, general Googol searches, and back issues of the Wall Street Journal online. Does anyone have any other ideas where I can look? It’s the company’s dime, so subscription fees are no problem if the information is available.
Unfortunately, your accountant is only partially correct.
An acquiring firm subject to SEC disclosure rules is required to specify a purchase price if the acquisition is material. Materiality is one of those nebulous concepts that can shift according to how tough your general counsel and your audit firm are, but generally any acquisition that moves revenues, cash flow or long-term liabilities by 5% is material. At any rate, 5% is the threshold for me to get pissed off if the acquiring company doesn’t disclose it.
That said, SEC reporting companies are required to report in the aggregate how much cash they paid for acquisitions.
You can find that on the cash flow statement as an entry under “Cash Flows from Investing Activities.” So if your target made only one acquisition during a quarter, you may be able to find the initial cash purchase price paid there. What you won’t find is stock issued for acquisitions (although that is sometimes an item under Cash Flows from Financing), future payments to be made from non-competes or earnouts (but check the Committments and Contingencies section of the footnotes).
I’ll check some of the trade rags I have to see if I can find anything about your specific company and drop you an email if anything turns up.