Note:
(a) WSJ places the news report behind paywall.
(b) "Global Infrastructure Partners and [another] had offered Kansas City Southern $208 a share * * * Kansas City rejected that offer after earlier brushing back a bid [by the same two firms] that was below $200 a share"
Global Infrastructure Partners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Infrastructure_Partners
(Two founding investors in its first fund, GIP I, were Credit Suisse and General Electric; table: Industry private equity, Founded 2006. Headquarters New York City)
(c) "Kansas City Southern is the smallest of the five major freight railroads in the US. The company plays a key role in US-Mexico trade, with a network across both countries. Its trains bring autos and other industrial products up from factories south of the border into Texas and the Midwest and haul American farm goods back to Mexico. It also runs a rail link along the Panama Canal."
(i)
(A) Kansas City Southern (company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Southern_(company)
(6,700 route miles (10,783 km) in US and Mexico; KCS international holdings also include a 50% interest in Panama Canal Railway Company (PCRC), which operates the Panama Canal Railway; table: Founded 1887, Headquarters Kansas City, Missouri, $2.87b (2019) )
(B) Kansas City Southern – A Brief History. undted https://www.kcsouthern.com/en-us ... iew/company-history
This explains "Southern" in the company name, and "Port Arthur" in Texas (a city 90 mi (140 km) east of Houston).
Port Arthur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur
(may refer to Port Arthur, China, now called Lüshunkou District [旅顺口区] in the city of Dalian)
(ii) "five major freight railroads in the US"
(A) "freight railroads" because only Antrak is the only passenger railroad in US: that is why Amtrak was formed in 1971 in the first place: passenger railroad company had been losing money.
(B) Freight Rail Overview. Federal Railroad Administration, US Department of Transportation, undated https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-n ... eight-rail-overview
China's rail mileage can be found in note 1 of this Web page.
Railroad classes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_classes
(In the United States, the Surface Transportation Board [of US Dept of Transportation] defines a Class I railroad as "having annual carrier operating revenues of $250 million or more in 1991 dollars")
(C) list of common carrier freight railroads in the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li ... n_the_United_States
(About 700 railroads operate common carrier freight service in the United States)
(D) the ranking of freight railroads in decreasing order (data from Wiki):
BNSF (previous name: Burlington Northern and Santa Fe; 32,500 miles (52,300 km) of track in 28 states; founded in 1849 and based in Ford Worth, TX; Revenue: $19.278 billion (2016))
Union Pacific Railroad (1862- ; 32,200 miles; Headquarters Omaha, Nebraska) Its revenue is about 90% of BNSF's.)
CSX (21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track; headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida) (Go to wiki to learn about its name; Chessie for Chesapeake).
Norfolk Southern Railway (1827- ; Headquarter: Atlanta, Georgia)
Kansas City Southern
(iii) "bring autos and other industrial products up from factories south of the border into Texas and the Midwest and haul American farm goods back to Mexico."
(A) Those industrial products are principally made in American companies, and some by other foerign companies (all just south of the border), to take advantage of cheap labor in Mexico.
(B) Mexico. Foreign Agricultural Service, US Department of Agriculture, undated https://www.fas.usda.gov/regions/mexico
("In 2019, Mexico was the second largest destination for US agricultural exports, which totaled $19.2 billion * * * The United States is the largest supplier of agricultural goods to Mexico, holding a 69 percent market share. * * * For 2019, Mexico was the top market for US corn, wheat, dairy products, poultry meat & products, distiller grains [grains for liquor production], rice, sweeteners, animal fats, and eggs & products")
(C) Noi Mahoney, Mexico's agri-food exports top $20 billion in first half of 2020. FreightWaves, Aug 17, 2020. https://www.freightwaves.com/new ... -first-half-of-2020