Cranberry Journal — Independent Business, Technology & Culture

The price is 49 per cent above Friday's close but $2.25 below what Bain itself proposed in January 2025. A nonprofit system is buying a for-profit surgery chain, and the chain will stay secular.

An empty operating theatre with a padded surgical table under a ceiling-mounted surgical light, flanked by two wall monitors, equipment carts, an anaesthesia unit and a blue gas cylinder, under white ceiling panels.

An operating theatre at Wings Hospital in Ahmedabad, India, in August 2013. File photograph.

By Thomas Gutierrez 2 hours ago5 min read

HealthSpan Partners, an affiliate of the Catholic health system Bon Secours Mercy Health, will buy Surgery Partners for $23.50 a share in cash, a deal valued at about $5.7 billion including debt, the two companies said in a joint release on Monday.

Surgery Partners, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, runs more than 200 ambulatory surgery centers, surgical hospitals and physician practices in 30 states. The price is generous against last week's share price. It is not generous against the price its largest shareholder, Bain Capital, proposed 21 months ago, and Bain is not selling.

The buyer is a nonprofit system's arm. Bon Secours Mercy Health, based in Cincinnati, reports about $14 billion of annual net operating revenue, about 60,000 employees and more than 1,200 care sites in the U.S. and Ireland, according to its own website. The deal's $5.7 billion enterprise value is about 41 per cent of that annual revenue, by this publication's arithmetic. The release describes HealthSpan Partners as "a contractual affiliate and supporting organization" of the system. Dr. Wael Haidar is president of HealthSpan Partners and president of clinical operations at Bon Secours Mercy Health.

A Boeing 737 MAX test aircraft in Boeing's blue and white livery, registration N8701Q, parked on an apron with work stands and stairs beside it, with hangars, hills and a blue sky behind.

Business

Boeing Delivered 161 Airliners Last Quarter and Lost About $4.3 Million on Each. Its 6,300-Jet Backlog Would Take About a Decade to Build at This Year's Pace.

The order book is not the problem.

By Daniel Okafor 2 hours ago

A UPS Boeing 767-300F freighter in brown and white livery, with 'Worldwide Services' on its fuselage and the UPS shield on its tail, flying with landing gear down against a clear blue sky.

Business

UPS Raised Its Revenue Forecast by $1.4 Billion and Its Profit Forecast by $100 Million. The Fourth Quarter Now Has to Earn 37 Per Cent of the Year's Profit.

The company is carrying fewer parcels for more money each.

By Daniel Okafor 3 hours ago

Business

The Richest Fifth of U.S. Households Spends $1,861 a Year on Its Pets. Cinnante Canine Is Building a Business Around Them.

By Margaret Holloway October 22, 2026

Business

Union Pacific's Revenue Rose 15 Per Cent, and 6 Per Cent Without Fuel Surcharges. At CSX, Surcharges Supplied More Than Half of a $430 Million Gain.

By Daniel Okafor October 22, 2026

Business

AT&T Took a $2.6 Billion Charge on the Mexican Business It Agreed to Sell for $2 Billion. GAAP Earnings Fell to $0.13 a Share; Adjusted Earnings Rose to $0.65.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 22, 2026

Technology

IBM's Software Revenue Grew 8 Per Cent While Consulting Was Flat. GAAP Earnings Rose 26 Per Cent, Against a Year-Earlier Quarter Cut by a $309 Million Tax Charge.

By Alison Acosta October 22, 2026

Markets

Texas Instruments' Revenue Rose 28 Per Cent and Its Guide Is Flat at the Midpoint. Federal Chip Grants Supplied $1.1 Billion of Its $8.4 Billion Free Cash Flow.

By Daniel Okafor October 22, 2026

Technology

Tesla Spent $4.73 Billion on Capital Projects Against a Forecast of $7.94 Billion. It Has Cut This Year's Budget to $20 Billion From More Than $25 Billion.

By Alison Acosta October 22, 2026

Money

Housing Starts Fell 5.2 Per Cent to 1.221 Million, Inside the Census Margin of Error. Signed Contracts Fell 7.3 Per Cent, and in Every Region.

By Daniel Okafor October 21, 2026

Opinion

Margaret Holloway

Business

Ovintiv Will Pay About $890 Million for Logan Energy, or $44,500 for Each Barrel a Day It Produces. By Its Own Benchmark, $340 Million of That Is for Wells Not Yet Drilled.

The price per flowing barrel is well above the $27,500 Ovintiv uses to value producing wells.

19 hours ago

Markets

Brazil's Stock Index Fell as Much as 17 Per Cent After Lula Won by 4.4 Million Votes. Measured in Dollars, It Closed About a Fifth Lower.

Investors had positioned for a win by Flávio Bolsonaro.

20 hours ago

Business

Verizon Added 406,000 Phone Subscribers in the Third Quarter, Up From 44,000 a Year Ago. It Says It Spent 41 Per Cent Less on Promotions to Win Them.

The phone numbers beat AT&T's for the quarter.

21 hours ago

Business

EQT Is Paying a 21 Per Cent Premium for Range Resources, in Stock. By Our Arithmetic, the Premium Equals Almost Seven Years of the Promised Savings.

At Friday's prices the offer was worth about $12.8 billion, a premium of about $2.2 billion.

22 hours ago

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A row of red and white ship-to-shore container cranes along the quay of the Yangshan deep-water port near Shanghai, with stacked containers stretching into the haze on the right. — Container cranes at the Yangshan deep-water port, which serves Shanghai, in 2013. File photograph.

The red-brick facade of the former Euclid Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, with a white arched entrance, a round window and a square bell tower, behind a temporary chain-link fence on a brick street at sunset.

National News

St. Petersburg Vowed to Protect Its Landmarks. Treehouse Sanctuary Inc. Says the City Shut One Down Instead.

By The Cranberry Journal Staff October 19, 2026

Distillation columns, storage tanks and a tall stack releasing white vapour at an oil refinery under a clear blue sky, with a Valero sign near the fence.

Markets

Valero Reports Thursday Against a $21.23 Consensus. A Year Ago It Earned $3.66, and in the Second Quarter $12.54.

By Daniel Okafor October 19, 2026

A glass office building and an older building with a tiled roof around a paved plaza, with a large blue Merck sign standing on the plaza.

Health

Merck KGaA Will Pay $20 an ADS in Cash for Silence Therapeutics, a 130 Per Cent Premium. The Price Is Built on One Drug, Not Yet in Phase 3.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 19, 2026

The top of the Fifth Third Center tower in Cincinnati, with the words Fifth Third Bank across its crown against a blue sky with clouds.

Business

Fifth Third Earned $828 Million With Comerica Fully Folded In. Its Efficiency Ratio Is 62.4 Per Cent, Against 54.9 a Year Ago.

By Daniel Okafor October 19, 2026

Editor's Choice

Workers in silver heat-protective suits and helmets pour molten metal from a large ladle into sand molds on a foundry floor, with flames and sparks rising from the molds.

Business

Pentagon Contractors Lose Their Critical-Minerals Waivers on 1 January. The Aerospace Industry Says Replacement Supply Is Not Expected Until 2028 or Later.

By Alison Acosta

The rule is a deadline for suppliers who may not know, today, which Chinese-origin tungsten sits inside their parts.

Latest News

Everything we have published, newest first

Technology

Tesla Spent $4.73 Billion on Capital Projects Against a Forecast of $7.94 Billion. It Has Cut This Year's Budget to $20 Billion From More Than $25 Billion.

Tesla said on Wednesday 21 October that third-quarter capital spending was $4.73 billion and free cash flow was positive $1.53 billion, against S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts of $7.94 billion and negative $4.09 billion. On the earnings call it cut its 2026 capital spending guidance to about $20 billion from more than $25 billion. Revenue was flat at $28.05 billion and GAAP operating income fell 55.8 per cent.

By Alison Acosta October 22, 2026

An aerial view of a long white factory building with a red stripe and solar panels on its roof, beside a large car park, in a desert valley with snow-capped hills behind.

Money

Housing Starts Fell 5.2 Per Cent to 1.221 Million, Inside the Census Margin of Error. Signed Contracts Fell 7.3 Per Cent, and in Every Region.

The Census Bureau said on Tuesday 20 October that September housing starts fell 5.2 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,221,000, while building permits were little changed at 1,400,000. The same day the National Association of Realtors said pending home sales fell 7.3 per cent on the month and 11.3 per cent from a year earlier.

By Daniel Okafor October 21, 2026

Timber wall framing and roof trusses of a new house under construction against a clear blue sky.

Business

McKesson Is Paying $1.4 Billion for Half of Option Care. The Deal Sets Up a Framework for It to Buy the Rest.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice and McKesson agreed on Monday to take Option Care Health, the largest independent home infusion company in the United States, private for $32.05 a share. McKesson is putting in about $1.4 billion for 49 per cent, and the agreement sets out a framework for it to buy the private equity firm's majority later. Lenders have committed more money to the deal than the two buyers have.

By Margaret Holloway October 7, 2026

A bag of blood with a drip chamber and tubing hanging from a stand in a clinical setting.

Northrop Grumman's Backlog Hit a Record $109.6 Billion. Its Cash Forecast Needs at Least $2.1 Billion in the Fourth Quarter, Less Than Last Year's $3.2 Billion.

Nine months of adjusted free cash flow total $965 million, so the full-year range needs $2.1 billion to $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter. That looks steep until it is set against the $3.2 billion Northrop generated in the last three months of 2025.

Margaret Holloway

3M Gave Amazon a Warrant for 3.16 Million Shares at $164.89. Most of It Vests Only After Amazon Pays 3M $6 Billion for Data Center Gear.

The $6 billion is the spending that earns Amazon its option, not an order. 3M does not report data center revenue separately, so the filings give no way to say how large a share of the business it would be.

Alison Acosta

An aerial view of a coastal launch site with a tall stainless-steel rocket standing beside tank farms and buildings, with tidal flats and the sea beyond.

Business

SpaceX Earned $4.4 Billion in the Third Quarter, $1.6 Billion of It Outside Operations. Musk Says SpaceX and Tesla Have Each Formed a Merger Committee.

SpaceX said on Tuesday 20 October that third-quarter revenue rose 161 per cent to $14.575 billion and net income was $4.404 billion, against a loss a year earlier. On the earnings call, Elon Musk said he thinks SpaceX and Tesla have each formed a special committee to discuss combining. Neither company has announced the committees or filed anything about them, and no terms exist.

By Alison Acosta October 21, 2026

Business

EQT Agreed to Buy Cleanaway for A$3.095 a Share, a A$9.3 Billion Deal. Three Days Earlier, the Stock Fell 7.6 Per Cent and the ASX Asked Why.

Cleanaway Waste Management said on Monday 19 October, Sydney time, that it has signed a binding scheme implementation deed under which an EQT Infrastructure vehicle will buy all its shares for A$3.095 each in cash, implying an enterprise value of about A$9.3 billion. The board recommends the deal subject to an independent expert's report. Shareholders vote before the end of February 2027, and FIRB and ACCC clearance are still needed.

By Daniel Okafor October 20, 2026

An aerial view of a landfill, with a compactor driving across a broad layer of mixed household waste and bare earth beyond.

The release gives a price, a protocol list and an accretion promise.

Markets

Tradeweb Will Pay $1.97 Billion for Trumid, and $220 Million of That Is for Tax Assets. It Has Not Said What Trumid Earns.

By Daniel Okafor October 20, 2026

Technology

Salesforce Will Pay $47.50 a Share in Cash for Braze, an Enterprise Value of About $5.66 Billion. It Has Agreed to a $300 Million Reverse Termination Fee.

Salesforce said on Tuesday 20 October that it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Braze for $47.50 in cash per Class A share, an enterprise value of about $5.66 billion. Closing is expected in Salesforce's fiscal 2028 and needs a Braze shareholder vote and regulatory approvals.

By Alison Acosta October 20, 2026

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Six men in T-shirts and work trousers stand in a row on grass beneath a large tree at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, smiling and making shaka hand signs.

The Navy Lent Six Pearl Harbor Welders to Electric Boat and 95.5 Per Cent of Their Weld Tests Passed. About 130 More Public-Yard Workers Are Coming.

Engineers in hard hats and life vests stand on grass around an open white electrical cabinet on a pier, with a large cargo ship and a red crane behind them.

A $4.5 Million Shore-Power Hookup in Jacksonville Is Meant to Switch Off Ship Generators That Can Burn 4,000 Gallons of Fuel a Day

An aerial view of a large tanker with a green hull and red deck moored at a jetty of the Primorsk oil terminal, with a second tanker at a berth in the distance and forest along the shore.

The First Russian Diesel Cargo Since Washington's Licence Was 40,000 Tons, Bound for Morocco. U.S. Pump Diesel Is 9 Cents Higher Than on the Day the Licence Was Signed.

A long grey concrete factory building with two bands of windows, seen across a road and a strip of tall grass under a hazy sky.

Tesla Reports on Wednesday With Capital Spending Forecast at $7.94 Billion, Up 253 Per Cent. Analysts Expect Free Cash Flow of Negative $4.09 Billion.

Markets

Steel Dynamics Earned $756 Million in the Third Quarter, 87 Per Cent More Than a Year Ago, at $1,400 a Ton. It Still Missed Its Own Guidance by Up to 12 Cents.

Steel Dynamics said on 19 October that third-quarter net income was $756 million, or $5.26 a share, on net sales of $6.5 billion and record shipments of 3.8 million tons. The average external steel price rose $102 a ton from the second quarter to $1,400. The EPS was below the $5.34-$5.38 range the company gave on 17 September.

By Daniel Okafor October 20, 2026