Departures
Supervalu's deal to sell its Albertsons and other grocery stores last June had a big impact on the overall fortunes of the Star Tribune 100. The sale nearly halved Supervalu sales in one year and carved out nearly 90,000 employees. Albertsons' new parent, Cerberus Capital Management, already has a deal to acquire rival grocery company Safeway.
A similar strategy to acquire and merge different brands to achieve instant scale was already underway in the coffeehouse industry last year when Caribou Coffee Co. was acquired by Joh. A Benckiser Group for $306 million. The deal closed in January 2013. Benckiser earlier had acquired the Peet's Coffee & Tea business. Benckiser converted some of the Caribou Coffee outlets on the East Coast to Peet's but will keep the Caribou brand in Caribou's strongest Midwest markets.
Edina-based Nash Finch Co. (No. 16 on last year's list) was sold to Spartan Stores Inc. on July 22, 2013, for about $700 million. The company's new name: SpartanNash. It is headquartered in East Grand Rapids, Mich.
MakeMusic, an Eden Prairie-based maker of music notation and teaching software that was ranked No. 91 last year, was acquired by LaunchEquity on May 1, 2013, for $4.85 per share or approximately $17.9 million.
Analysts International, ranked No. 64 last year, was acquired by American CyberSystems of Duluth, Ga., on Aug. 28 for $35 million.
Multiband Corp., a provider of voice, data and video systems and services to business and government clients that ranked No. 52 last year, was acquired by Goodman Networks Inc. of Plano, Texas, for about $103 million on Aug. 31, 2013.
New Jersey-based C.R. Bard, a maker of medical and surgical devices, acquired two Minnesota companies last year. In August Bard acquired privately held Medafor, based in Brooklyn Center, for approximately $280 million and later agreed to acquire publicly held Rochester Medical for approximately $262 million on Sept. 5.
We generally adhere to the rule that a company must be headquartered in Minnesota to be included on the Star Tribune 100. But we make exceptions in the case of No. 15 Pentair and No. 43 Stratasys, whose management headquarters are in Minnesota but whose legal headquarters are in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and Rehovot, Israel, respectively.
IPOs and Additions
Norcraft Companies Inc., a maker of kitchen and bathroom cabinets, completed an initial public offering on Nov. 13, 2013, and raised approximately $102 million. The company ranks No. 48 on this year's list.
In May 2013, Plymouth-based BioAmber Inc. completed a unit offering and raised $80 million. BioAmber is a sustainable chemical company that focuses on using renewable feedstocks such as succinic acid. It joins the list at No. 100.
We hadn't included real estate investment trusts but changed our criteria this year to include Silver Bay Realty Trust. The company is managed by affiliates of Minnetonka-based Pine River Capital Management.
We added another REIT to the list: American Church Mortgage. As the company name implies, the REIT specializes in mortgage lending for church construction projects.
We've added two limited liability companies: Granite Falls Energy and Highwater Energy. Both produce ethanol and distillers grains and are closely held by members who trade a limited number of membership units. Each makes regular filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and debuts this year at No. 52 and No. 56, respectively.
Reverse merger takeovers resulted in several new public companies. Generally in a reverse merger a smaller private company acquires a public shell company as a faster and less expensive way to achieve public company reporting status.
ANI Pharmaceuticals, a specialty and contract manufacturer of prescription drugs based in Baudette, Minn., went public through the acquisition of a publicly traded pharmaceutical company in October 2012. ANI joins the list at No. 82.
PetVivo Inc. may be added to the ST100 next year. Eden Prairie-based PetVivo became public through a public shell company transaction in February when a publicly traded Nevada-based company, Scan Technologies, acquired the privately held developer of medical devices for pets and later adopted the company name.
Not yet available
The Dolan Co., ranked No. 54 last year, was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in February and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. The publisher of legal and business information has delayed filing of its annual report.
