Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina have teamed up to offer 9.7 billion pounds ($18.8 billion) for Alliance Boots Plc, the largest U.K. drugstore chain, in what could be dubbed as Europe’s biggest buyout. The private equity firm Kohlberg had recently announced that it was teaming up with Stefano Pessina to [...]
Schering-Plough, the leading US drugs firm, has agreed to buy Akzo Nobel NV’s drugs unit Organon BioSciences for $14.4 billion in a bid to gain scale and diversify away from cholesterol medicine. The cash sale has marked last-minute reversal of Akzo’s earlier plan to float Organon on the stock market. This mover however was a [...]
Ford Motor Co. is taking several measures to raise cash after last year’s record loss, will sell its profitable Aston Martin luxury sports-car unit for as much as $850 million to a consortium of investors. The consortium is led by the British motor-sport entrepreneur David Richards. His consortium is believed to have held talks with [...]
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, after marking the largest private equity buyout in history recently, announced that it is acquiring Dollar General in a move that boosted the ultra-discount retailer’s stock surging high. Dollar General, which is at present putting efforts to restructure the company to encourage sales and reduce turnover, has confirmed that it has agreed [...]
Clear Channel Communications has decided to delay the vote on its $18.7 billion sale by two private equity groups and consequently provided the largest US radio station chain an extra month to convince doubtful investors to support the contentious deal. Clear Channel has rearranged its shareholder meeting regarding the company’s proposed privatization, in order to [...]
The leading advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services overturning its stance said that it would recommend that shareholders of Caremark Rx approve a takeover bid from the CVS drugstore chain. The largest investor adviser firm had earlier suggested last month that Caremark shareholders should vote against the acquisition. CVS holders will appear to vote on the [...]
Citigroup Inc. improved its takeover offer for Nikko Cordial Corp. by 26 percent to $13.4 billion after the Japanese brokerage’s biggest investors rejected the previous bid. The decision to up the offer has been taken despite its earlier stance when Citigroup had said that it will not sweeten its bid further. Nikko’s value in fact [...]
Microsoft Corp. has entered in talks to buy Tellme Networks Inc., the privately owned voice recognition technology company, two sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday, reported Reuters. The total value of the deal is being speculated around $800 million. California based Tellme, offers services that use voice-recognition technology and Internet technology to respond [...]
Cisco Systems Inc. has announced that it is planning to acquire WebEx Communications Inc. for $3.2 billion. The announcement has accentuated a quickening competition by technology giants to exploit the Internet for chores once handled by software. Cisco in a statement said that it will pay $57 a share for WebEx that specializes in Web [...]
Britain’s Cadbury Schweppes Plc has recently announced that it is contemplating to split itself into two separate businesses focusing on chocolate and confectionery on the one hand and U.S. soft drinks on the other. The company had recently disclosed that the US billionaire Nelson Peltz has bought a stake in the company, which triggered speculations [...]
