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.
Perhaps opening a brand new office in London isn't indicative of Thoma Bravo's enthusiasm to follow through with the Darktrace takeover after all.
Word is Thoma Bravo is getting cold feet about the deal after the buy-out firm and Darktrace sturggled to agree on price for the takeover.
Onto the next one...?..
Swiss title Inside Paradeplatz has got the scoop this morning about the latest twist in the Temenos takeover tale.
According to intrepid Swiss journo Luke Haessig, a sale of the Swiss banking software company is now "round the corner" and the buyer is an "overseas private equity firm".
Haessig's report also claims the Temenos take private deal should be done by the end of October at the latest ahead of the company's third quater results...
Chums on the Daily Mail picked an intriguing tale about American private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which is currently in the process of talks to buy Darktrace, the FTSE 250-listed cybersecurity company.
According to Mark "Shappers" Shapland, Thoma Bravo is opening up an office for Europe in London. Below is a link to Shappers's piece:..
It would appear little old Betaville and Dom Walsh of The Times business section were barking up the right tree when it came to GB Group, the London-listed identity verification and fraud prevention company.
Late last night Chicago-based GTCR, which has appointed Jefferies to work on the bid, confirmed it is considering making an offer for GB Group. Below is the link the statement and also GB Group's response:..
Veteran business hack Dom Walsh of The Times has picked up on the latest Smith and Nephew takeover tale, too.
Dom - one of the best British business journalists Betaville has never had the pleasure of working with - published a piece in The Times today about how the medical devices company could be a takeover target for an American group, such as Stryker Corporation, or even a private equity firm...
Hat tip to James Warrington of The Sunday Telegraph.
Warrington appears to have dug out a clean scoop about housebuilder Vistry Group weighing a merger with Countryside Properties, which had previously received a takeover offer from its largest shareholder American firm In-Cap.
This morning the tale was confirmed, with Vistry and Countryside announcing a £1.25 billion cash and shares offer from the former for the latter. Below is the link:..
Here is a rare (no pun intended) piece of good news: one of Britain's most talented business journalists has returned the UK.
After a two and a half year stint loitering around the great outdoors of the west coast of Canada for stories (including some about a certain Megan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex) William Turvill, a former colleague on the Mail on Sunday's business section, is back on these shores...
Scribblers at Quest were this morning talking up the prospect of corporate dealmaking in the next quarter despite the bearish sentiment pervading markets.
Following last week's flurry of technology deals (i.e. Open Text's bid for Micro Focus International and Schneider Electric's possible offer for Aveva) analysts at Quest, the cashflow analysis division of Canaccord Genuity, reckon there could be a few more corporate deals in the United Kingdom on the horizon...
And in another bizarre twist this evening Bonnier's Aquaverse PTE vehicle has just announced it has cut its shareholding in Aim-listed podcaster Audioboom Group even further.
According to the latest regulatory filing, Bonnier's Aquaverse has cut its shareholding in Audioboom from 11.57pc to 4.32pc. Below is the link to the announcement:..
There has been a curious twist in the Audioboom story this afternoon.
Robert Bonnier's wife, Nashida Bonnier, has just increased her shareholding in Audioboom to 5.42pc. Below is the link to the announcement, which was made after the market closed today:
There was a question (and answer) missing from this weekend's recent coverage of Open Text's aquisition of Micro Focus, the London-listed IT company.
If Open Text, the Canadian software company, is willing to pay a 100pc premium for Micro Focus International surely US private equity firm Thoma Bravo should be willing to pay the same for cybersecurity outfit Darktrace?..
Sometimes little old Betaville's UNCOOKED, RARE and WELL-DONE alerts are confirmed immediately; and sometimes it takes a few weeks for the dealmakers to announce the transaction.
Take, for example, Micro Focus International. Back in February this year little old Betaville published an UNCOOKED Alert suggesting the company had attracted takeover interest. Below is the link:..
Farfetch, the US-listed luxury fashion plaftorm, finally announced a deal although it wasn't quite in the form little old Betaville had originally heard.
Effectively, Compagnie Societe Richemont - the Switzerland-listed luxury goods company - is intially folding online fashion retailer Yoox Net-a-Porter into Farfetch and getting an 11pc stake in the online group. Richemont is also writing down EURO 2.7 billion as part of the transaction...
Hacks at Bloomberg have finally decided to pull the trigger on the Schneider Electric takeover bid for Aveva tale that has been ciculating for the last few days.
Little old Betaville was chasing the same story, so is in a bit of a grump after being pipped by arch rivals at the global financial media giant...
It would appear Johnson & Johnson was also circling US-listed Global Blood Therapeutics, which two weeks ago agreed a deal to sell itself to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for $5.4 billion.
Well, that's according to arch rivals at Bloomberg. Below is a link to the Bloomie story that came out overnight:..
[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].