Morning Brief: Elliott Supports Revised Offer for NXP

Elliott Management Corp. said it will support the higher, revised $44 billion takeover offer for NXP Semiconductors from semiconductor giant Qualcomm. The new price tag works out to $127.50 per share. That’s a 16 percent increase from Qualcomm’s offer early last year, when it agreed to acquire the Dutch semiconductor maker for $110 per share, or $38 billion.

In August, Elliott's flagship fundElliott Associatesdisclosed it owned 6 percent of NXP and argued the shares were undervalued. In December, Elliott said NXP was worth $135 per share and then in January said it was worth even more than that. In Tuesday’s regulatory filing, Elliott said it agreed to tender the shares it owns in the deal. “Elliott believes that today’s announcement reflects a positive outcome for all NXP shareholders and is pleased that the company’s value has been recognized in the revised transaction terms,” it stated in a press release.

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Credit Suisse raised its earnings estimates and price target for hedge fund favorite Salesforce.com from $120 to $130 in advance of the cloud computing company’s fourth-quarter earnings report. “Channel checks indicate healthy end of year business and strong pipeline for 2019,” the investment bank tells clients in a note. At year-end, the stock was the largest U.S. long ofTybourne Capital Management, the third-largest long ofSuvretta Capital Management, and the fifth-largest U.S. long of Duquesne Family Office.

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BlueMountain Capital Managementnamed Colin Teichholtz head of global governments and agency MBS (mortgage-backed securities) in what is widely deemed a coup. He will be tasked with building the firm’s practice in trading interest rate products, with an initial focus on U.S., European, Asian and emerging market government debt, as well as U.S. agency MBS and other related fixed income markets, according to a press release. He will report to Andrew Feldstein, BlueMountain co-founder and chief investment officer.

Teichholtz was previously a partner and member of the executive committee at Pine River Capital, where he headed up fixed-income and relative value strategies. Before that, Teichholtz held important roles at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. BlueMountain currently manages more than $21 billion in assets.

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Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital boosted its stake inUS Foods Holding Corp.to more than 11.666 million shares, or 5.4 percent of the foodservice distributor.