#mergers-and-acquisitions

#mergers-and-acquisitions

Intertek has become the latest FTSE 100 business to agree to a takeover, backing a 10.6bn approach from a private equity firm owned by Sweden's billionaire Wallenberg family. After rebuffing three previous approaches, Intertek's board said it was minded to recommend the 60-a-share tilt from the Swedish buyout firm EQT to shareholders, if there is a firm offer. The deal is worth 10.6bn including debt, or 9.4bn without. The previous bids were pegged at 58, 54 and 51.0 a share.

Keyera Corp. has closed its deal to buy the Canadian natural gas liquids business of U.S. firm Plains All American Pipeline L.P. despite a challenge launched by the federal competition regulator. The company says it completed the acquisition Tuesday for $5.3 billion including closing adjustments.

GameStop is the meme stock company that became famous a few years ago when amateur traders on a Reddit forum piled in furiously in an attempt to burn the short-sellers who were betting on the struggling retailer's demise. Surprisingly, the Redditers succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The squeeze drove up GameStop's share price hundredfold, inflicting hell on serious hedge funds and making the company's chief executive, Ryan Cohen, an anti-establishment hero. Even more surprisingly, GameStop is still around and showing better trading numbers.

Home Depot delivered Q4 adjusted EPS of $2.72 against a $2.52 estimate, with revenue of $38.20B down 3.8% on a 13 versus 14 week calendar. Comparable sales rose 0.4%, and Pro demand plus SRS Distribution carried the quarter. CEO Ted Decker called underlying demand "relatively stable" after adjusting for storms.

“We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive,” eBay chairman Paul Pressler said, adding that the board of directors “is confident the company, under its current management team, is well-positioned to continue to drive sustainable growth.”

Eon has agreed to buy the retail arm of Ovo Energy in a transaction that will create Britain's largest household energy supplier and end the 17-year run of one of the country's best-known challenger brands as an independent operator.

Grand Games Oyun ve Yazılım, the Istanbul-based mobile gaming studio behind Magic Sort and Car Match, has raised $70m in a Series B funding round led by Balderton Capital's Growth Fund, the company said on Monday. Bek Ventures, Laton Ventures and angel investor Mert Gür participated alongside Balderton, which is doubling down on its January 2025 Series A position. The latest round brings Grand Games' total funding to $103m.

Clorox ( NYSE: CLX | CLX Price Prediction) spent the past 10 years doing what consumer staples are supposed to do: pay reliably, raise dividends annually, and grind through cycles. The pandemic briefly turned cleaning brands into pantry essentials, sending shares above prior highs. Then came margin compression, a 2023 cyberattack, and an ambitious $580 million ERP overhaul that the company finished rolling out in winter of FY2026.

Nestlé disclosed the agreement in its April 23 three-month sales release, stating that the transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close during the first half of 2026.

The lawsuit claims Two Harbors submitted materially incomplete and misleading financial disclosures, alleging that the board agreed to unfair deal protections and that executives timed stock trades to personally benefit from the mergers and acquisitions activity.

Public Storage announced plans to acquire one of its main competitors, National Storage Affiliates. As of December 31, Public Storage operated 3,533 self-storage facilities across 40 states. As of the same date, National Storage Affiliates Trust operated 1,063 self-storage properties across 37 states and Puerto Rico.

"Our shared commitment to advancing IoT innovation creates a unique opportunity to power some of the most advanced IoT solutions globally," he said. "Through our close alignment on values, culture and commitment to service, we can accelerate adoption across industries, enabling operators and enterprises to unlock the full potential of connected ecosystems. Together, we will make LoRaWAN the default infrastructure for massive IoT."

Milan-based Bending Spoons owns a collection of software companies, including Evernote, Meetup, and WeTransfer. The company has leaned heavily into M&A to grow, closing its purchase of Vimeo in November and announcing in October that it would buy AOL for $1.5 billion. It raised $4 billion in debt financing in 2025 to support its AOL acquisition and future M&A activity.

Setpoint, which serves more than 200 customers and supports more than 14 asset classes through its software platform for asset-backed finance, provides technology-enabled diligence and verification services designed to speed loan reviews. The company uses AI-assisted document verification, centralized collateral management, and upfront visibility into guidelines and ratings agency eligibility. The future of diligence is built on better infrastructure, said Stu Wall, co-founder and CEO of Setpoint.

He said this has resulted in the company's marketing department honing in on content creation, since they know it's the best way to get in front of the AI models. There has been this whole shift in how people find agents, Raveis said. I got a call from my sales manager in my Danbury, Connecticut, office and they said someone had just walked in because they asked ChatGPT for the best real estate office in Danbury and we were it.

"Whichever media company, if any, ultimately secures it controls the calculus of the streaming wars and so much more," said Mike Proulx, vp and research director at Forrester. Most buyers expect that should Netflix's acquisition go ahead after Q3 2026 - creating a "Goliath" in the streaming market, according to Proulx - the company would gain leverage in pricing discussions.

The all-cash offer of $30 per share works out to a valuation of more than $108 billion, or an equity valuation of $78.7 billion, for WBD's entire operation, putting it in the upper echelons of hostile takeover attempts in recent decades. In fairness, the $82.7 billion deal, or $72 billion equity valuation, from streaming giant Netflix is also pretty massive. That was the one WBD's board had agreed on, and it excluded certain pieces of the business.

The acquisition marks a dramatic strategic shift for Netflix, which has never made a deal of this scope. The streaming pioneer grew to become Hollywood's most valuable company, without the benefit of a library or studio, by licensing programs from others and then expanding into original content. With the purchase, Netflix becomes owner of the HBO network, along with its library of hit shows like The Sopranos and TheWhite Lotus.