Category Archives: M&A

Merger Arbitrage Site of the Day

No more relying on Dana Cimilluca to find failed merger-arb trades! It turns out that a chap called Plamen Tsolov has created Arbitrage View, a web page with a continually-updated list of arbitrage opportunities in pending merger deals in the … Continue reading

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Value-per-Employee Datapoint of the Day

Sun has bought MySQL – a company which gives its main product away for free – for $1 billion, or about $2.5 million per employee. Which is pretty much exactly the same valuation per employee as the market puts on … Continue reading

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Telco Merger Datapoint of the Day

Dana Cimilluca: When Sprint and Nextel agreed to combine in a “merger of equals” at the end of 2004, they were worth $70 billion together. The current value of the combined Sprint Nextel after the bleak news today from the … Continue reading

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Why BofA Bought Countrywide

Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo has had many opportunities, over the years, to sell his company for a huge sum to Bank of America. There’s only one reason why he would say yes to a deal now, at $4 billion, when he … Continue reading

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Lufthansa: No Savior for JetBlue

In the wake of Lufthansa’s $300 million investment in JetBlue, it’s worth looking at how JetBlue CEO David Barger is doing after just over six months on the job. If you recall, he replaced founder David Neeleman in May, mainly … Continue reading

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The Best and Worst Bank Deals of 2007

Time’s Bill Saporito says that the takeover of ABN Amro by the RBS-led consortium was the 4th best business deal of 2007. Wha? RBS overpaid massively: the consortium decided to pay mainly in cash, but by the time the deal … Continue reading

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Takeover Speculation of the Day: JPMorgan to buy Citigroup?

When Merrill Lynch put out a research note saying that Bank of America might buy Barclays, Alphaville was not impressed, calling the Merrill research "bolshy" and "spivvy". When CreditSights puts out a research note saying that JPMorgan Chase might buy … Continue reading

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A Chinese Bid for Rio Tinto?

It makes sense all the sense in the world that China, broadly defined, should make a bid for Rio Tinto. If it doesn’t, there’s a very good chance that the BHP-Rio merger will go through – a merger which would … Continue reading

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Rio Tinto Won’t be Independent for Long

When mergers get mooted, the stock-market reaction is generally predictable: the stock of the target company rises, and the price of the would-be aquirer falls. In the case of the latest proposed mining mega-merger, the stocks followed most of the … Continue reading

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Behind the Zipcar-Flexcar Merger

The two leaders in the car-sharing business, Zipcar and Flexcar, are merging, in what looks very much like an acquisition of the latter by the former: the Flexcar name is disappearing, while the Zipcar CEO and headquarters are remaining in … Continue reading

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When Cash Isn’t King

The WSJ’s Jessica Vascellaro has an interesting article about what Jeff Bercovici calls the "Diller-Malone marriage": two media moguls fighting over control of a bunch of internet properties which presently goes by the unwieldy name of IAC/InterActiveCorp. IAC bought also-ran … Continue reading

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Regulatory Bureaucracy Datapoint of the Day

Yet another example of a government agency refusing to admit defeat: the FTC still hasn’t given up trying to block the Whole Foods acquisition of Wild Oats, even now the deal is done! Interestingly, the chairman of the FTC thinks … Continue reading

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RBS Acquisition of ABN Amro More Likely Than Ever

In the battle for ABN Amro, the consortium of RBS, Fortis, and Santander has now clearly bested its rival, Barclays. The RBS consortium’s bid is about 20% higher than Barclays’ bid, thanks largely to Barclays’ sinking stock price, and Barclays … Continue reading

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UK Sold to Foreigners

How’s this for a front-page headline? "Foreign Owners May Be Secret of U.K.’s Success" is the first thing you see when you look at the dead-tree WSJ this morning; the headline on the jump is "Foreign Owners Spur U.K. Revival". … Continue reading

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Barclays: Going Cheap

The market really doesn’t want Barclays to buy ABN Amro. After Barclays president
Bob Diamond all
but threw in the towel
yesterday, the bank’s shares
are up 20p, or 3.45%, today.
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Australia: Ahead of the Regulatory Curve

Which country is most ahead of the regulatory curve these days? A couple of
recent developments suggest that it might be Australia.
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The Falling Price of Luxury Cars

If Jaguar slashed the price of its cars by 75%, demand would go through the
roof. So what’s going to happen now Ford is slashing the price of Jaguar?
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Beware of Consultants Bearing Data

Has a BCG study just outdone the Street in the data massaging game?
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The Sâgë of Omaha

Berkshire Hathaway and Ikea could be a match made in heaven.
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The Barclays Catch-22

Dennis Berman talked to Barclays president Bob Diamond
today, and got this astonishing admission:
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Transocean’s Unnecessary $15 Billion in Debt

The era of leveraged deals is far from over, it would seem.
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M&A Trial Balloons Move to the Web

Paul Murphy had a kindasorta
scoop
today:
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How Citi Reached the Top of the M&A League Tables

Maybe it’s not so surprising that Citi is now atop the M&A league tables: the league tables simply aren’t measuring advisory services any more.
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How the Bell Canada Deal Got Done

It seems that the
biggest buyout in history
came as a result of an auction run idiosyncratically
by the target company, in conditions of no little secrecy and mystery.
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The Whole Foods Complaint: Weak

There is nothing compelling in the FTC complaint. The idea that Whole Foods and Wild Oats have a monopoly on pleasant shopping experiences and therefore should be banned from merging is laughable on its face.
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