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.
Tuesday, 14 March 2023, 9:18 am
The deals are still flowing despite the market tumoil driven by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Overnight it emerged that Symphony Technology Group had agreed to purchase Momentive Global, owner of online survey brand SurveryMonkey, for $9.46 a share or around $1.5 billion.
Now, little old Betaville got a little whiff of this take-private transaction so I was a bit miffed to see it announced when I woke up this morning...
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Betaville IntelligenceMonday, 13 March 2023, 5:42 pm
It was good to see French retailers Casino and Teract formally announce their plans to merge.
In case you don't recall, little old Betaville broke the story about the merger talks back in late January. Below is the link:
https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/betaville-intelligence/26p6sn9r/
And on Thursday last week both companies released a detailed formal merger announcement:..
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Betaville IntelligenceFriday, 10 March 2023, 1:27 pm
A second activist investor is rumoured to be circling THG, the London-listed e-commerce company, with a view to building a stake in the business and pushing for significant strategic change.
People following the situation have heard talk another activist has been studying the possibility of acquiring a significant shareholding in THG, which runs the Lookfantastic, Glossybox, Zavvi and Coggles websites and also beauty brands including ESPA and Illamasqua...
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Thursday, 9 March 2023, 9:53 pm
There are plenty of gloomy dealmakers out there as deal volumes are generally down compared with the previous two years.
Still, that doesn't there is nothing going on.
FTSE 100-listed Informa, for example, today annouced the $940 million purchase of rival Tarsus from super secretive private equity firm Charterhouse. Below is the link to the press release:..
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Wednesday, 8 March 2023, 4:28 pm
Some curious comments have emerged from down under about the Macquarie - M&G takeover situation.
"There are so many speculated transactions. So we wait and talk about them once they are actually done."
That's what the boss of Macquarie, Shemara Wikramanayake, said at the Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney yesterday...
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Betaville IntelligenceWednesday, 8 March 2023, 2:42 pm
Infrastruturre Wireless Italiane, the Italy-listed wireless network infrastructure operator, is at the centre of takeover rumours.
People following the situation have suggested Infrastruturre Wireless Italiane has drawn bid interest from a mystery suitor.
However, the identity of the bidder circling Infrastruturre Wireless Italiane is unclear, said these people...
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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 7 March 2023, 10:48 pm
Rivals at StreetInsider have deicded to follow little old Betaville's most recent part 11 UNCOOKED Alert about Ageas, the Franco-Belgian insurance company.
This afternoon the US-based title published a tale that appeared to nudge the story forward, claiming a private equity firm has submitted unsolicited offer to Ageas. Below is a link to the tale:..
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Betaville IntelligenceMonday, 6 March 2023, 6:10 pm
Hat tip to Adam McNestrie.
Little old Betaville's first ever outside editorial contributor saw one of his recent stories confirmed this morning.
Today, Aim-listed Kingswood Holdings, an independent financial advisor consolidator, said it has retained advisers from corporate finance house Houlihan Lokey to work on a sale of its UK operations. Below is the link to the statement:..
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersFriday, 3 March 2023, 4:20 pm
Thursday, 2 March 2023, 10:35 am
There has been a somewhat muted response this morning to Mark, "The Kleinmanator", Kleinman's scoop about Macquarie weighing an offer for FTSE 100-listed fund manager M&G.
Below is a link to the Mark's scoop, which contains some strong detail, including the fact that Macquarie had appointed advisers from Morgan Stanley to work on the deal for M&G...
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Wednesday, 1 March 2023, 7:01 pm
Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman of Sky News just popped up with a corking story about a potential takeover of M&G, the FTSE 250-listed fund manager.
According to Kleinman (a former colleague on The Daily Telegraph), Australian banking giant Macquarie is weighing a £5 billion plus bid for for M&G...
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Tuesday, 28 February 2023, 7:21 pm
Hacks at the Wall Street Journal are on a bit of a roll, landing a string of deal scoops in recent days.
The latest is a tale about Apollo, the private equity firm, trying to buy Arconic Corporation, a US-listed parts manufacturer.
Apollo submitted a bid for Arconic in February and has debt financing in place, reports the Wall Street Journal. Below is a link to the WSJ Scoop:..
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Monday, 27 February 2023, 7:23 am
First they suggested it was Merck.
Now hacks at the Wall Street Journal claim Pfizer is in "ealy-stage" talks to buy Seagen, the US-listed biotechnology company worth more than $30 billion.
To be fair, the Wall Street Journal does report that Seagen's sale talks with Merck broke down last year.
Anyway a deal for Seagen appears to be back on. Below is a link to the WSJ scoop:..
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Saturday, 25 February 2023, 11:31 am
There are plenty of takeover rumours to chew over this weekend.
M&G, for example, popped up in several British newspaper stock market reports. Financial hacks at The Times and the Daily Mail reported that the FTSE 100-listed investment manager was yesterday at the centre of bid speculation...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersFriday, 24 February 2023, 3:10 pm
Betaville IntelligenceFriday, 24 February 2023, 8:53 am
So, Cogstate has finally admitted it received a takeover approach and has been in talks over the last few weeks.
Although the Australian-listed testing company didn't reveal the identity of its suitor little old Betaville assumes the bidder was Dassault Systemes, the French conglomerate.
Anyway, Cogstate said talks have now ended and alongside that bit of bad news unveiled what looks to be a nasty warning! ..
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Betaville IntelligenceThursday, 23 February 2023, 9:53 am
Apologies for the tardy follow up Betavillers.
Little old Betaville was out early evening with some old chums that I used to work with at The Daily Telegraph, soI'm only just catching up with the confirmation to yesterday's UNCOOKED alert about John Wood Group, the FTSE 250-listed oil engineering and consulting business. Below is the link in case you missed it:..
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersWednesday, 22 February 2023, 3:43 pm
Wednesday, 22 February 2023, 3:13 pm
Arch rivals at Bloomberg have just revealed that Euronext, the pan European bourse, is weighing a EURO 5 billion takeover of wealth technology platform Allfunds. Below is a link to the Bloomie story:..
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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 21 February 2023, 3:20 pm
I see Sir Chris Hohn has thrown has thrown his oar in the Airbus - Atos deal talks, urging the former to give up on its pursuit of the latter's multi-billion EURO cyber security division. Below is a link to yesterday's story on the matter:
https://www.ft.com/content/0ecb9bfc-732d-4525-91c0-4ac6089c194a ..
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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].