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Tag: mergers

  • Dassault Aviation Rises After Ukraine Agrees to Buy 100 Rafale Fighter Jets

    Ukraine agreed to buy 100 Rafale fighter jets as part of a larger military equipment deal that triggered a jump in the share price of the French aerospace and defense manufacturer Dassault Aviation AM 7.44%increase; green up pointing triangle.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that he had signed a letter of intent to acquire 100 Rafale F4 fighter jets by 2035, SAMP/T air defense systems, radars, air-to-air-missiles and aerial bombs from France.

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    Cristina Gallardo

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  • Trump Administration Blocks Gunvor Takeover of Russian Oil Assets

    Gunvor pulled its offer to buy the international assets of sanctioned Russian oil producer Lukoil after the U.S. Treasury Department said it opposed the deal and called the Swiss commodities trader the “Kremlin’s puppet.”

    The move signals the Trump administration is taking a hard-line approach in its recently launched effort to use economic pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

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    Georgi Kantchev

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  • Louvre Skimped on Security to Spend on Art in Years Before Heist, Says Auditor

    PARIS—France’s state auditor issued a searing assessment of the Louvre Museum’s finances on Thursday, alleging its management prioritized the acquisition of new artworks over the maintenance and security of its existing collection.

    The auditor released its 153-page report after a team of thieves used low-tech methods to break into the museum last month and steal France’s crown jewels, drawing attention to the Louvre’s porous security.

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    Noemie Bisserbe

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  • Comerica Stock Soars. Fifth Third to Buy Peer for $10.9 Billion as Bank Mergers Heat Up.

    Fifth Third Buys Comerica for $10.9B in Year’s Biggest Bank Deal. Which Firms Might Be Next.

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  • Oklo Director Sold 50,000 Shares of Nuclear Start-Up Before Selloff

    Oklo Director Sold 50,000 Shares of Nuclear Start-Up Before Selloff

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  • UBS, Credit Suisse merger by 2026 | Bank Automation News

    UBS, Credit Suisse merger by 2026 | Bank Automation News


    UBS continues to integrate Credit Suisse into its operations, dealing with high general and administrative costs related to the acquisition.  “There is a significant amount of restructuring and optimization that must take place over the next three years before we can harvest the full benefits of the combination,” Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said during UBS’ […]





    Vaidik Trivedi

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  • Etsy’s stock is having its best day in seven months after Elliott takes ‘sizable’ stake

    Etsy’s stock is having its best day in seven months after Elliott takes ‘sizable’ stake


    Investors bought up shares of Etsy Inc. on Thursday after the online crafts marketplace added to its board of directors a partner of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management L.P., which recently acquired a “sizable” stake in the company.

    Etsy
    ETSY,
    +9.31%
    said Marc Steinberg, who is responsible for public- and private-equity investments at Elliott, has been appointed to the board, effective Feb. 5, and will also join the board’s audit committee.

    “Etsy has a highly differentiated position in the e-commerce landscape and a uniquely attractive business model, supported by a distinctive and engaged community,” Steinberg said. “We became a sizable investor in Etsy and I am joining its board because I believe there is an opportunity for significant value creation.”

    Etsy’s stock shot up 8% in afternoon trading, to pare earlier gains of as much as 14.2%. The stock was headed for its best one-day gain since it climbed 9.2% on July 11.

    Elliott’s stake was acquired in recent months, as the fund’s disclosure of equity holdings through the third quarter did not list Etsy shares.

    “Marc’s appointment reflects our ongoing commitment to enhance the perspectives and expertise on the Etsy Board,” said Etsy Chairman Fred Wilson. “We look forward to benefiting from his voice in the boardroom as a seasoned and experienced investor as we continue our journey of creating a leading global e-commerce platform.”

    Etsy now has 10 board members.

    Etsy’s stock has run up 18.6% over the past three months, but has tumbled 48.5% over the past 12 months. That’s compared with the S&P 500 index’s
    SPX
    18.7% rally over the past year.

    Read (December 2023): Etsy to cut 11% of staff as CEO says company is on ‘unsustainable trajectory’

    At an investor conference in December, Chief Executive Josh Silverman said business has slowed since the post-pandemic boom, as people have “had enough of buying things” and are now spending primarily on eating out and travel. Inflation and the loss of government subsidies was also weighing on spending.

    Still, Silverman said, Etsy is now about two and a half times bigger than it was before the pandemic, and the company has more active buyers than it did at the peak of the pandemic.



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  • Macy’s rejects $5.8 billion takeover bid; Arkhouse threatens to go to shareholders

    Macy’s rejects $5.8 billion takeover bid; Arkhouse threatens to go to shareholders

    Macy’s Inc. said Sunday it has rejected an unsolicited bid by Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management to take the department-store chain private in a $5.8 billion deal, citing concerns over financing.

    In a statement, Macy’s
    M,
    -1.67%
    said Arkhouse and Brigade failed to address the board’s concerns over their ability to finance the deal, and found a “lack of compelling value in their non-binding proposal.”

    “Following careful consideration and efforts to gather additional information from Arkhouse and Brigade, the board determined that Arkhouse and Brigade’s proposal is not actionable and that it fails to provide compelling value to Macy’s, Inc. shareholders,” Macy’s Chief Executive Jeff Gennette said in a statement. “We continue to be open to opportunities that are in the best interests of the company and all of our shareholders.”

    Earlier Sunday, Arkhouse confirmed that it and Brigade had submitted a proposal to buy Macy’s for $21 a share on Dec. 1, and threatened to bring the matter directly to Macy’s shareholders if talks do not pick up this week. “We see the potential for a meaningful increase to our original proposal if we are granted access to the necessary due diligence,” Arkhouse added.

    Also read: Macy’s real estate alone is worth nearly $3 billion more than investors’ bid, these analysts say

    Macy’s shares jumped after the buyout bid was first reported in December, but have since lost some of those gains.

    Last week, Macy’s said it will lay off 13% of its corporate staff — roughly 2,350 jobs — and close five stores in an effort to cut costs.

    Macy’s stock is down about 23% over the past 12 months, compared to the S&P 500’s
    SPX
    22% gain.

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  • JetBlue, Spirit Airlines appeal court ruling blocking their proposed merger

    JetBlue, Spirit Airlines appeal court ruling blocking their proposed merger

    JetBlue Airways Corp. and Spirit Airlines Inc. said late Friday that they have appealed a court ruling that earlier this week blocked their planned merger.

    JetBlue
    JBLU,
    -1.19%
    and Spirit
    SAVE,
    +17.19%
    announced the appeal in a terse press release that provided no more details, adding only that the process is “consistent with the requirements of the merger agreement.”

    Wall Street was split on whether the airlines would be legally obliged to appeal the Tuesday ruling, which sided with the Justice Department in saying that a merger between low-cost JetBlue and ultra-low-cost Spirit would hurt competition.

    Shares of Spirit rallied 12% after hours Friday, while JetBlue shares fell nearly 2%. Analysts at JP Morgan said this week that the ruling freed JetBlue from a “costly merger.”

    Earlier Friday, Spirit sought to reassure investors about its liquidity and issued an upbeat fourth-quarter revenue guidance. Spirit has amassed about $5.5 billion in debt, and is reportedly seeking advisers to help restructure it.

    The likelihood of Spirit attracting a new merger or takeover bid is considered low without a debt restructuring. Frontier Group Holdings Inc.
    ULCC,
    -2.13%
    and JetBlue competed for Spirit in 2022, with Frontier ultimately bowing out in July of that year.

    Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth said in a note earlier Friday that it was “clear to us that Spirit is pressing JetBlue to appeal the antitrust ruling, but we continue to believe the chances of success are low.”

    Syth has estimated that an appeal would take some four to five months.

    Shares of Spirit have lost 67% in the past 12 months, while shares of JetBlue are down 41%. The U.S. Global Jets ETF
    JETS
    has lost 9% in the same period. Those losses contrast with gains of 24% for the S&P 500 index
    SPX.

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  • iRobot Stock Plunges as Its Takeover by Amazon Likely Is Dead

    iRobot Stock Plunges as Its Takeover by Amazon Likely Is Dead

    Amazon’s $1.4 billion deal for Roomba-maker iRobot looks set to be blocked by European Union antitrust authorities. It’s only a small setback for the e-commerce giant but it’s a reminder that regulators are still skeptical over acquisitions made by big technology companies.

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  • Macy’s to lay off 13% of corporate staff, close five stores

    Macy’s to lay off 13% of corporate staff, close five stores

    Department-store chain Macy’s Inc. plans to cut 2,350 jobs and close five stores, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, as the company tries to curb expenses and meet the demands of what it said was “an everchanging consumer and marketplace.”

    The cuts, which amount to around 13% of Macy’s
    M,
    +0.39%
    corporate staff and 3.5% of its staff overall, are part of an effort to shed costs, eliminate management layers and redirect spending toward improving customers’ shopping experience, the Journal said. The dismissals will begin on Jan. 26, according to a memo sent to employees cited by the publication.

    “As we prepare to deploy a new strategy to meet the needs of an everchanging consumer and marketplace, we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 3.5% to become a more streamlined company,” a Macy’s spokesperson said in a statement to MarketWatch.

    The spokesperson said that the store closures were part of an effort to “reposition our store portfolio and evaluate the right mix of on- and off-mall locations,” adding that the five stores would close this year.

    Shares of Macy’s were up 0.2% after hours on Thursday, after gaining 0.4% in the day’s trading.

    The Journal reported that Macy’s plans to develop a more automated supply chain and would outsource some jobs. Citing a person familiar with the matter, the publication said the company would be “investing in areas that impact consumers, such as adding more visual-display managers to enhance the look of stores and upgrading digital functions to make online shopping more seamless.”

    The job cuts were announced as the landscape for retailers remains uneven, as higher prices for groceries and other basics have hindered what inflation-hit shoppers can spend elsewhere.

    “Despite our strong and tangible progress over the last few years, we remain under pressure,” according to the Macy’s memo cited by the Journal said.

    The moves come as Macy’s President Tony Spring prepares to succeed the outgoing Jeff Gennette as the company’s chief executive next month. Macy’s is also facing a nearly $6 billion takeover bid by an investor group that’s looking to take the retailer private.

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  • Spirit Airlines Stock Gets a Downgrade. It’s the Least of the Carrier’s Problems.

    Spirit Airlines Stock Gets a Downgrade. It’s the Least of the Carrier’s Problems.

    Spirit Airlines stock was falling again Thursday as the ultra-low-cost carrier’s predicament worsened.

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  • Hewlett Packard Enterprises to buy Juniper Networks in $14 billion deal

    Hewlett Packard Enterprises to buy Juniper Networks in $14 billion deal

    In an effort to keep up in the accelerating AI arms race, cloud-services provider Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. on Tuesday agreed to buy Juniper Networks, Inc. in a deal worth around $14 billion.

    Under the terms of the deal, Hewlett Packard Enterprises
    HPE,
    -8.92%
    will acquire Juniper
    JNPR,
    +21.81%
    — which makes communications-networking products and also has an AI segment called Mist AI — for $40 a share. The companies expect the deal to close late this year or in early 2025.

    “The acquisition is expected to double HPE’s networking business, creating a new networking leader with a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value,” the companies said in a release.

    After the deal is completed, Juniper Chief Executive Rami Rahim will lead the combined HPE networking business, and report to HPE CEO Antonio Neri.

    “This transaction will strengthen HPE’s position at the nexus of accelerating macro-AI trends, expand our total addressable market, and drive further innovation for customers as we help bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds, while also generating significant value for shareholders,” Neri said in a statement.

    HPE said the addition of Juniper will boost margins and result in up to $450 million in annual cost savings within three years of the deal’s completion, as well as accelerate growth. HPE’s networking segment was the company’s top source of quarterly earnings before taxes, $401 million, on $1.4 billion in revenue.

    HPE’s deeper plunge into networking closes a chapter of sorts. Then-Hewlett-Packard Co. acquired Aruba Networks for about $3 billion in March 2015, months before Silicon Valley’s original garage startup split in half, resulting in the formation of HPE, which sells servers and other equipment for data centers, and HP Inc.
    HPQ,
    -2.71%    ,
    which makes PCs and printers.

    The Wall Street Journal reported the possibility of a deal on Monday, sending shares of Juniper higher.

    Shares of Juniper
    JNPR,
    +21.81%
    rose 0.5% after hours, after jumping 21.8% during regular trading hours. Hewlett Packard
    HPE,
    -8.92%
    shares were down 0.4% after hours, after falling 8.9% during the day.

    As of Tuesday’s close, Juniper had a market cap of $9.64 billion, while HPE’s was $23.04 billion.

    The companies hope the deal can provide a much-needed jolt after a series of lackluster quarterly earnings. Juniper shares have gained 15.7% over the past 12 months, while HPE shares are down 5.4% over that span. The S&P 500
    SPX,
    in comparison, is up about 21.4% over the past year.

    For decades, Juniper has lagged rival Cisco Systems Inc.
    CSCO,
    -1.09%
    in the networking-equipment market. In its most recent quarter, Juniper reported net income of $76 million on revenue of $1.4 billion, down 1% from the same quarter a year earlier.

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  • WSJ News Exclusive | Hewlett Packard Enterprise Near Deal to Buy Juniper Networks

    WSJ News Exclusive | Hewlett Packard Enterprise Near Deal to Buy Juniper Networks

    Updated Jan. 8, 2024 6:31 pm ET

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise is in advanced talks to buy Juniper Networks for about $13 billion, in a bid to better position the nearly 100-year-old technology company in the era of artificial intelligence. 

    A deal between the two companies could be announced as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter, assuming the talks don’t fall apart. 

    Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • AMC extends losing streak to five days, hits another record low close

    AMC extends losing streak to five days, hits another record low close

    AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. extended its losing streak to five days Friday, with the stock ending the session down 2.5% to $5.15.

    AMC
    AMC,
    -2.45%
    shares are now on their longest losing streak since a seven-day slide that ended on Aug. 29, 2023. The movie-theater chain and onetime meme-stock darling ended Thursday’s session at a then-record-low close of $5.30. AMC was a top trending symbol on Stocktwits, a social platform for investors and traders, at Friday’s open.

    The stock’s previous record closing low had been $6.07, which was set on Dec. 21, 2023, according to Dow Jones Market Data, citing available information dating back to Dec. 18, 2013.

    Related: AMC hits another record-low close, extends losing streak to four days

    The decline in AMC’s share price is a far cry from its meme-stock heyday, when it hit an all-time closing high of $339.05 on June 2, 2021.

    In a regulatory filing Tuesday, AMC said that between Dec. 28 and Dec. 29, 2023, the company entered into a series of privately negotiated exchange agreements to issue nearly 3.26 million shares of Class A common stock in exchange for $22.5 million of its notes due in 2026.  The common stock issued had an implied value of $6.94 per share, according to AMC. “The company may engage in similar transactions in the future but is under no obligation to do so,” AMC said in the filing.

    The move is the latest in AMC’s attempts to tackle its debt burden, which reached more than $5 billion in 2022. That year, AMC launched its APE special dividend, and in 2023 it completed the conversion of the APEs into AMC common stock and a reverse 1-for-10 split of common stock. 

    Related: AMC CEO slams ‘prophets of doom,’ says company is ‘blazing new trails’ as it enters 2024

    In December, AMC also completed its latest at-the-market equity offering, raising approximately $350 million. AMC CEO Adam Aron has repeatedly warned that the company faces liquidity challenges. 

    AMC shares are down 84.8% in the last 12 months, compared with S&P 500 index’s
    SPX
    gain of 20.6%.

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  • Berkshire Buys More Liberty SiriusXM Tracking Stock

    Berkshire Buys More Liberty SiriusXM Tracking Stock

    Berkshire Hathaway purchased 2.8 million shares of the Liberty SiriusXM tracking stock in recent days, apparently seeking to capitalize on Liberty Sirius’ discount relative to the value of its stake in Sirius XM Holdings, the satellite radio company.

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  • Mark Zuckerberg sold $428 million of Meta stock in the last two months of 2023

    Mark Zuckerberg sold $428 million of Meta stock in the last two months of 2023

    Mark Zuckerberg cashed in on his company’s 2023 stock rally in a big way — selling nearly $428 million worth of shares in Meta Platforms Inc. over the final two months of the year.

    The Meta
    META,
    -0.53%
    co-founder and chief executive offloaded just under 1.8 million shares over the course of every trading day between Nov. 1 and the end of last year, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. 

    The sales were in accordance with a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by Zuckerberg in July and saw him capitalize on Meta’s rebounding stock price, which soared 194.1% in 2023 — and nearly threefold since it hit a seven-year low in November 2022. By comparison, the S&P 500
    SPX
    and the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP
    indexes gained 24.2% and 43.4%, respectively, in 2023.

    The moves also broke a two-year hiatus, dating back to November 2021, during which Zuckerberg did not sell any of his stock in the Facebook parent company, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news. Zuckerberg, who owns roughly 13% of Meta, is ranked the seventh-richest person in the world with a net worth of $125 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

    Nasdaq-listed Meta shares, which fell 0.5% on Wednesday to $344.47, are now roughly 11% off their all-time closing high of $382.18 from September 2021.

    Representatives for Meta could not immediately be reached for comment.

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  • Apple's stock falls after 'sell' call from Barclays

    Apple's stock falls after 'sell' call from Barclays

    Shares of Apple Inc. are starting 2024 with a selloff, after Barclays analyst Tim Long said it was “time for a breather,” citing weak hardware sales as iPhone 15 demand disappoints.

    “We are still picking up weakness on iPhone volumes and mix, as well as a lack of bounce-back in Macs, iPads and wearables,” Long wrote in a note to clients. “The biggest takeaway from the latest checks is incrementally worse [iPhone] 15 data points out of China, together with developed markets remaining soft.”

    He cut his rating on the stock
    AAPL,
    -0.54%
    to underweight from neutral, and trimmed his price target to $160 from $161. The new target implies about 17% downside from Friday’s closing price of $192.53.

    The stock slumped 1.8% in premarket trading Tuesday, putting it on track to open at a seven-week low.

    Long said iPhone 15 sales have been “lackluster” and believes Phone 16 sales will be the same, as he expects other hardware categories to remain weak. He said it’s time for investors to take a “breather” on the stock, as he doesn’t think it can keep rallying in the face of downbeat demand data, like it did in 2023.

    “We expect reversion after a year when most quarters were missed and the stock outperformed,” Long wrote.

    He expects Apple to report “in-line” fiscal first-quarter results, which runs through December, but he trimmed his second-quarter to further below consensus expectations.

    He now expects earnings per share and revenue for the quarter through March to be down in the low-single-digit percentage range, while the FactSet consensus calls for EPS to be up 2.6% at $1.57 and revenue to rise 1.1% to $95.8 billion.

    Apple’s stock surged 48.2% in 2023, or almost double the S&P 500 index’s
    SPX
    gain of 24.2%, even as revenue for each quarter of fiscal 2023 through September was below that of a year ago.

    Long is now one of just four of the 44 analysts surveyed by FactSet who are bearish on Apple’s stock, while 27 (61%) are bullish and 13 are neutral. His $160 price target is 19.2% below the average target of $197.92.

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  • Uber and Lyft shares rallied in 2023 but may not go much higher, analysts say

    Uber and Lyft shares rallied in 2023 but may not go much higher, analysts say

    Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and the ride-hailing giant’s smaller rival, Lyft Inc., have sprinted higher this year. But analysts on Friday suggested there might not be much left in the tank for either stock heading into 2024.

    Nomura analysts Anindya Das and Masataka Kunugimoto on Friday downgraded Uber
    UBER,
    -2.49%
    to a neutral rating from buy, arguing that most of the things that could drive the stock higher are already baked into the price. They also downgraded Lyft
    LYFT,
    -3.54%
    to their equivalent of a sell rating from buy, saying the company failed to fully capitalize on the travel industry’s post-pandemic recovery.

    Shares of Uber, which closed out the year up 142%, were down 2.5% on Friday. Lyft’s stock gave up 3.4% and finished 2023 up 34.8%.

    Uber, the analysts said, had managed to grow this year while occasionally turning a profit, and consolidated its grip on the ride-sharing markets in the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, Lyft, they said, had stumbled in its efforts to take advantage of the travel rebound after pandemic restrictions eased, cutting more staff this year after doing the same in 2022.

    After years of losing money, they said Uber’s stronger financials this year allowed it to refinance its debt at a lower interest rate and extend the terms of that debt. They noted the company recently joined the S&P 500 Index
    SPX
    and that the market is expecting more stock buybacks from the company, as well as interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve next year.

    “Thus, most of the milestones and catalysts that we were anticipating to boost Uber’s stock value have been largely met,” they said.

    They added: “At this time, we think most of the catalysts for the stock are already priced in, and Uber is fairly valued at the current price. We therefore downgrade it to Neutral from Buy.”

    Lyft has tried to cut its prices to compete with Uber, and has held off on expanding into areas like food delivery. But as travel demand settles, the analysts suggested, the advantages would still flow to its archrival.

    “We expect 2024 to be more of a ‘normal’ year, in terms of people’s propensity to travel,” the analysts said. “Once the current rebound in travel subsides, we think Lyft’s subscale market positioning, and lack of cross-selling opportunities (unlike Uber), could constrain topline growth for the company.”

    “Offsetting a more moderate pace of ridership growth by raising prices would be challenging for Lyft,” they said, “as we think it would be bound by the actions of its larger and more profitable peer, Uber.”

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