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HP’s remarkably generous offer – FT Alphaville Read more
The price action in SABMiller on Tuesday morning after its $10bn offer for Foster’s was knocked backed:
Invensys, the controls and automation group recently kicked out of the FTSE 100 to make way for Glencore, is a perennial takeover target.
But in recent weeks the speculation has centred on the disposal of a major division. This was fuelled by respected blogger Jim Pinto who claimed the majority of Invensys’ rail business was about to be sold to China’s CSR, which has just detailed plans to raise the equivalent of £1bn via a share issue. Read more
Leading the FTSE 100 leaderboard on Monday morning, is Friday’s biggest faller.
Another day and another Misys bid rumour.
This time it’s talk of a 425p a share bid for the company, which provides software, systems and financial services to big banks, from a US rival. Read more
The US justice department is considering a shake-up of the guidelines used in approving takeovers of US companies, pointing to a possible shift in antitrust policy under the Obama administration, the FT says. The DoJ is considering revising the so-called merger remedies guidelines to reflect developments in antitrust practice, said people with knowledge of the moves. The update is expected to include a greater discussion of behavioural or conduct remedies, which impose changes on how a business operates on an ongoing basis, they added. Read more
This promises to be fun.
A Chinese state-owned nuclear power company is squaring up for a fight with the Takeover Panel over Kalahari Minerals. Read more
This is Michael Grade. 
FT Alphaville readers probably know him best as the chairman of Webvan 2.0 Ocado but he’s also chairman of Pinewood Shepperton, the film studio owner that revealed a takeover approach on Friday. Read more
There was much excitement around rumoured takeover target Home Retail Group on Tuesday morning.
Its shares shot up 10 per cent as the City woke up to the fact that Madison Dearborn Partners, the US buyout specialist, has amassed a 4 per cent stake in the parent company of Argos and Homebase. Read more
Shares in TalkTalk Telecom Group, Britain’s second-biggest broadband provider, are sharply higher on Thursday morning.
More on those Smith & Nephew bid rumours, this time from Merrill Lynch, whose investment bankers have reportedly been trying to put the medical devices group together with a heavily indebted US rival.
Analyst Ed Ridley-Day has told clients on Wednesday morning that he is moving to a “No Rating” on S&N because of all this takeover speculation. Read more
Here we go again…
Friday’s Daily Telegraph: Read more
Interesting developments in the De La Rue takeover saga.
From Thursday’s Daily Telegraph: Read more
Did Smith & Nephew receive a bid of more than 750p a share from Johnson & Johnson before Christmas?
The unsatisfactory answer after a weekend of frenzied speculation (and a big run-up in the S&N share price on Monday morning) is that we still don’t know. Read more
What’s this? Another UK company deciding not to reveal a takeover approach in spite of persistent bid speculation?
Looks that way. And this one is a FTSE 100 constituent. Read more
Yes, says Fred Lucas of JPMorgan, who notes that BP is trading on an implied reserve multiple that’s 30 per cent below its peers and equal to ExxonMobil’s long run finding and development costs:
We’ve said before that getting this deal done wouldn’t happen any time soon, even in Europe.
But there are signs that News Corp’s bid to buy out BSkyB might end up ruffling feathers closer to home — and this time could end up getting it blocked altogether. Read more
Sanofi-Aventis has stepped up its pursuit of Genzyme by outlining publicly its interest in a takeover deal as it inched closer to making a hostile offer for the US biotech company, the FT reports. Sanofi’s price values the target, which makes “orphan drugs” to treat rare genetic diseases, at about $18.5bn excluding debt, but the French drugmaker has been frustrated by Genzyme’s declining to engage in private negotiations. Even so, Sanofi has to make this deal as it faces the problem common to all Big Pharma firms over the next few years, says the WSJ — a ‘patent cliff’ of drugs going generic, piquing interest in entrepreneurial firms like Genzyme that bring new science to the table. Sanofi’s $69 per share offer still ranks below Genzyme shareholders preferred price of $75 a share, suggesting the fight could quickly go hostile, Reuters reports. Read more
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has offered to buy the remaining shares it does not already own in Wesco Financial, a subsidiary managed by the billionaire investor’s longtime business partner, Charles Munger, reports the FT. Mr Munger has described Wesco’s existence as a separate publicly traded entity as a ‘historical accident’. Shares in Wesco surged 12 per cent on news of Berkshire’s plan to pay investors book value for their stock. The move also fits in with plans for Berkshire’s post-Buffett — and post-Munger — future, says Reuters. Read more
Market disclosures at dawn. And so on. We can’t remember the last time the RNS statements washed so much dirty laundry in public following a takeover break-up.
But Dana Petroleum’s suitor of recent months, Korean National Oil Corp, surprised us on Thursday. Here’s its response to Dana rejecting its offer (emphasis ours): Read more
1Bernanke weighs in on robot wars; brings Keynes for backup
2Secret liquidity and Scottish independence
3Spain's awful unemployment
4Pump up, debase
5S&P 2,100, by Goldman Sachs
Show more6Buyback to enrich
7Apple Operations International, facts (?) du jour
8Collateral crunch-counting gets sophisticated
9In which the FTSE puts the crisis behind it
10Further reading
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