How to record a Merger?

Question

On Oct 10th 2018 Refiner Andeavor merged with Marathon Corp. The deal had Andeavor shareholders receive $19.799044 cash and 1.62685156 Marathon shares per Andeavor share. How does this get recorded?

mtn_living · Answer

wish quicken would add a transaction type for this situation. I am dealing with this with Oaktree purchase by Brookfield for .6173 shares + $20.92 cash and I have a ton of dividend reinvestments and capital gains dividend transactions from Oaktree since I bought it a few years ago. This is a nightmare.

q_lurker · Answer

"How does this get recorded?"

Depends in part on what your cost basis was.  See also https://www.marathonpetroleum.com/content/documents/Investors/Shareholder_Services/8937_-_2.pdf

Per that 8937 form as chosen by MPC (YMMV), you received value of $134.05 in stock and $19.80 in cash per share of Andeavor that was held for a total value received of $153.85.

By my methodology which should be applied on a lot-by-lot basis:* If your basis / share in Andeavor was less than 134.05, you would sell your Andeavor shares for their basis + $19.80.  That would net you a capital gain equal to the $19.80/share cash that you received.  You would then buy the 1.63 times as many shares of MPC for the basis value you had in the Andeavor holding.  I would then Remove those shares of MPC followed by an Add Shares of that same number of MPC shares with the same cost basis but with the original acquisition date (applicable to the "sold" Andeavor shares).
* If your basis in the Andeavor shares was greater than 153.85 / share, I would sell the Andeavor shares at cost (no capital gains), then but the MPC shares for the cost of the Andeavor shares less the $19.80/share received in cash.  I would then Remove those shares of MPC followed by an Add Shares of that same number of MPC shares with the same cost basis but with the original acquisition date (applicable to the "sold" Andeavor shares).
* If your cost basis for the lot was between those two values, I would sell the Andeavor shares for the $153.85/share (capital gain but less than $19.80/share) then buy the MPC shares for an amount that leaves the $19.80/share cash in your account (effectively $82.84/MPC share).  I would then Remove those shares of MPC followed by an Add Shares of that same number of MPC shares with the same cost basis but with the original acquisition date (applicable to the "sold" Andeavor shares).

After those applicable steps were made, I would sell any remaining fractional shares of MPC for the cash-in-lieu amount you received.  There may be a small capital gain or loss on that transaction.

You might refer to this post for other similar mergers.

All the above is predicated on US taxpayer status (see the 8937 form for other caveats).  Do your own due diligence and confirmation.  Back up your data file first.

Snowman · Answer

First backup your data file, you can have the in reserve if you should make a mistake.  Open the account that has the merger.  Next click "Enter Transactions".  Select Corporate Acquisition (stock for stock).  Enter the information and click Enter/Done.