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.
Wednesday, 28 May 2014, 12:22 am
Gary Parkinson, the market reporter over at The Times, wrote another fantastic 'Trade Secrets' column yesterday.
Here is a link to Parky's highly amusing piece: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/article4100877.ece ..
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Thursday, 22 May 2014, 6:38 pm
The missing skyscraper story I did last week looks like it is really starting to heat up...
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Thursday, 22 May 2014, 1:57 am
Sorry for the late posting Betavillers - I have been out and about all day...
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Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 10:56 am
Regular readers might recall that last week I published a rather interesting tale about Herstmere House, the residential skyscraper that was supposed to be built in Canary Wharf by a mystery Irish property tycoon. Here is a link to the original article: http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-dealmaker-bank-and-missing.html..
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Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 2:14 am
Great to see my old colleague and sort-of boss Alistair Osborne kick off his new job at The Times with a cracking column on the Pfizer/AstraZeneca takeover situation...
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Monday, 19 May 2014, 4:33 pm
Wow - AstraZeneca has rejected Pfizer's fresh £55.00 a share offer.
Now, I have to admit I didn't see that coming. I thought the raise would allow both companies to at least start talking and get an extension to the "put up or shut up" deadline.
Indeed, one of my good sources on this story always thought this deal would deal would happen despite the public rejections from AstraZeneca and browbeating from British politicians...
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Monday, 19 May 2014, 4:26 am
Interesting to see most of the financial media (The Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Mark Kleinman over at Sky News) reporting today Pfizer is preparing to sweeten its offer for AstraZeneca to about £55.00 a share...
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Friday, 16 May 2014, 8:22 pm
I'm not a huge fan of Canary Wharf (I used to work there when I first started on the The Daily Telegraph) but I have just stumbled across a rather interesting tale about the financial district and one of the banks based there. ..
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Friday, 16 May 2014, 12:08 am
Great news! Carphone Warehouse and Dixons Retail have finally confirmed the details of their £3.8 billion merger in a statement today. Here is a link to the formal announcement:..
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Tuesday, 13 May 2014, 4:55 pm
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Tuesday, 13 May 2014, 5:02 am
Evening Betavillers. Sorry for the lack of posts today - I have been a bit busy doing some freelance work for the The Times. ..
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Sunday, 11 May 2014, 7:26 pm
I'm surprised to see none of the rumours about Pfizer launching a hostile bid for AstraZeneca end up in the Sunday newspapers today...
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Saturday, 10 May 2014, 1:05 am
Sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of days. I have been busy scurrying around in the undergrowth (mainly pubs in City of London and Mayfair hotel bars) trying to dig up some jackanories for loyal Betaville readers. ..
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Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 12:28 am
Happy days - it looks like a major deal story I broke earlier in the year is actually going to happen...
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Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 8:13 pm
Is Hikma Pharmaceuticals the next takeover target in the pharmaceutical sector?
The boys over The Motley Fool certainly seem to think so.
Here is a link to a piece they published this morning outlining why Hikma might be of interest to Mylan, which recently tried to buy Sweden's Meda:..
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Monday, 5 May 2014, 11:03 pm
Interesting to see Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore report today that Whirlpool is one of the front runners to buy a stake in Indesit, the home appliances company that sponsors Arsenal Football Club...
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Sunday, 4 May 2014, 2:05 am
So Pfizer's new indicative offer for AstraZeneca came in yesterday at £50.00 a share...
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Thursday, 1 May 2014, 10:29 pm
I was invited back onto Tip TV this morning to talk about deals, potential upcoming deals and general backslapping for predicting Pfizer would come back for AstraZeneca.
Here is a link to today's show: http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/tip-tv-highlight-ben-harrington-01-05-2014/..
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Wednesday, 30 April 2014, 11:58 pm
Here's an interesting snippet I recently picked up about Weir Group's attempt to "merge" with Finnish company Metso.
Good sources have told me the maximum price Weir Group is willing to pay for Metso is EURO 28 a share.
When Weir Group revealed the details of its £8.5 billion all-share takeover proposal earlier this month the FTSE 100 company said it had offered 0.8400 shares for every Metso share, which back then worked out at EURO 25.70 a share...
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Monday, 28 April 2014, 8:36 am
Wow - today's news about Pfizer formally launching its $100 billion takeover bid for AstraZeneca has sent the pharmacuetical sector rumour mill into overdrive...
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[Disclaimer - the information on Betaville does not consitute any form of investment recommendation and is not intended to be relied upon by readers in making, or refraining from, any investment decisions].