Comcast Corporation, Market Cap (as of 30/04/2015): $145.2bn Time Warner Cable Enterprises, Market Cap (as of 30/04/2015): $43.94bn Introduction The dream of combining the two American giant companies Comcast and Time Warner Cable has come to an end. On April 17, Comcast officially dropped its $45.2bn bid for TWC Read more…
Bitcoin Imagine you could send your money from one part of the world to another in a matter of minutes and without paying outrageous fees to the banks. Bitcoin is an innovative way to do this. It was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and published as open-source software. Bitcoin Read more…
Nomad Holdings Ltd.; market cap (as of 01/05/2015): $576.72m Introduction On April 20, 2015 Nomad Holdings Limited (LSE: NHL), a special purpose acquisition vehicle, announced an agreement to acquire for €2.6bn, Iglo Foods Holdings Limited (Iglo Foods), from a company backed by the private equity group Permira. The acquisition would Read more…
On April 21, 2015 Canadian avant-garde circus operator, Cirque du Soleil, announced an agreement to sell a majority stake of its business to a private equity consortium led by TPG Capital Management, also including Fosun Capital group, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and a Québec businessman Mitch Garber. Read more…
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ; Market Cap (as of 25/04/2015): $62,67bn Mylan Pharmaceuticals ; Market Cap (as of 25/04/2015): $36,06bn Introduction In the healthcare industry, the saying “eat or be eaten” no longer applies. Instead, the adage of “make a bid or wait for an offer” would be more appropriate Read more…
Prologis Inc.; market cap (as of 24/04/2015): $22.18bn Introduction On April 19th Prologis Inc., global leader in industrial real estate, announced its intentions to buy the real estate assets and operating platform of KTR Capital Partners (KTR), a real estate focused private equity company, for a total purchase price of Read more…
Royal Dutch Shell plc.; market cap (as of 17/04/15): $200.1bn BG Group plc.; market cap (as of 17/04/15): $61.1bn Introduction On Wednesday 8, Royal Dutch Shell announced the acquisition of BG Group for $70.1bn for a mix of cash and stock, which would make Shell the largest producer of Read more…
General Electric; Market Cap (as of 17/04/2015): €276,45bn Introduction On April 10, General Electric Company made an enormous restructuring announcement to spin out the majority of financial services division, GE Capital, in a strategic effort to shift the company’s overall direction. The decision was made on the premise of Read more…
NOKIA Corporation; Market Cap (as of 17/04/2015): €26.3bn Alcatel-Lucent; Market Cap (as of 17/04/2015): €10.5bn Introduction On April 15, the Finnish multinational company Nokia agreed to buy the French company Alcatel-Lucent in an all-shares transaction valued at €15.6bn. The deal aims at creating a future innovation leader in the technology Read more…
Virtu Financial Inc.; market cap (as of 17/04/2015): $3.2bn Introduction On April 16, Virtu Financial, one of the world’s largest high-frequency trading companies, commenced trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “VIRT”. The initial public offering, first ever in the HFT sector, proved successful as the company raised close Read more…
AbbVie Inc.; market cap (as of 06/03/2015): $88.7bn Pharmacyclics Inc.; market cap (as of 06/03/2015): $19.3bn Introduction On March 4, the pharmaceutical company AbbVie, outbidding the competitor Johnson & Johnson, agreed to buy the cancer biotech company Pharmacyclics in a $21bn transaction. The Chicago based company will pay $261.25 per Read more…
Altice SA; Market Cap (as of 06/03/2015): €24bn Altice’s use of high levels of debt to fund its consolidation of the cable and telecoms sector in Europe has raised many eyebrows among investors and analysts, but so far the risks seem to be paying off. Since it’s initial public offering Read more…
NXP Semiconductor NV; Market Cap (as of 06/03/15): $22.7bn Freescale Semiconductor Ltd; Market Cap (as of 06/03/15): $12.3bn Introduction On March 2, NXP Semi announced it will acquire Freescale Semi in a $11.8bn transaction. Amalgamating the Eindhoven-based chip manufacturer with its American rival will create the leader in both Auto Read more…
UIL Holdings Corp.; market cap (as of 27/02/15): US$2.86bn Iberdrola SA; market cap (as of 27/02/15): US$43.5bn Introduction On February 26, Iberdrola SA, Spain’s largest electricity company, agreed to buy UIL Holdings Corp. in a deal valued at about US$3bn in cash and shares. With the acquisition, Iberdrola plans Read more…
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.; market cap (as of 26/02/2015): US$76.68bn Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.; market cap (as of 26/02/2015): US$10.07bn Introduction The pharmaceutical industry has undergone an intense period of consolidation in the past 18 months which is far from over as the big players take advantage of the Read more…