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.
JKO Play, the investment vehicle led by former Formula One boss Eddie Jordan, has lined up Nickleby Capital to advise and raise the financing for its £2.7 billion plus takeover bid for Playtech, the FTSE 250-listed gaming company.
The thing is, though, is Betaville can't tell whether Nickleby's appointment is bullish or bearish for JKO's counter tilt at Playtech...
American financial media heavyweights TheWall Street Journal and Bloomberg were both claiming to have landed the scoop about Microsoft's $70 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard.
They both published within minutes of each other but because little old Betaville was lunching with a friendly flack it was hard to tell which media outfit published the scoop first...
Well, it looks like Ian "Kingy" King is first out of the traps to highlight something little old Betaville had been ruminating on with an old City contact over a few glasses down the pub this evening.
In a piece today King, a former City editor of The Times and now business presenter at Sky News, argues Unilever may have accidently put itself in play after attempting to buy GlaxoSmithKline's consumer division for £50 billion. Below is the link:..
I see rivals at Bloomberg were once again attempting to pour cold water on one of Betaville's uncooked alerts by running an official denial in response to the piece I published on Friday afternoon about Salvatore Ferragamo...
There is a big deal story breaking this Saturday morning from, er, The Sunday Times.
Oliver "Shahsy" Shah and Sabah Meddings have dug out a jumbo scoop about FTSE 100-listed Unilever launching a £50 billion takeover bid for GlaxoSmithKline's consumer division. Below is a link to their cracking tale:..
It's been a while since there has been a fresh bid rumour about Aurinia, the US-listed biopharmaceutical company that featured several times on Betaville late last year.
But STAT - a specialist US-based healthcare publication - has just set tongues wagging...
Betaville hears some savvy stockmarket bears have started pawing away at Aston Martin Lagonda, the London-listed luxury carmaker led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll.
Quite why these bearish types have recently been targeting Aston Martin Lagonda remains to be seen but Betaville notes that the company last week unveiled poor figures (also known as a profit warning) that demonstrated the company's year end cash position was £420 million...
Loyal readers will be aware that this website has been following the THG Holding situation closely but I noticed today that one of Betaville's favourite City commentator's came up with a on excellent column about the company also known as The Hut Group.
Yes, that's Simon English of the Evening Standard, who writes in today's paper about the THG's battle with the short sellers and what Matt Moulding, The Hut Group's controversial founder, needs to do to prove them wrong...
Sometimes the deal rumours Betaville Intelligence reveals take a few days to get confirmed; and sometime they take a few weeks.
With Zynga, though, it was more like a few months!
Today it emerges Take-Two Interactive - which lost out to EA in the takeover tussle for late UK-listed Codemasters in 2020 - is paying $12.7 billion for rival games developer Zynga...
There was plenty to chew on in yesterday's British Sunday newspapers, including a fascinating set piece interview by Oliver "Shahsy" Shah of The Sunday Times with Paul Polman, the former chief executive of Unilever...
Vin Murria, the multi-millionaire technology entrepreneur, has finally put her cards on the table at M&C Saatchi, the London-listed advertising agency that has been on little old Betaville's radar since 2020.
Below is a link to an announcement confirming an interesting in her buying the whole company via her new (ish) investment vehicle AdvancedAdvT Limited:..
Loyal readers won't be too surprised to see reports about Auchan and its owners, the Mulliez family, once again working on a fresh bid for Carrefour, the France-listed supermarket giant.
Back in early December little old Betaville reported on Betaville Intelligence that Carrefour remains "in play", with Auchan rumoured to be one of the parties interested in the business. Below is the link:..
It's been almost a year since the former Chancellor of the Exchequer joined London-based deals advisory firm Robey Warshaw to much fanfare but that doesn't seem to have led to much confirmed dealmaking, so far.
According to data provider Refinitiv, Robey Warshaw - set up by ex Mogan Stanley uber rainmaker Sir Simon Robey and former UBS banker Simon Warshaw - last year came 13th in the annual UK merger and acquisitions rankings (also known as league tables)...
It would appear there is an interesting game of poker being played by THG's controversial management and stock market bears, with the latter willing to call the former's bluff.
In case you missed it over the weekend, my old chum Neil "Neily" Craven had a tale on the front page of the Mail on Sunday's business section about how short sellers had increased their bets against the company in recent days. Below is a link to Neily's splash story:..
It's the final day of the year but the dealmaking goes on.
This time 3G - the giant private equity firm led by Brazilian billionaires - is buying a 75pc stake in Dutch window blinds maker Hunter Douglas from the Sonnenberg family for EURO 175 a share.
That means 3G - which a few years ago attempted to purchase Unilever alongside Warren Buffett - is buying Hunter Douglas at a 73pc premium...
Who would have tought there would be multi-billion dollar takeover shenanigans during a short, typically quiet holiday week.
The latest tale doing the rounds is about Samsung holding talks about takeover of Biogen, the US-listed biotechnology company that is developing a drug for Alhzeimer's...
[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].