AOL share price jumps as activist investor Starboard tells Yahoo chief exec Marissa Mayer to consider merger September 26, 2014 AOL's share price jumped six per cent today after an activist investor told Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer that the troubled US media company should buy it. In a letter to Mayer, Starboard, which specialises in investing in undervalued and under-performing companies, and is a significant shareholder in Yahoo, said combining with AOL offered opportunities that [...]
Chiquita shareholders get larger stake in revised merger deal with Fyffes September 26, 2014 Chiquita shareholders have come out winners after revisions to its billion dollar deal with Fyffes. In the merger between the two fruit companies, Chiquita shareholders will hold a 59.6 per cent stake in the combined business, an increase on the previous proposal of 50.7 per cent. Both banana companies have also agreed to increase fees [...]
US data storage colossus EMC looking to rivals HP and Dell as possible merger targets September 22, 2014 EMC, the biggest maker of corporate data storage equipment, reportedly held merger talks with rivals Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell. Under pressure from an activist shareholder and the expected retirement of its longtime chief executive, the company is exploring options including a sale, according to the Wall Street Journal. Merger talks between HP and EMC, which [...]
Laying down the law on M&A and sell offs September 22, 2014 LAW FIRM of the year The past year has seen law firms work with the government and banks on the selling of shares and on the investigations into alleged failings at big companies. Against that backdrop lawyers have also started to benefit from the upturn in the M&A and financing markets, beefing up their private [...]
Yesterday’s deals frenzy means M&A this year is already worth more than during the whole of 2013 September 16, 2014 UK mergers and acquisitions may be looking shakier than usual – but across the rest of the world, M&A is already worth more this year than during the whole of 2013. According to data from Mergermarket, $18.1bn (£11.2bn) of deals took place yesterday (including Microsoft's $2.5bn agreement to buy Minecraft creator Mojang), the highest value [...]
Publicis share price jumps as management shake up after omnicom merger failure sees Maurice Levy stay on until 2017 September 16, 2014 Publicis Group's share price jumped 1.4 per cent in early trading after chief executive and chairman Maurice Levy announced his intention to stay in charge of the world’s third largest advertising group until 2017. The 72 year-old’s term at the helm, which began in 1987, was expected to come to an end in 2015, however Levy [...]
UK’s Tui Travel agrees merger with its parent September 15, 2014 UK company TUI Travel yesterday agreed the terms of its all-shares merger with its German parent TUI, creating the biggest integrated leisure tourism group. The combined group would be based in Germany, TUI said, with a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange and a secondary listing in Germany. The deal, which would need the [...]
More mining M&A on the cards? Anglo American share price rises as boss says “come and get us” September 2, 2014 Shares in Anglo American, the world's largest platinum miner, jumped 2.6 per cent this afternoon after its chief executive said the company is open to takeover offers. In an interview, Mark Cutifani said his job is "to create value" – adding that "if somebody sees value, then there's a conversation to be had". I'm not [...]
Scuppered Pfizer-AstraZeneca deal leaves UK M&A at an all-time low September 2, 2014 Pfizer's thwarted acquisition of AstraZeneca may have kept proponents of British business happy – but it also helped push the number of mergers and acquisitions taking place in the UK to a historic low in the second quarter of 2014, official figures published this morning showed. The number of mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies [...]
Fyffes share price up as markets go bananas for Chiquita merger shipping savings August 27, 2014 Shares in London-listed fruit giant Fyffes jumped yesterday, after a joint announcement with banana colossus Chiquita that the firms identified another $20m (£12.06m) in synergy savings to be made by their merger. Fyffe’s shares rose to 78.5p during the day, up by 4.67 per cent from Tuesday’s close. The companies had already announced $40m in [...]