On Tuesday, H&R
Block sold RSM McGladrey; its accounting and consulting unit, to its
working partner McGladrey & Pullen for $610 million. The tax
service provider said this sale would help it refocus on increasing
market share and margins in its core business. It was up 7.4% at the
bell. The midweek saw Unilever sell two major hair care brands to
Brynwood Partners for an undisclosed amount; in a deal struck to
satisfy the US Justice Department’s conditions on its $3.7 billion
acquisition of Alberto Culver. The private equity firm will take
control of the Rave brand as well as Alberto VO5’s US and Puerto
Rican units. The consumer goods giant was down 1.2%.
The following day, Verizon acquired CloudSwitch; a provider of cloud software, for an
undisclosed fee. The communications firm plans to combine the cloud
software provider with its IT subsidiary Terremark. They finished the
day 2% lower. Also that day, Compass Diversified Holdings purchased
CamelBak; a hydration backpack manufacturer, for $258 million. The
buyer dropped 1.7%. On Friday, Japanese telecoms company Softbank
said it would repay CitiBank’s $1.1 billion loan using its 4%
stake in Yahoo as per a 2004 agreement. Despite making a profit due
to Yahoo’s depreciation in recent years, the seller fell 0.5%.
CitiGroup was relatively unaffected by the news.