UNCOOKED ALERT: Pure Storage said to ... - Part 3..
Wednesday, 9 December 2020, 5:09 pm
A cheeky website about deals, dealmakers and anything else I find interesting. Edited by Ben Harrington. If you have a tip or want to discuss a story please feel free to email Betaville at ben@betaville.co.uk. 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.
English (and Co) on fire, again... - Part 5
Tuesday, 8 December 2020, 9:52 pm
The Evening Standard has been hit particularly hard by the lockdowns in London but thankfully the new (ish) editor has kept hold of one of Betaville's favourite City writers: Simon English.
English regularly churns out insightful, witty commentary pieces on City shenanigans and did so again today. Below is a link to Simon's piece, which is certainly worth a read if a have a few minutes...
Tags: Simon English, Evening Standard
RARE ALERT: Midwich Group plc said to ...
Monday, 7 December 2020, 5:26 pm
Midwich Group, the UK-listed audio visual distributor, is in talks to purchase a gulf-based company for more than £30 million.
People following the situation said Midwich is said to be in advanced talks to buy NMK Electronics, a Dubai-based distributor of audio equipment, such as speakers, laser projectors and cables.
Midwich is thought to prepared to pay between £30 million and £35 million for NMK Electronics, said people following the situation...
Tags: Midwich Group
Credit Suisse or is it UBS Credit? - Part 2
Saturday, 5 December 2020, 3:44 pm
Rumours about a merger of the two Swiss investment banking giants - Credit Suisse and UBS - rumble on thanks to, er, the banks' top executives.
You might recall in late Summer a little known 'Inside Paradeplatz' revealed UBS and Credit Suisse held taks about a mega merger. The story was then swiftly followed by the venerable Financial Times...
Tags: UBS, Credit Suisse
RARE ALERT: Sierra Wireless said to ... - Part 3
Friday, 4 December 2020, 7:10 pm
Sierra Wireless, the Canada-listed 'internet of things' designer, is rumoured to be eyeing a merger with Thales's IoT division ahead of a potential deal with London-listed Telit Communications.
People following the situation have heard speculation Thales, the France-listed conglomerate, is working with advisers from Deutsche Bank on a potential combination of its IoT division, which it inherited following its EURO 4.8 billion takeover of Gemalto in 2019...
Tags: Sierra Wireless
RARE ALERT: Telit Communications said to ... - Part 16
Friday, 4 December 2020, 7:48 am
It would appear the chaps over at Dbay are really cranking up the negotiations over Telit Communications, the Aim-listed 'internet of things' company.
Dbay, run by feared activist investor Colin Kingsnorth, has just put out a statement saying it is considering (note the "considering") submitting an offer of £1.90 a share for Telit and that U-blox's all paper £2.50 a share offer isn't worth the paper it is being issued with.
Below is the link:..
UNCOOKED ALERT: Dialog Semiconductor said to ... - Part 2
Thursday, 3 December 2020, 3:45 pm
Dialog Semiconductor, the Frankfurt-listed chip designer, is still rumoured to be "in play" despite the announcement of another deal in the industry earlier this week.
On Monday, it emerged Munich-based Siltronic, a Germany-listed silicon wafer designer, had received a EURO 3.75 billion offer from Taiwan's Global Wafers, leading to speculation the rumours around Dialog Semiconductor may have been confused...
Tags: Dialog Semiconductor
Ackman in the running for FTSE 100 promotion, again - Part 4
Wednesday, 2 December 2020, 7:56 pm
FTSE Russell has finally confirmed that Bill "Baby Face" Ackman's Pershing Square Holdings will replace Homeserve in the London's blue chip index.
Admittedly this was foreshadowed in some of today's British newspaper market reports...
Deals deals deals ...in a bear market - Part 12
Tuesday, 1 December 2020, 9:34 pm
It really is dealmania out there: Salesforce has just agreed to buy Slack for $27.7 billion.
Below is the link to a report about the announcement:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/technology/salesforce-slack-deal.html
So that's two blockbuster megadeals (if you include S&P's $44 billion purchase of IHS Markit) this week and it's only Tuesday.....
Tags: Salesforce, Slack
UNCOOKED ALERT: STMicroelectronics NV said to ...
Tuesday, 1 December 2020, 3:57 pm
STMicroelectronics NV, the Swiss domiciled semiconductor maker, is in focus amid vague speculation about the possibility of the company being involved in a major corporate transaction.
Some people following the situation have heard rumours STMicroelectronics might be a takeover target.
However, it's not clear which company might be interested in combining with STMicroelectronics, said people following the situation...
Tags: STMicroelectronics
S&P Global in talks to buy IHS Markit for $44 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal
Monday, 30 November 2020, 8:31 am
Hacks over at the venerable Wall Street Jounal appear to have landed the biggest deal scoop of the year by revealing S&P Global is in talks to buy IHS Markit for $44 billion.
Below is the link to Cara Lombardo and Liz Hoffman:..
Tags: S&P Global, IHS Markit
Sunday review: easyJet, Boohoo and, er, Frasers Group
Sunday, 29 November 2020, 8:08 pm
Harriet Dennys, a colleague two times over, had a decent line in this weekend's Mail on Sunday that would appear to speak to the theme aired on Betaville recently that some the big London-listed companies that raised money over the summer will once again be tapping up shareholders for fresh funds.
Below is a link to Harriet's piece, which would seem to suggest that easyJet might look to raise cash by issuing new shares or a convertible bond...
UNCOOKED ALERT: Dialog Semiconductor said to ...
Friday, 27 November 2020, 12:21 pm
Dialog Semiconductor, the Frankfurt-listed chip designer, is at the centre of takeover speculation.
People following the situation have heard rumours Dialog Semiconductor may have attracted a suitor and could have already received an approach.
However, the identity of the suitor is unknown, said people following the situation.
In 2014 Dialog Semiconductor held merger talks with AMS, an Austrian chip designer...
Tags: Dialog Semiconductor
Chinese walls or not...
Thursday, 26 November 2020, 1:37 pm
Will Lindy Cameron the new chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre take an interest in the goings on at key supplier Post Quantum?
Over the summer Post Quantum hit the headlines when it beat technology giants IBM and Microsoft to the finals of a global competition to find an to the answer to of quantum computing, a type of uber cyber security. Click on the link below to read The Times piece in case you don't recall:..
Sir Martin said to be cooking up a mega deal... - Part 2
Wednesday, 25 November 2020, 8:53 pm
The idea of Sir Martin heading stateside for his next deal might have been a curve ball.
In case you don't recall the excellent Alex Lawson noted in the Mail on Sunday's Stockwatch column a few weeks ago that adman dealmaker was over in the US eyeing up deals ahead of Jo Biden becoming president. Below is a link to the Sunday round up piece I wrote on the topic a few weeks ago:..
Orange and Atos...or is it Oratos?
Wednesday, 25 November 2020, 8:49 pm
You don't see this very often in the world of mergers and acquisitions: somebody from a trade union outing a deal ON THE RECORD to the press.
Well, that just happened over the Channel in France after Agence France Presse quoted Sebastian Crozier, president of the CFE-CGC Orange organisation as saying "the Atos buyout proposal will be supported by the employee directors and employee shareholders at the next Orange Board of Directors on December 2"...
RARE ALERT: Acadia Healthcare said to ... - Part 13
Tuesday, 24 November 2020, 8:44 pm
Acadia Healthcare, the US-listed healthcare company has attracted interest in its UK-based the Priory division from Median, the largest operator of rehabilitation clinics in Germany.
People following the situation said they have heard Median, which is backed by Dutch private equity company Waterland, is seriously studying an acquisition of the Priory...
The foreign exchange broker, the, er, that's it...
Tuesday, 24 November 2020, 8:11 pm
Hat tip to Michael O'Dwyer of The Daily Telegraph, who appears to have dug out a rather interesting tale about a foreign exchange broker. Below is the link:
UNCOOKED ALERT: Boohoo Group said to .....
Tuesday, 24 November 2020, 1:35 pm
Ackman in the running for FTSE 100 promotion, again - Part 3
Tuesday, 24 November 2020, 1:02 pm
Here we go again: Bill "baby-face" Ackman's Pershing Square Holdings is being tipped by brokers as the likely candidate to be promoted to the blue-chip index at the reshuffle next week.
Remember, though, we have been here before. Last quarter dealers predicted Pershing Square Holdings was heading into the FTSE 100 only to miss out at the last minute thanks to some weird re-calculating by FTSE Russell...
[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].