Just saw Select Medical (SEM) jumped 8% in pre-market after announcing a buyout deal. The consortium led by Ortenzio and Jackson plus Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe is taking the company private at $16.50 per share - that's about $3.9 billion total. Pretty solid premium, honestly. The deal was already approved by independent directors, so it's pretty much locked in.

Stock was sitting at $15 yesterday, now it's trading at $16.31 in pre-market. The price tag represents an 18% bump from the unaffected price back in November and 25% over the 90-day average, which explains the move. What's interesting is that Ortenzio and Jackson are rolling their equity into the new entity instead of cashing out - usually a good sign when insiders do that.

Management stays in place, existing debt remains, so it's a pretty clean transaction structure. Not much drama here, just a straightforward LBO. Over the past year SEM had been bouncing between $11.65 and $18.61, so $16.50 lands somewhere in that range. Curious to see how this plays out.