A cheeky website about deals, dealmakers and anything else I find interesting. Edited by Ben Harrington. If you have a tip, want to discuss a story or have a subscription enquiry please feel free to email Betaville at [email protected]. Betaville can also be reached at Whats App, Signal or Telegram. Betaville's Twitter handle is @bharringtonw11 and you can message me via Twitter with stories.
The move by Open Britain to unseat prominent Tory pro-Brexit MPs appears to have backfired. The advocacy group's Tory backers, such as Anna Soubry and Nick Morgan, have announced they have quit Open Britain.
Here is a link to a (free) piece in The Guardian: ..
Bryce Elder - the financial hack who broke the story Kraft Heinz's £130 billion bid for Unilever - over at the Financial Times was talking about Wix today as a takeover target for Cisco on Markets Live this morning.
Well, I would just like to point out that little old Betaville brought up Wix as a potential takeover target a couple of weeks ago on Tip TV. In case you missed it, here is a link:..
I see US-based Sandwich maker AdvancePierre Foods and Tyson Foods have just announced a deal that will the latter buy the former for $4.2 billion.
News of the deal won't come as a surprise to subscribers of the Betaville Intelligence platform as last week's RARE story on AdvancePierre Foods highlighted how the company is likely to be involved in an imminent M&A transaction.
In case you missed it, here is a link to the Betaville Intelligence platform:..
Splashed across the front page of today's The Guardian is a story about how Open Britain - the advocacy group chaired by PR supremo Roland Rudd and backed by Tory MP Anna Soubry - is urging pro-remain voters in 20 seats held by prominent Brexit-supporting MPs to oust their incumbent but vulnerable representatives in parliament. Here is the link:..
Zak Mir has now deemed himself too important for our weekly session, so the delightful Matt Brown was in the chair today. Here is a link to today's clip:
Sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of days I have been rather busy doing some freelance work for my chums at The Sunday Times.
Indeed, diligent followers of my work might have noticed I had a few jackanories in today's business section, including one on financial news giant the Mergermarket Group, publisher of Debtwire and Dealreporter...
Ping! A friendly stockbroker emails over a (translated) quote in Direkt magazine from Johan Carlstrom, the founder and main shareholder of Fingerprint Cards, the biometric technology company.
Apparently, Carlstrom told Direckt that: "There has never been a serious, fully financed bid on the company. However, on a few occasions I have received requests to sell my A and B shares. So far, I have chosen not to do that." Here is the link to the piece:..
US-listed AdvancePierre Food Holdings could be involved in an M&A transaction in the near future.
People following the company noted rumours the business is likely to be involved in an "imminent" deal - although the precise nature of the transaction is unclear.
One person speculated a potential bidder for Advance Pierre Food Holdings, which specialises in making sandwiches, could be Hormel Food Corporation...
Whether you work in UK financial markets or not clearly the biggest news event of the day was Theresa May's decision to call a snap general election.
What I'm wondering, though, is whether this bunch of centre ground, pro-European politicians, businessmen and City types - led by PR supremo Roland Rudd, founder of Finsbury - will break cover before the general election with their new political party or wait until Labour is decimated on June 8?..
Dutch digital security company Gemalto is being circled by a mystery buyer.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter said Gemalto is rumoured to have received a non-binding proposal conditional on due diligence although it's not clear what price the buyer is willing to pay for business.
Some people suggested the approach for Gemalto had come from French IT services group Atos...
I see Dom Walsh, a top hack, has made a decent attempt to skewer embattled Deutsche Bank in today's business diary column over Tom Cooper's "mysterious" decision to quite the financial institution...
Driving home from the gym this evening I was pleased to hear former colleague and boss Kamal Ahmed, ex City editor of The Sunday Telegraph and now BBC Economics Editor, come on Radio 4's news programme.
However, the aural experience was disturbed by the fact that interviewer insisted Kamal deliver his interpretation of the today's Office of National Statistics figures whilst playing table tennis. Yes, you read it correctly - whilst playing table tennis...
Now that the bid battle for Stada appears to be done and dusted (you never know, though, there could be a final twist) little old Betaville would like to remind readers of the piece I published in early December about how the German pharmaceutical company was working with bankers on "strategic options" after receiving informal expressions of interest. Below is the link to the piece:..
It took a bit longer than I expected but Independent Oil and Gas has finally confirmed my tale about it buying a North Sea pipeline from Tullow Oil. I have pasted the link below:
Zak had already slung his hook by the time I turned up today so the charming Matt Brown was in the chair instead. Here is a link to today's session:
http://tiptv.co.uk/ma-update-chinese-billionaire-eyeing-shaftesbury-betaville/..
The Mergermarket Group is in advanced discussions to buy financial technology company TIM Group from its founders and investors, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Well-placed sources said the Mergermarket Group, which is being advised Deloitte, has effectively agreed a deal with TIM Group's founders, Colin Berthoud and Richard Koppel, to purchase TIM Group for around £30 million...
Oh look: China Africa Resources - now called Pembridge Resources - has effectively confirmed yesterday's jackanory. Click on the link below for all the detail about the move to become an investment company.
Here are a couple of interesting nuggets on the Centaur Media story I broke a few weeks ago.
Good sources have told little old Betaville that Centaur's Homebuilding and Renovation division might be worth substantially more than I previously reported. People involved in the sale process believe Home Interest is likely to be sold for around £30 million, which is about half of Centaur Media's current market capitalisation...
Remember my tale about about China Africa Resources? (in case you don't, here is the link: https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/news/revealed-the-real-reason-china-africa-resources-changed-its-name-to-pembridge-resources-sources). ..
Bloomborg did well to get its series of Panera Bread scoops this week, so hat tip to the journos who landed those tales (I wasn't too far behind them but as a one man band freelancer it's sometimes tricky to get things stood up as quickly as a global financial media giant)...
[Disclaimer - the information on Betaville does not consitute any form of investment recommendation and is not intended to be relied upon by readers in making, or refraining from, any investment decisions].