While 2015 mergers and acquisitions in Maine didn’t come close to the value of a $148.57 billion merger between Pfizer and Allergan, there were many notable deals.

Some of them involved smaller professional services firms. Bangor-based Cross Insurance continued its buying spree in 2015, acquiring Boston’s Knapp Schenck & Co., Corcoran & Havlin Insurance Group of Wellesley, and Schonning Insurance Agency of Westerly, Rhode Island.

Likewise, Portland accounting and consulting firm Baker Newman Noyes acquired Massachusetts-based William Steele & Associates PC and then the external audit and tax practices of Shatswell, MacLeod & Co. P.C.

But there were big deals, ones that involved hundreds of workers and millions of dollars in investments. The biggest Maine deals in which the terms were disclosed include:

Plum Creek and Weyerhauser

Still in the works is the acquisition of the Plum Creek land management company by timberland giant Weyerhauser. The $87.4 billion deal would give Weyerhauser control over 860,000 acres in Maine near Moosehead Lake and some of the state’s most pristine forests. Announced in November, Weyerhauser said it was seeking the deal to take advantage of an anticipated increase in demand for lumber and wood products as the construction industry rebounds post-recession.

ON Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor

ON Semiconductor of Phoenix, a competitor of South Portland’s Fairchild Semiconductor, is buying the chipmaker for $2.4 billion. Fairchild has about 650 employees in Maine. ON’s CEO said there was minimal overlap between the two companies and their product lines would complement one another. The deal, which is financed primarily with debt, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016. For its most recent quarter, Fairchild reported a net loss of $8.2 million and sales of $342.1 million, down 10 percent from the same period in 2014.

Verso and NewPage

In January, a judge approved the merger of paper companies Verso and NewPage, a transaction that reverberated throughout Maine’s paper industry. The $1.4 billion deal required NewPage to sell its mill in Rumford to Catalyst Paper in order to assuage anti-trust concerns. Verso had already shed its Bucksport mill the previous summer. The deals resulted in the loss of about 500 paper-making jobs in midcoast Maine. Since acquiring the Rumford mill, Catalyst has shut down one paper machine and laid off 50 people indefinitely. Verso laid off 300 from its Jay mill this fall.

Camden National Bank and The Bank of Maine

In March, Camden National Bank announced it intended to acquire The Bank of Maine for about $135 million in cash and stock. The merger, completed in October, makes Camden National the largest Maine-based bank by asset size, rising to $3.6 billion. About 5 percent of the banks’ combined workforce – roughly 35 people – were laid off in the wake of the merger and four branches in overlapping locations were closed.

Kepware Technologies AND PTC Inc.

Kepware Technologies, a Portland software development firm, is being bought for $100 million by PTC Inc. of Needham, Massachusetts. The acquisition, scheduled to close in early 2016, is expected to maintain Kepware’s Maine operations and workforce of 115. Kepware develops software that allows disparate industrial machinery to communicate with each other. It posted $20 million in revenue over the past year and has global customers in the manufacturing, oil and gas, and power and utilities industries.

Mid-Coast and Parkview hospitals

The two Brunswick hospitals had been locked in a battle to provide health care in the Brunswick region, with Mid Coast emerging the winner. A bankruptcy judge approved the merger, with Mid Coast paying Parkview $3.8 million and forgiving almost $560,000 in an advance the larger hospital made to the smaller one. Mid Coast also agreed to invest $1 million a year for three years in the Parkview campus. Parkview had entered into a bankruptcy proceeding in June; the merger was approved in August.

Copy the Story Link