The Price Is Right — If You Can Spend Again

(MoneyWatch) 

With business spending having fallen off a cliff and newly thrifty consumers reluctant to open their wallets, now might not seem like the time to embark on an 800-person hiring spree or a huge retail-store expansion. But what if the optimists are right and recovery is just around the corner? Then what might appear to be reckless binge buying can start to look more like calculated corporate bargain hunting.

Take ITT Corp. When the big defense contractor heard that competitors Lockheed Martin and Boeing planned to shed a combined 11,000 employees this year, ITT had its recruiters waiting to scoop up the surplus science and engineering talent. Scores of retailer bankruptcies have finally given Big Lots the chance to pick up the prime big-box real estate it needs to launch a major expansion. Others, too, are aggressively shopping for strategic bargains. Hyundai has been busy snapping up advertising opportunities that ailing GM and Ford have had to abandon. And the stock market rout last year gave PepsiCo the perfect moment to buy its two main bottlers at a $1 billion discount.

Will these well-timed buys prove to be game changers? It's too early to tell. But one thing is certain for these companies: They got a good deal.

• Hyundai's Advertising Strategy: Wait for the Fire Sales
• PepsiCo's Big Steal: The Middle Man at a $1 Billion Discount
• How Big Lots Is Turning the Real Estate Bust into Its Own Boom
• ITT Staffs Up While the Getting Is Good