Financial News

OAKLAND, Calif. Clorox is looking to sell its global auto care businesses, which include such brands as Armor All and STP, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $780 million.

The business will be sold to an affiliate of Avista Capital Partners, Clorox said. The transaction  -- in which the buyer will acquire the worldwide rights to distribute the market-leading Armor All and STP brands, as well as two auto care manufacturing facilities -- is expected to close by the end of this calendar year.

NEW YORK Revlon has announced a regular dividend on its Series A Preferred Stock, payable on Oct. 8, 2010, to holders at the close of business on Sept. 30.

The board of directors declared a regular dividend of $0.167434 per share on the Series A Preferred Stock for the period from July 8, 2010, through Oct. 8, 2010.

IRVINGTON, N.Y. Prestige Brands on Monday announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the stock of Blacksmith Brands for $190 million in cash. Blacksmith manages five over-the-counter brands, including Efferdent, Effergrip, PediaCare, Luden’s and NasalCrom.

With the addition of these five brands, OTC products in the Prestige portfolio now account for 75% of revenues and an even greater percentage of brand contribution.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. Johnson & Johnson is set to buy up the remaining portion of Dutch biotech company Crucell that it doesn’t already own, J&J said Friday.

The drug maker said the two companies were in “advanced negotiations” for J&J to buy up the remainder of Crucell for around $2.3 billion. J&J currently owns slightly less than 18% of the company through an affiliate.