Nearly two years ago, Rayonier Inc. began a disposition program that resulted in the sale of $1.45 billion in assets.
“At the same time, as we considered the path forward following our disposition initiative, we became increasingly mindful of the advantages offered by a larger portfolio, especially as we look to grow our land-based solutions business and unlock value through land use optimization,” CEO Mark McHugh said in an Oct. 14 conference call with analysts, according to a company transcript.
“We also considered the potential benefits associated with having some direct exposure to wood products manufacturing, as well as the importance of scale when operating a public company in the current capital markets environment,” he said.
“Naturally, this led to discussions regarding a potential merger with PotlatchDeltic.”
Rayonier and PotlatchDeltic Corp. announced an agreement to merge Oct. 14 through an exchange of stock that values the combined company’s market capitalization at $7.1 billion.
“We believe that the merger between our two companies will result in significant strategic and financial benefits beyond what either of us could achieve independently,” PotlatchDeltic CEO Eric Cremers said in the conference call.
Rayonier is a nearly century-old company that has been based in the Jacksonville area since 2000, with its current headquarters in the company’s Wildlight mixed-use development in Nassau County.
McHugh will be CEO of the merged company, which will have a new name, but the headquarters will be moved to Atlanta after the merger.
The companies said they will maintain regional offices with significant employment in Wildlight and PotlatchDeltic’s current headquarters in Spokane, Washington, but said they are not ready to announce details.
“The reality of this merger is that we will have some overlapping roles, mostly within corporate and support functions,” Rayonier said in a memo to employees.
“At this very early stage, we do not have specific answers about how this will impact individual roles or which positions may be required to move,” it said.
Rayonier has been mainly a timber and real estate development company since spinning off its cellulose specialty products manufacturing business into a separate company called Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. in 2014.
But the company will return to the wood products business with the merger.
“The combined company will have an efficient and scalable wood products manufacturing business with 1.2 billion square feet of lumber capacity and 150 million square feet of plywood capacity,” Cremers said.
An analyst pointed out in the conference call that Rayonier has been avoiding the wood products business because of its volatility.
“As you know, lumber mill economics can be quite volatile, but well-positioned lumber mills, we think, can also generate strong returns over the cycle. We’ve also become increasingly mindful of the value inherent in being able to influence demand in markets that are important to our overall portfolio value,” McHugh said in response.
“What we find attractive about PotlatchDeltic’s lumber business is that it generates relatively strong margins and it’s a scalable platform. So overall, we think that this business will be a really nice complement to a 4.2 million acre combined timberland portfolio,” he said.
The wood products business will be a small part of the combined companies’ earnings power, according to their investor presentation.
It said timber accounts for 59% of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, with real estate at 39% and wood at just 2%.
Real estate development will continue to be part of the merged company. Besides Wildlight, Rayonier also is developing a community in Savannah, Georgia, called Heartwood and PotlatchDeltic has a development in Little Rock, Arkansas, called Chenal Valley.
“As we’ve discussed in the past, Rayonier’s Wildlight and Heartwood projects have a significant runway ahead of them, and we anticipate that contribution from these projects will grow significantly in the years ahead,” McHugh said.
“While PotlatchDeltic’s Chenal Valley project is relatively more mature, we expect it to remain a steady contributor to cash flows moving forward,” he said.
McHugh in recent months has touted Rayonier’s future as a “land resource company,” converting some of its real estate for clean energy uses such as solar and wind farms and carbon capture and storage.
He said in the conference call the merged company will create more resources for those uses.
“Both companies have already made great strides on the solar front over the past few years, and through this transaction, both companies are gaining exposure to additional revenue streams,” McHugh said.
“Further, we see a lot of upside potential in carbon markets over the long term,” he said.
“We believe the combined companies will be much better positioned as a potential supplier of choice.”
As Johnson & Johnson reported third-quarter earnings Oct. 14, it also announced a plan to spin off its orthopedics business and said its Jacksonville-based vision products unit will be one of six key growth areas for the company going forward.
Johnson & Johnson Vision reported third-quarter sales, adjusted for the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, rose 6.1% to $1.4 billion.
Sales of its Acuvue brand of contact lenses rose 3.5% to $1.02 billion and surgical vision products jumped 13.8% to $383 million.
Johnson & Johnson Vision produces contact lenses at its facility in Jacksonville and produces surgical vision products at other facilities.
The company said product launches helped grow sales in both parts of the vision business.
“These results further solidify our leadership positions in vision,” said Darren Snellgrove, vice president of investor relations, in Johnson & Johnson’s quarterly conference call with analysts.
Company officials said with the separation of the orthopedics business called DePuy Synthes, expected to take 18 to 24 months, Johnson & Johnson will focus on oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, surgery and vision.
CEO Joaquin Duato said the spinoff will allow the company “to place even greater focus in our investment towards higher growth areas where we can meaningfully extend and improve lives.”
Johnson & Johnson reported $88.8 billion in sales in 2024, with the orthopedics business generating $9.2 billion.
The company reported total sales grew 5.4% in the third quarter to $24 billion, with adjusted earnings rising 15.7% to $6.8 billion, or $2.80 per share.
Campers Inn RV agreed in September to buy Tampa-based Lazydays Holdings Inc. for a reported $30 million, but that’s only a fraction of the total value of the deal, according to a proxy statement filed by publicly traded Lazydays.
The proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Oct. 15 said the estimated aggregate purchase price is $246.5 million, including the value of Lazydays’ RV inventory.
The $30 million price listed in a Sept. 16 SEC filing was for furniture, fixtures, equipment, parts, goodwill and other personal property excluding the recreational vehicle inventory.
The proxy statement says Jacksonville-based Campers Inn will also pay $34.9 million for Lazydays’ real property.
The bulk of the purchase price will come from the RV inventory, at a price calculated by both parties at closing, it said.
Lazydays operates 13 RV dealerships and Campers Inn has agreed to continue operating five of them. The proxy said Campers Inn will assess the remaining locations after the deal closes and decide whether to continue operating them.
Lazydays reported revenue of $297.1 million in the first half of 2025 and a net loss of $34.1 million.
Family-owned Campers Inn said when the deal was announced it would expand the company to 48 dealership locations in 22 states.
A Vancouver, British Columbia-based drone company that acquired Jacksonville-based A&J Land Surveyor Inc. a month ago said Oct. 14 it has offered to buy a second Jacksonville firm, but it did not name it.
ZenaTech Inc. operates drones for inspection, monitoring and surveying services.
The company announced the acquisition of A&J Land Surveyors Sept. 23, which it said specializes in surveying projects across aviation, utility and infrastructure sites.
ZenaTech said the second unnamed Jacksonville surveying and inspection company serves municipal, utility and airport clients
“Jacksonville represents one of the nation’s most underserved markets for advanced drone-based surveying and infrastructure inspection services,” said ZenaTech CEO Shaun Passley in a news release.
“Combined with the region’s rapidly expanding public-works initiatives, we see significant opportunity to deploy our Drone as a Service model across a wide spectrum of applications — from utilities to infrastructure to transportation,” he said.
Terms were not announced for either deal.
ZenaTech reported revenue of just $3.38 million in the first half of this year but is looking to substantially grow the business with acquisitions.
The company said in an investor presentation it has completed acquisitions of 11 land survey companies this year and has a goal of completing 25 deals by mid-2026.
Jacksonville-based Norlee Group acquired Beaumont Electric Co., a Naples-based electrical services firm, according to private equity firm Heartwood Partners.
Heartwood announced in June it invested in Norlee.
“The acquisition of Beaumont Electric Company will help fuel Norlee Group’s vision of establishing the Company as a trusted leader in integrated electrical and mechanical solutions across the Southeastern U.S.,” Heartwood Managing Partner Demetrios Dounis said in an Oct. 14 news release.
Terms of the deal were not announced.