A cheeky website about deals, dealmakers and anything else I find interesting. Edited by Ben Harrington. If you have a tip, want to discuss a story or have a subscription enquiry please feel free to email Betaville at [email protected]. Betaville can also be reached at Whats App, Signal or Telegram. Betaville's Twitter handle is @bharringtonw11 and you can message me via Twitter with stories.
Thursday, 21 August 2014, 12:23 am
Wow - the op eds on M&A are coming thick and fast over at the venerable Financial Times. Sarah Gordon, Europe business editor, has just published her view on what happens next in M&A now that several big deals have collapsed during the summer...
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Wednesday, 20 August 2014, 11:41 pm
Here is a very interesting take on this year's M&A boom from El-Erian, the former chief executive of bond investor PIMCO. The piece was published in today's Financial Times.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d3b11b24-26c5-11e4-8df5-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3ArZZKtct..
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Saturday, 16 August 2014, 1:28 am
I was invited back onto Tip TV today. Here is a link to today's clip:
http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/tip-tv-highlight-ben-harrington-15-08-2014/..
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Wednesday, 13 August 2014, 7:21 pm
Oh look, I see Bloomberg and Reuters are both reporting that InterMune has attracted several suitors, including GlaxoSmithKline, Actelion, Roche and Sanofi:..
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Wednesday, 13 August 2014, 7:10 pm
Will the uber-acquisitive Liberty Global/Virgin Media step in with a £500 million plus counter offer for telecoms and IT company Daisy Group?..
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Tuesday, 12 August 2014, 4:15 am
It sounds like this InterMune situation is heating up.
Good sources tell me InterMune - a US-based bio-pharmaceutical company that specialises in making a drug to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis - has begun working with bankers from Evercore alongside long-standing financial adviser Goldman Sachs to look at 'strategic options' for the business.
It is believed the appointment of Evercore may lead to a formal auction of InterMune...
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Monday, 11 August 2014, 10:13 pm
Construction group Carillion appears to be very keen to pursue a £3 billion merger with Balfour Beatty despite Balfour's intransigence towards a deal...
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Friday, 8 August 2014, 11:39 am
I have had a lot of enquiries from loyal Betaville readers in recent weeks about Orange since I published my German Orange article back in June. In case you don't remember, here is a link to the article: http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/a-german-orange.html..
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Thursday, 7 August 2014, 8:30 pm
Alistair Osborne, one of my former colleagues and bosses from The Daily Telegraph, is clearly refreshed after having some time off.
Indeed, Osborne's column today in The Times is highly entertaining and worthwhile a read, especially the item about Walgreen and Boots.
If you haven't looked at it already, here is a link to Osborne's column:..
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Wednesday, 6 August 2014, 1:45 am
I have been hearing some pretty interesting things recently about a German drug developer called Evotec AG.
To be honest, it's not clear to me exactly what is going on with this stock.
Geoff Foster, though, recently suggested that a British pharmaceutical company was lining up a EURO 5 a share offer for the business...
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Monday, 4 August 2014, 5:30 pm
Things are going from bad to worse at Bank of America Merrill Lynch's European investment banking team...
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Saturday, 2 August 2014, 1:33 am
Remember that bizarre statement that Mike Ashley's Sports Direct put out a few weeks ago regarding shoe retailer Office?..
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Thursday, 31 July 2014, 7:05 pm
Looking over this morning's coverage of British American Tobacco's recent figures, I see a couple of newspaper reporters tried to tempt Nicandro Durante, CEO of BAT, into spilling the beans about whether the tobacco giant has any plans to consolidate its position in the US...
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Tuesday, 29 July 2014, 6:49 pm
As chief executives, entrepreneurs and City dealmakers slope off to the Mediterranean for August
(islands off the Italian coast appear to be particularly in vogue at the moment), I am going to look at a few more "off-beat" stories. ..
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Saturday, 26 July 2014, 3:43 am
Quelle surprise - another Bank of America Merrill Lynch bear hug has fallen over.
This year the Wall Street investment bank has advised several companies trying to buy rival businesses using a "bear hug", an aggressive tactic used in M&A to force the the target company to the negotiating table by making an indicative offer public.
..
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Wednesday, 23 July 2014, 8:50 pm
It looks like Pepsi's long-only shareholders are really piling the pressure on the company to give Nelson Peltz seats on the consumer giant's board...
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Tuesday, 22 July 2014, 9:22 pm
I see Apple chip maker Dialog Semiconductor and AMS have called off their SFr4 billion merger...
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Saturday, 19 July 2014, 7:38 pm
Now that the £32 billion AbbVie/Shire deal looks to be "done" (or at least for the time being), it's time to look at another potential deal brewing in the sector...
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Saturday, 19 July 2014, 12:06 am
I see there is no mention of Lazard in this morning's $53 billion deal announcement from AbbVie and Shire (for readers unfamiliar with this ongoing tale it might be worthwhile clicking here: http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/whats-missing-from-abbvies-27-billion.html)...
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Thursday, 17 July 2014, 7:02 pm
It struck me the other day that amid the recent IPO euphoria there appeared to be fewer foreign companies coming to list on the London market...
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