Smash ‘Em Up w/ Dennis Kneale

Are some companies just too big for their own good?

For two decades bankers have cobbled together giant companies with a myriad of moving parts - Sony, News Corp., and Disney , to name but a few.

And many times the sum of the parts is worth more than the whole. When that’s the case CNBC’s Dennis Kneale says, “Smash em up!”

Kneale may be onto something; smash-ups have a successful history.

In 1984 the government split up the old At&T into 7 regional bells and a long-distance giant. The move unlocked a vault of value. Then in 1996, AT&T broke itself up again and that created Lucent, one of the hottest spinoffs ever.

More recently:
- Time Warner spun off its cable unit
- Cablevision spun off Madison Square Garden
- GE is selling 51% of NBC Universal to Comcast.

But Kneale’s favorite smashup was Barry Diller's IAC in 2008. Since IAC split into five separate firms, their combined stock value is up some 200%!

So, who should rip a page out of the smash em up playbook? What big conglomerates would be better off crushed?

That will be the subject of a series of reports from Kneale on future episodes of Fast Money. Stay tuned!



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Trader disclosure: On July 12, 2010, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s Fast Money were owned by the Fast Money traders; Finerman's Firm Is Short (IJR); Finerman's Firm Is Short (MDY); Finerman's Firm Is Short (IWM); Finerman's Firm Is Short (SPY); Finerman Owns (AAPL); Finerman's Firm Owns (BAC), (BAC) Leap; Finerman Owns (BAC), (BAC) Preferred; Finerman Owns (GOOG); Finerman's Firm And Finerman Own (HPQ); Finerman's Firm Owns (JPM), (JPM) Leap; Finerman Owns (JPM)l Finerman Owns (WFC) Preferred; Finerman's Firm And Finerman Own (BBY); Terranova owns (GOOG), (AMZN), (MON), (APC), (GMCR), (MYL), (MRVL), (BAC), (ADI), (ADBE), (AKAM), (HES), (CVS), (AXP), (EMC), (ABT); Kelly Is Short (GS); Kelly Owns (BP) Puts; Najarian Owns (INTC) Call Spreads

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