Biggest Deals of 2009

Announced transactions valued or believed to be valued at $9 million or more, ranked by value Price Month Buyer, City Seller, City (millions) Description Announced 1 Windstream Corp., Little Rock Iowa Telecommunications Services Inc., $1,100.0 Purchase of telecom that will allow Windstream to expand into November Newton, Iowa Iowa and Minnesota 2 Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville $1,000.0 $500 million in 3 percent notes due 2014 and $500 million in January 4.125 percent notes due in 2019, generating proceeds of $991.34 million 3 Windstream Corp., Little Rock NuVox Inc., Greenville, SC $643.0 Purchase of local exchange carrier November 4 Tyson Foods Inc., Springdale $500.0 Sale of unsecured senior notes due in 2014 February 5 Argonaut Private Equity, Tulsa Chesapeake Energy Corp., $412.0 Purchase of assets in the Andarko and Arkoma basins, the latter January being partially located in western Arkansas 6 Windstream Corp., Little Rock $400.0 Debt offering to finance purchase of D&E Communications and September Lexcom Inc. 7 Windstream Corp., Little Rock D&E Communications, Ephrata, PA $330.0 Purchase of telecommunications company May 8 Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, Crosstex Energy LP, $266.0 Purchase of 290 treatment plants, including some in September Arkansas 9 Atlantic Tele-Network Inc., Salem, MA Verizon Wireless, , NY $200.0 Purchase includes Alltel divestiture assets, including wireless June spectrum licenses and network assets in rural areas of six states 10 Windstream Corp., Little Rock Lexcom Inc., Lexington, NC $141.0 Purchase of North Carolina telecom September 11 Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL $140.0 Development of manufacturing facility in North Little Rock that January will employ 600 12 Health Management Associates, Naples, FL Sparks Health Systems, Fort Smith $138.0 Sale of 492-bed hospital August 13 The Kroger Co., Cincinnatti $125.0 New and remodeled Kroger stores in Arkansas June 14 Home BancShares Inc., Conway $113.0 Sale of 5.7 million shares of common stock September 15 Phoenix Renewable Energy LLC, Hot Springs $110.0 Construction of wood pellet plant at Camden February 16 Tyson Foods Inc., Springdale XL Foods, Calgary, $105.5 Sale of Lakeside Farm Industries beef processing plant at March Brooks, Alberta 17 Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas Inc., Lake Mary, $100.0 Construction of wind turbine plant at Fort Smith October FL 18 LM Glasfiber, Kolding, Denmark $90.0 Long-term bond funding from the city of Little Rock for August development of a wind blade plant 19 Murphy Oil Corp., El Dorado Repsol YPF Ecuador S.A., Quito, Ecuador $79.0 Sale of all of Murphy Oil's properties in Ecuador March 20 Simmons First National Corp., Pine Bluff $70.5 Public offering of 3 million shares of common stock November 21 Southern Bancorp, Arkadelphia First Delta Bankshares Inc., Blythevillle $60.0 Purchase of bank holding company for First National Bank of April Blytheville and the Bank of Trumann 22 Silver Point Finance LLC, Greenwich, CT Equity Media Holdings Corp., Little Rock $58.0 Debtor in protection loan to allow Equity to continue operating February while it restructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy 23 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC Liberty Bancshares, Jonesboro $57.5 Purchase of preferred stock with exercised warrants as part of January the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 24 Arvest Bank, Fayetteville Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., $52.4 Purchased $411.3 million in assets and $421.3 million in December Washington, DC deposits of failed SolutionsBank of Overland Park, KS 25 Forest Investment Associates LP, Atlanta Potlatch Corp., Spokane, WA $50.2 Sale of 50,700 acres of timber in southern Arkansas July 26 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC Home BancShares, Conway $50.0 Purchase of preferred stock with exercised warrants as part of January the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 27 RMK Timberland Group, Winston-Salem, NC Potlatch Corp., Spokane, WA $43.3 Sale of about 24,800 acres of timberland near Prescott to RMK, January a division of Regions Bank 28 Dynamotive Energy Systems Corp., , BC $40.0 Development of biomass-to-biofuel plant in El Dorado area April 29 University of Arkansas at Little Rock $34.0 Bond issue for various building projects, including student August center expansion and nanotechnology building 30 University of Arkansas at Little Rock $30.0 Bond issue for student housing and outdoor recreation complex October 31 Daystar of Dallas and Bank of Little Rock Equity Media Holdings Corp., Little Rock $28.3 Sale of 59 television stations at auction April 32 Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc., Oak Brook, IL Tricore Partners, Atlanta $28.0 Sale of Alcoa Exchange Shopping Center, Saline County's March largest retail development 33 The Stephens Group LLC, Little Rock Goodman Networks Inc., Plano, TX $27.0 Equity investment in telecommunications services company July 34 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC Rogers Bancshares Inc., Little Rock $25.0 Purchase of subordinated debentures with exercised warrants January as part of the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 35 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC Chambers Bancshares Inc., Danville $19.8 Purchase of subordinated debentures with exercised warrants May as part of the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 36 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC OneFinancial Corp., Little Rock $17.3 Purchase of subordinated debentures with exercised warrants June as part of the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 37 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC White River Bancshares, Fayetteville $16.8 Purchase of preferred stock with exercised warrants as part of February the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 38 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas, $16.5 Purchase of preferred stock with exercised warrants as part of March Harrison the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 39 U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Biotechnical Services Inc., North Little $15.7 Contract for BSI to provide support services to the National May Washington, DC Rock Toxicology Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 40 Oxane Materials Inc., Houston $15.0 Construction of an oil and gas technology plant at Van Buren December 41 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC Community First Bancshares, Harrison $12.7 Purchase of preferred stock with exercised warrants as part of April the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program 42 Baldor Electric Co., Fort Smith $12.2 Expansion of plant at Kings Mountain, NC June 43 U.S. Treasury, Washington, DC Southern Bancorp, Arkadelphia $11.0 Purchase of preferred stock as part of the Treasury's Capital January Purchase Program 44 Farmers & Merchants Bankshares Inc., Stuttgart Lee County Bancshares Inc., Marianna $10.1 Purchase of holding company that owned First National Bank of November Marianna 45 Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville Shackleford Crossings, Little Rock $9.7 Purchase of 22.95-acre site for 203,000-SF Supercenter November 46 PA Alliance Trust, Batesville First State Bank of Lonoke, Fidelity $9.2 Purchase of stake in Batesville's First Southern Bank May National Bank of West Memphis, Cross County Bank of Wynne NR CI Capital Partners LLC, New York J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Swift NA Sale of Transplace of Dallas, a jointly owned third-party December Transportation, U.S. Xpress Enterprises, logistics and transportation management firm with annual Covenant Transportation Group Inc. revenue of $700 million NR 5 Star Sports Calendar LLC, Little Rock Mark McQueen, Fayetteville NA Acquisition of Game On, a Fayetteville sports schedule poster November operation NR ClearPointe, Little Rock TecWatch, Dallas NA Acquisition of IT company with 76 employees October NR Frost PLLC, Little Rock Ervin & Co. CPAs PA, Fayetteville NA Acquisition of accounting firm with 49 CPAs on staff October NR BKD LLP, Springfield, MO Lundy Allard & Co. PLLC, Rogers NA Mark Lundy, three CPAs and 10 staff members joined BKD; January former partner Bart Allard formed Allard & Co. PA NR Rock Financial Partners, Little Rock Clearview International LLC, Dallas NA Purchase of controlling interest in technology consulting September company NR Merkle Inc., Columbia, MD CMS Direct, NA Merkle acquired CMS Direct through CognitiveData, its wholly July owned subsidiary based in Little Rock NR Buyers Protection Group Inc., Atlanta LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., Glen NA BPG, a subsidiary of The Stephens Group LLC, purchased May Allen, VA LandAmerica Home Warranty Co. and LandAmerica Property Inspections Inc. NR Merkle Inc., Columbia, MD CognitiveData Inc., Little Rock NA Sale of marketing technology company May NR John Ryan, Kim Suggs, Steve Shelton, Scott University of Arkansas for Medical NA Sale of NovaSys Health, a third-party insurance administrator in February Shellabarger and ResourceOne Administrators of Sciences, Arkansas Children's Hospital Little Rock Dallas and St. Vincent Health System, Little Rock NR Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC Wehco Media of Little Rock and Stephens NA Warring newspaper publishers merge assets in northwest October Media of Arkansas to form new company NR Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter NA Merger of two established architecture firms to form new NA Architects Ltd. and Wilcox Group 40-employee firm Architects, Little Rock Sources: Company news releases, Arkansas Business archives, various public records. NR: Deals believed to be worth $9 million or more but not Researched by Gwen Moritz ranked because no value was announced publicly