On Tuesday, AT&T provided an update on its plan to separate and combine WarnerMedia with Discovery. Most notably, AT&T elected to structure the separation as a spin-off rather than a so-called exchange offer. This surprised some investors since management seemed to be leaning towards an exchange offer up until last week. An exchange offer would have allowed AT&T holders to swap some, all, or none of their AT&T shares for shares of the new media company. This would provide more flexibility for investors and eliminate a meaningful portion of AT&T's beaten-down shares, but it involves additional complexity to execute. A spin-off is more straightforward: all AT&T investors will receive a 0.24 share of the new media company – Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) [...]

Discount cigarette maker Vector Group recently announced plans to spin off most of the firm's real estate businesses, including one of the nation's largest brokerage firms, Douglas Elliman.Once the separation takes place on December 29, the real estate business will continue as Douglas Elliman (DOUG) and trade on the NYSE. As part of the transaction, investors will receive one share of Douglas Elliman for every two shares of Vector owned.Vector will maintain its $0.20 per share quarterly dividend, while Douglas will adopt a $0.05 per share quarterly payout. 

3M this week announced plans to separate its food safety business through a tax-friendly combination with Neogen (NEOG), a company specializing in food and animal safety.While this transaction has garnered media attention, food safety only accounts for about 1% of 3M's net sales and will have minimal impact on the firm's overall earnings and payout ratio.Given the limited impact on profits and considering the $1 billion the company will receive as part of the transaction to further strengthen its balance sheet, we are reaffirming 3M's Safe Dividend Safety Score.

In the summer of 2020, Kimco Realty took the drastic step of suspending its dividend when the pandemic sent a severe and sudden shock to the REIT's cash flow while engendering an uncertain recovery.The move seemed prudent at the time for a retail REIT whose tenants mostly require steady foot traffic to generate enough income to pay rent. With many non-essential stores temporarily closed, Kimco's rent collection rate plunged to 60% in April 2020.However, the economy quickly rebounded, powered by emboldened consumers flush with cash and eager to return some normality to life.