Technology Slice Blog

AGL To Buy Nicor - AGL Resources Inc., the owner of Atlanta’s natural-gas utility, agreed to buy Nicor Inc. for $2.4 billion in cash and stock, almost doubling the number of gas customers it serves. Nicor holders will receive $21.20 in cash and 0.8382 shares of AGL, valuing the target company at $53 a share, Atlanta-based AGL said today in a statement. That represents a 13 percent premium to yesterday’s share price and is 22 percent more than Nicor’s stock value on Dec. 1, before news of the company’s potential sale was first reported. The transaction is the biggest for AGL and the largest in the U.S. gas utilities sector this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Nicor, based in Naperville, Illinois, hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. a few months ago to auction itself, people with direct knowledge of the matter said last week. The price is 2.24 times Nicor’s book value and “looks like an expensive acquisition,” Gordon Howald, a Happauge, New York- based analyst for East S...