CD&R has made fine-sounding pledges but they don’t stop this being yet another debt-fuelled buyoutThe auction for Morrisons wasn’t worth the wait, but the mission to cast Clayton Dubilier & Rice as a kindly, far-sighted owner of the UK’s fourth…
Sainsbury’s shares rise as it is tipped as next takeover target
US company Fortress, which missed out on Morrisons, has said it is still eager to buy a UK firmSainsbury’s was the top riser on the FTSE 100 on Monday as investors bet that the supermarket chain could be the next target for a takeover after the US firm…
Morrisons sale: US firm CD&R wins £7bn auction for supermarket
Private equity business narrowly beats rival Fortress with offer that rises to £9.97bn when including debtThe US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) is set to become the new owner of Morrisons after the grocer’s board backed its…
As Morrisons auction looms, pension deals ought to have been nailed down | Nils Pratley
CD&R stepped up to the mark two weeks ago, but Fortress’s foot-dragging looks poor ahead of SaturdayThe structure for Saturday’s auction for Morrisons is technically flawless, as argued in this column on Wednesday, but there is still a problem: onl…
Ladbrokes owner bet big that it was undervalued. It won … big
Liberalisation of US gambling law is fuelling a wave of buyouts of more tech-savvy UK betting firmsThe stock market bargain during the wild pandemic trading of March 2020, it turns out, was the owner of antique betting chains Ladbrokes and Coral. In th…
Fivetran hauls in $565M on $5.6B valuation, acquires competitor HVR for $700M
Fivetran, the data connectivity startup, had a big day today. For starters it announced a $565 million investment on $5.6 billion valuation, but it didn’t stop there. It also announced its second acquisition this year, snagging HVR, a data integration competitor that had raised over $50M, for $700 million in cash and stock. The company […]
Intuit’s $12B Mailchimp acquisition is about expanding its small business focus
At first blush, the $12 billion Intuit-Mailchimp deal might not make a heck of a lot of sense. But people tend to pigeonhole companies, and in this case they might see Intuit as purely a financial software company and Mailchimp as an email marketing firm and nothing more. If that’s as far as your perspective […]
Why takeovers rather than arms may be the talk of UK defence fair
Concern grows over government’s inability – or reluctance – to prevent sale of established defence firmsDefence industry bosses have missed out on a year’s worth of hobnobbing with customers at trade fairs like the Farnborough and Paris air shows, but …
EasyJet needs investors on board as next takeover bid may be serious | Nils Pratley
Wizz Air’s offer was rejected, of course, but £1.2bn rights issue hardly put fizz back into sharesThe pandemic has transformed the airline industry in unexpected ways: Wizz Air, whose shares have recovered all the altitude lost in the early months of l…
Gambling firm 888 buys William Hill International in £2.2bn deal
Online casino business signals intention to keep bookmaker’s shops as part of a foray into bricks and mortarThe online casino company 888 Holdings has confirmed its £2.2bn purchase of William Hill International and signalled its intent to keep the book…