Two Harbors Investment Corp. is no longer a public mortgage real estate investment trust. CrossCountry Mortgage completed an all-cash take-private on August 25, converting every common share into a fixed cash claim and taking the Maryland REIT private as a wholly owned subsidiary. The board had already walked away from an earlier all-stock combination with United Wholesale Mortgage after a months-long auction in which cash certainty beat a higher paper bid that carried rate and stock-price risk. What remains on the public tape is residual preferred stock headed for cash redemption and a senior-note repurchase, not a live common-equity multiple.
The final common package was $12.00 in cash plus a stub dividend of just over twenty cents for holders of record on the last public session. Mid-year book value of $10.68 sat below that cash package, so the close locked in a modest premium to stated common equity rather than a deep discount. Earnings available for distribution, the cash-earnings proxy the company used in place of GAAP, printed $0.28 per share against a regular $0.34 common dividend once merger costs hit the quarter. The operating print was already secondary to the auction.
What remains for former common holders is not a multiple debate. Preferred stock is scheduled for cash redemption at liquidation preference later in September, and the senior notes sit in a post-close repurchase window. The residual question is legal residue from the losing bidder, not whether the common still has operating optionality.