Bass Pro to buy Cabela's?

[petegz28]

Really???

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/05/bass-pro-shops-explores-bid-for-cabelas-sources.html

Please say it ain't so!

[loochy]

That sucks. I like them both in distinctively different ways.

It's like when WWF bought WCW. Now the product will have no competition and will suck.

[Joshuabmayer]

Yes it's been mentioned for the last 2 weeks or so. I live close where Cabela's has there biggest store currently in Hamburg, PA. 250,000 sq ft building and they are always busy. They are tax free for 20 years and have the sweetest deal with the town. If this happens and Bass Pro closes it that would be a major loss in the area. Everything in the area is built around Cabela's and has the outdoor theme. Mcdonald's aside of it has deer antlers for overhead lights.

[petegz28]

That sucks. I like them both in distinctively different ways.

It's like when WWF bought WCW. Now the product will have no competition and will suck.

I agree. For firearms Cabela's has much better variety and prices. Generally speaking they have a wider variety of everything, imo.

[seclark]

never noticed much difference between the two.
sec

[petegz28]

never noticed much difference between the two.
sec

I have. Bass Pro has since gotten better but just go look at the variety of AR's at Bass Pro the go to a Cabela's. Noticeable difference.

Cabela's has about 6-7 rows of ammo, including bulk. Bass Pro has 3. From a clothing perspective I think Cabela's has a larger selection. Maybe it's just me but that's my opinion.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

I get all my camo gear at Cabelas especially winter gear. They have the best.

[Hydrae]

I hate it when large competitors combine like this.

[BigMeatballDave]

I never shop at these places, but there is also Gander Mtn.

How different could they possibly be?

[Eleazar]

Cabelas and Gander Mountain are much better.

[loochy]

Gander Mountain? Ugh. They are VERY limited in selection.

[BigMeatballDave]

Gander Mountain? Ugh. They are VERY limited in selection.Limited?

What? You can't get the right color of fishing bobber? :)

[Garcia Bronco]

Gander Mountain is almost not worth driving to most of the time

[bdj23]

Bass Pro usually has a place in it where you can get a beer.

[O.city]

Yes, it's definitely happening

[Munson]

This sucks. Cabela's is better in every way.

[loochy]

Limited?

What? You can't get the right color of fishing bobber? :)

They don't even have a fly shop (at least not the ones that I've been to).

[DMAC]

I seriously need to find out a way to become friends with Johnny Morris.

[58-4ever]

Scheel's FTW anyway suckas

[BigMeatballDave]

They don't even have a fly shop (at least not the ones that I've been to).

I don't even know what that is. :LOL:

[ptlyon]

When I want flies, I generally open a window or a door

[bdj23]

Scheel's FTW anyway suckas

Scheels is tits. That place has everything.

[ptlyon]

Scheels is tits. That place has everything.

Not cabelas sweatshirts

[Bwana]

Scheels is tits. That place has everything.

Scheels does have a good selection, we just got a new bigger one built last year but they are proud of their product. The most expensive sporting goods store in town unless you can find something on sale.

[Buehler445]

That surprises me. When I was there the two companies weren't shall we say, friendly.

[penguinz]

Scheels does have a good selection, we just got a new bigger one build last year but they are proud of their product. The most expensive sporting goods store in town unless you can find something on sale.
Scheels is very proud of their merchandise.

[loochy]

I don't even know what that is. :LOL:

It's a place where one can find fly fishing gear such as flies, fly tying materials, rods, reels, line, and advice.

They typically look something like this:

http://media.basspro.com/images/outdoorworld/storegalleries/fly-shop.jpg

[Buehler445]

They don't even have a fly shop (at least not the ones that I've been to).

Not all the Cabela's stores have them. Just where there is fly fishing locally.

[Potato]

cabelas is a hunting store with a fishing section and bass pro is a fishing store with a hunting section.. Bass pro is Walmart with taxadermied shit on the walls but nra museum in the Springfield store is pretty sweet.

[TribalElder]

Cabelas doesn't help because it is in Kansas

Bass pro is professional AIDS when it comes to gun prices

[Indian Chief]

Yes it's been mentioned for the last 2 weeks or so. I live close where Cabela's has there biggest store currently in Hamburg, PA. 250,000 sq ft building and they are always busy. They are tax free for 20 years and have the sweetest deal with the town. If this happens and Bass Pro closes it that would be a major loss in the area. Everything in the area is built around Cabela's and has the outdoor theme. Mcdonald's aside of it has deer antlers for overhead lights.

That's the Cabela's I go to all the time. Not sure I like this situation.

[threebag]

Yes, it's definitely happening

This

[Bwana]

I wonder how they are going to handle all the people out there that have Cabela's points that can be spent on merchandise? I think I still have a couple hundred bucks to use on my Cabela's credit card. I guess I better get after it.

[mdchiefsfan]

That surprises me. When I was there the two companies weren't shall we say, friendly.

For sure. I worked at Bass Pro doing LP; the target has been fixed on Cabela's for quite some time.

[ghak99]

I wonder how they are going to handle all the people out there that have Cabela's points that can be spent on merchandise? I think I still have a couple hundred bucks to use on my Cabela's credit card. I guess I better get after it.

I used mine the minute these talks started.

[Chiefaholic]

This will have a direct impact on my job. We build boats for a competing company against Bass Tracker. Cabelas are our largest single dealer, and good 'ol Johnny will make this one of his first changes. Nationwide, you're looking at a loss of hundreds of jobs.

[SAUTO]

Ranger?

Lowe?

[Bugeater]

This will have a direct impact on my job. We build boats for a competing company against Bass Tracker. Cabelas are our largest single dealer, and good 'ol Johnny will make this one of his first changes. Nationwide, you're looking at a loss of hundreds of jobs.
That sucks. Less competition isn't good for consumers either.

[Valiant]

Why is cabela selling? Purely for investors gains?

[Bugeater]

Why is cabela selling? Purely for investors gains?
Pretty much.

Targeted for transformation: With 11 percent stake, investor buys a big seat at Cabela's table

Cabela’s could be forced to sell itself, or carve the company into pieces, after a New York investor disclosed a big stake in the outdoor retailer Wednesday, saying it intends to push for changes.

Cabela’s has struggled recently with flagging sales. It said earlier this month that it would shelve part of its plans to open new stores. Now, it might be forced to do much more than that after hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. announced that it owns 11.1 percent of the Sidney, Nebraska-based retailer.

Elliott said Cabela’s shares are “significantly undervalued.” Some of the options that Elliott and stock analysts mentioned to jump-start the stock:

» selling the company as a whole
» putting the company’s real-estate portfolio — including its stores — up for sale
» spinning off the company’s valuable credit-card business

Big changes could have an outsized impact on the Sidney area, where the company employs more than 2,000 people. The city, which is about 400 miles west of Omaha, is home to 6,800 people. Cabela’s is No. 663 on Fortune Magazine’s list of the 1,000 largest companies in the United States.

Company Chairman Jim Cabela, reached by The World-Herald on Wednesday in Sidney, referred questions to Chief Executive Tommy Millner. Millner and other company executives didn’t return repeated calls for comment.
“It’s a little bit strange a company of that size is located in Sidney, Nebraska, which is the only thing in Sidney, Nebraska, so that’s going to cause a little bit of heartburn,” said Anthony Hendrickson, dean of Creighton University’s Heider College of Business.

Still, interim City Manager Geri Anthony said she wasn’t worried. The company’s base “has been here and they’ve expanded it so many times, I would doubt we would be in any danger of losing it,” she said.
In the meantime, she said, “we’re going to work with Cabela’s like we always do to keep them here, and we’re going to stay on top of it.”

Also read: What you need to know about Cabela’s, Elliot Associates and activist investors (http://www.omaha.com/money/what-you-need-to-know-about-cabela-s-elliot-associates/article_f8e65f46-7dde-11e5-88f8-a792c7b60756.html)

Beyond Sidney, Cabela’s has a wide footprint in Nebraska. Cabela’s has call centers in Sidney, Kearney, Grand Island and North Platte; data centers in La Vista and Papillion; and a merchandise-return center in Oshkosh. Its bank and credit-card units are based in Lincoln.

The company’s stock price, which had fallen 37 percent this year ahead of Wednesday’s news, was like bait for a so-called activist investor. They often pounce when they smell weakness, buying up gobs of shares and pressing for changes in hopes that those changes will lead to a spike in the stock price. They then typically sell their holdings for a tidy profit, if everything goes to plan.

This isn’t the Midlands’ first tango with an activist investor: This summer, ConAgra Foods was the target of New York investor Jana Partners, which called for changes at that company. ConAgra soon after announced the sale of one of its three main units, and earlier this month said it would slash 1,000 jobs in Omaha and move 300 others — and the company’s headquarters — to Chicago (http://www.omaha.com/changes-coming-at-conagra/collection_d6fe7dac-638d-11e5-aa5f-138c327a1318.html?_dc=270867749350.14545).

At Cabela’s, the company’s sagging stock price made it a prime target, said Nathan Yates, stock analyst and director of research at Forward View Consulting in Virginia. But “despite recent headwinds, it’s still a great business,” said Yates, who follows the company.

Those headwinds include slowing sales and a merchandise mix that hasn’t clicked with enough customers, said Tony Scherrer, director of research and portfolio manager at Seattle-based investment adviser Smead Capital Management. The firm has about $2 billion in assets under management, including about 1.15 million shares of Cabela’s.
Revenue growth in recent years, spurred by new store openings and roller-coaster gun sales, has masked the fact that individual stores’ sales have been falling, he said.

A combination of a relatively low share price and a thriving bank business adds up to “an attractive entry point” for Elliott.

“Now you’ve got an activist investor involved that’s going to throw their weight around to get something done here,” he said. Scherrer said he couldn’t speculate about what changes Elliott might try to make.
Elliott said in a government filing Wednesday that it wants to talk to the Cabela’s board about a number of “strategic alternatives” for the company. That phrase is Wall Street-speak for more than just window dressing — it usually means an overhaul is in the works, if the investor gets its way.

Such an overhaul could include:

» Selling the credit-card business

If Cabela’s were to spin off its credit-card business, known as Cabela’s Club, “I would expect probably a dozen to 15 bidders, with checkbooks wide open,” said Robert Hammer of RK Hammer Investment Bankers, based in Thousand Oaks, California.

Hammer represents buyers and sellers in such deals, and he said he would expect that Cabela’s could make a hefty profit, up to 20 percent above the book value of the loans, which were about $4.58 billion as of Sept. 26. The company also would probably continue earning money from new accounts created.
Post-recession, card issuers are looking to reboot their portfolios by adding new accounts with good credit, he said.

On an earnings call with investors last week, an analyst asked whether the company would outsource its credit-card operation. At the time, Chief Financial Officer Ralph Castner said, “the answer is no.”

The Cabela’s credit-card business also could be an attractive sell in order to allow top-level executives to focus on the lifeblood of the business: selling outdoor equipment and apparel.

Elliott might be asking “why an unrelated industry, such as real estate or credit cards, which is a financial-services game, might be under the umbrella of Cabela’s,” said Emre Unlu, associate professor of finance with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

» Getting rid of real estate

The company owns much of its real estate, a fact that might be attractive to Elliott. The real estate could be sold off and stores could lease it back from whoever buys it. On the earnings call last week, Castner and CEO Millner said they were considering selling non-store real estate.
But Ken Perkins, a retail industry watcher and president of research firm Retail Metrics, said selling real estate “reeks of financial re-engineering.”

Companies that have sold off real estate in recent years include Macy’s and Sears, both struggling businesses.
“If you absolutely need that capital to make investments in your business, that’s one thing, but usually this ends up getting spun back up to shareholders. It usually isn’t a sign of strength in the retailer,” Perkins said.
Activist investors usually don’t care about the long-term success of the company, he contended — only a short-term boost in quarterly earnings.

“These activist investors get in and out. They might not care how Cabela’s is situated in 10 years,” Perkins said.

» A merger or a private-equity buyout

Yates, the stock analyst, said he doesn’t suspect a merger between Cabela’s and any other retailer is in the works. Instead, a so-called private-equity buyout would be the logical path for a change of ownership, he said. In a private-equity buyout, an investor buys up all of a company’s shares and takes it off the public markets.
“The Cabela family may be ready to ‘cash out’ and this would be a good opportunity to do so,” Yates said.
Dick and Mary Cabela founded the business in 1961, selling fishing flies by mail order from their kitchen table in Chappell, Nebraska. As the business grew, they moved it to Sidney in 1969, later opening its flagship “catalog showroom” there in 1991 along Interstate 80.

If investors, including the Cabela family and Elliott, were to sell to private-equity investors, it likely would be profitable for them because private-equity firms typically pay large premiums over the company’s market value to entice shareholders to approve the deal.

That could be bad news for Cabela’s employees, though, as private equity firms are known to force efficiency and cost-cutting. A few years after the buyout, the firm would likely offer stock to the public again to cash out of the investment in Cabela’s.

Still, private-equity firms can provide some insulation from the fickle nature of Wall Street, said Hendrickson, the Creighton business dean.

“It has to belong to somebody who’s going to have the patience to let a bad-weather quarter or two hit and not get panicky and watch the shares deplete in the marketplace,” he said.

» Sell the company outright

If another retailer, such as a big-box store like Walmart, were looking to diversify, it could buy Cabela’s, Hendrickson said. That would be devastating for Sidney, as a large retailer likely would consolidate staff at its own headquarters.

“It’s just really going to depend who’s buying and what their interest and motivations are,” Hendrickson said, noting that he didn’t have any specific knowledge of whether any retailers would be interested in making a bid.
The Securities and Exchange Commission document filed Wednesday shows that Elliott began buying Cabela’s shares in late August.

In September, Cabela’s laid off 4 percent of its corporate workforce as part of “a corporate office restructure and reduction,” affecting nearly 70 employees.
Whatever it holds for Nebraska, Elliott’s stake was greeted warmly Wednesday by investors. Cabela’s stock rocketed nearly 18 percent higher on the day, closing at $39.28 a share.


http://www.omaha.com/money/targeted-for-transformation-with-percent-stake-investor-buys-a-big/article_15e6cdfc-7d84-11e5-a36b-f7d0bfa1ee99.html

[HonestChieffan]

I bought Cabelas when it went public. I hate to see this happen. BP will trash it up with off brand crap. But Scheels is 10x the quality of either so KC lucked out with that addition

[Chiefaholic]

Ranger?

Lowe?

Johnny already bought Ranger boats. Yes, I work for Lowe.

[Bwana]

Johnny already bought Ranger boats. Yes, I work for Lowe.

Damn Lowe makes some great boats, sorry to hear about you situation, hopefully they can pick up another fat contract.

[Dartgod]

Johnny already bought Ranger boats. Yes, I work for Lowe.

Damn Lowe makes some great boats, sorry to hear about you situation, hopefully they can pick up another fat contract.

We bought a Lowe Fishing Machine from Cabela's earlier this year.

[displacedinMN]

http://www.startribune.com/cabela-s-eyeing-options-may-sell-all-or-part-of-business/359937371/

http://www.startribune.com/cabela-s-massive-superstores-are-cannibalizing-each-other/336100361/

[bobbymitch]

I really don't understand these corporate raider types. They buy 11% of a stock and can force a breakup so they can make a boatload of bucks? They force thousands, of people out of work and don't give a crap as long as they get more money than any of us could spend in a lifetime.

[Bwana]

I just burned a couple hundred bucks I had in Cabela's points just to be on the safe side. I really don't know what to make of this whole takeover/sell off situation. I didn't want to wake up one morning and read how my points are now useless because Pro Bass or some other outfit bought out Cabela's, or how things are worse that they were letting on and they filed for BK protection.

[Squalor2]

in this neck of the woods, 3 of the top guys resigned 11/22.

Fishing Holdings President and CEO Randy Hopper confirmed Friday that he, Vice President of Sales Keith Daffron and Vice President of Finance Mendel Hughes resigned effective Nov. 23. Hopper declined to comment further.

[TribalElder]

I just burned a couple hundred bucks I had in Cabela's points just to be on the safe side. I really don't know what to make of this whole takeover/sell off situation. I didn't want to wake up one morning and read how my points are now useless because Pro Bass or some other outfit bought out Cabela's, or how things are worse that they were letting on and they filed for BK protection.

Congratulations your cabelas points are now bass bucks

The conversion rate is 5 points per bass buck

You can use your points at any bass pro gift store in America
* On Tuesday afternoons from 3-3:15 when moon is full

[Gonzo]

It wasn't long ago that my dad and I would drive out to either the Kearney or Sydney NE stores, (the only ones in existence) and hit their returned goods sale. Back when Cabelas was pretty much a mail-order company only.
We'd buy enough reloading supplies, boots, hunting clothes etc to get us through a few seasons. Man, it was awesome back then. It was really a big deal and if you went to the Sydney store, you'd spend all day wandering around. The prices were always great.
Now it's basically a Wal Mart. The customer service sucks ass.
Bass Pro is better, IMO. They want your business and don't harass your ass the moment you walk in the door about their fucking credit cards or membership bull shit.

[tooge]

I pretty much just shop for my hunting and fishing shit at Rogers in Liberty now. They have all the good fishing gear, good hunting stuff, but don't carry guns. Great guns does however, and is right next door. I once went to buy a fishing kayak from Bass Pro. They were out of stock. Rogers owner ordered me the exact same one for a few bucks less. He then told me no matter what price I see advertised for an item elsewhere, he can match it or beat it. Good enough for me, and it's two minutes from my house.