Ticketcorner and Starticket unite to fight together against the big international competition. The merger agreements were signed in Zurich today by the directions of Ticketcorner Holding and Tamedia, specify the transaction partners in a statement.
General Electric (GE) and Baker Hughes (BHI) will combine to form a $32 billion oil and gas group, the two companies confirmed in a statement Monday. The combination will create the second-largest player in the oilfield services industry in terms of revenue after Schlumberger.
The move comes just a few months after Houston-based Baker Hughes’ nearly $35 billion acquisition by Halliburton was nixed by the Justice Department because of anti-competition concerns.
Deutsche Bank may soon reintegrate Postbank, the Bonn-based institute bought in several steps from 2008 for a total of €6 billion and then placed on the market. This was revealed by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, citing information gathered in financial circles.
Sources said no serious buyers emerged after Deutsche Bank put the unit up for sale and that a potential listing of Postbank also would be difficult in the current market environment.
HNA Group, the giant Chinese hotel and tourism company, agreed to buy about 25% of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc from Blackstone Group LP for about US$6.5 billion. HNA, controlled by Chen Feng, will pay US$26.25 a share in cash, or 15 per cent more than Hilton’s closing price on Friday. Under the deal, HNA cannot reduce its 25% stake over the next two years or increase it without Hilton’s permission. The deal, which is expected to go through in early 2017, will cut Blackstone’s share in Hilton to 21%.
This latest move by HNA is part of the group’s efforts to become a "global tourism business," said the company’s chief executive Adam Tan. HNA announced in April that it had agreed to acquire Carlson Hotels, which owns the Radisson and Park Plaza brands.
Now it’s official: Nissan bought 34% stake in Mitsubishi. The deal cost Nissan $2.3 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, and brings Mitsubishi into the Nissan-Renault Alliance. Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Nissan and Renault, has been nominated to be the new chairman of the Mitsubishi board. The agreement created the world’s fourth-largest auto group, after Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors.
Google has already been named as a potential bidder for Twitter, Bloomberg reported, citing "a person familiar with the arrangement," that Alphabet subsidiary Google is working with financial advisers Lazard to explore a bid for the social media company. Nonetheless, its spokeswoman Gina Scigliano refused to comment on the situation. A Lazard representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nestle and Britain’s R&R Ice Cream have completed the transaction to create their new Froneri ice cream and frozen food joint, Nestlè said on Monday.
The 50/50 joint venture will combine Nestle and R&R ice cream businesses across Europe, the Middle East, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the Philippines and South Africa. Froneri will also include Nestlé’s European frozen food business (excluding pizza and retail frozen food in Italy), as well as its chilled dairy business in the Philippines. Operational headquarters will be located in the UK. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
US drug giant AstraZeneca said on Monday that it has signed a deal with Allergan through its global biologics research and development unit MedImmune, where the latter will pay up to $1.52B for rights to MEDI2070, an antibody for Crohn’s disease.
Allergan pays $250mln up front, but it might also make payments worth up to $1.27bln over a period of up to 15 years, tied to potential sales of the antibody, MEDI2070, a treatment that is currently undergoing clinical trials for moderate to severe Crohn’s disease.
