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.
It's the new year, so I have decided to introduce a new concept to little old Betaville. It's called the "RARE" alert. The boys over at FT Alphaville have got their "RAW", so I am going to have my "RARE"...
Happy new year Betavillers!..
Dixons Carphone!
According to Thomson Reuters, the electrical goods retailer has risen by about 70pc this year and is on course to finish 2014 as the top performing FTSE 100 stock.
I am rather pleased about Dixons Carphone topping the 2014 leaderboard as it was little old Betaville that broke the story back in February about Carphone Warehouse holding merger talks with Dixons Retail. In case you have forgotten, here is a link to that story:..
Little old Betaville likes to think of itself as a bit cheeky, troublesome and unruly, so I particularly enjoyed the article in today's Financial Times about the "disrupters".
Here is a link to the piece: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b9677026-8b6d-11e4-ae73-00144feabdc0.html#slide0..
It's always tricky at this time of the year to rustle up decent jackanories but my old colleague Graham, "Ruddy", Ruddick hasn't done too badly this weekend.
Graham, who works at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, got a decent line from his interview with Andy Clarke, the chief executive of Asda, about potential consolidation in Britain's ailing supermarket sector.
Graham quotes Clarke saying:..
Alistair Osborne's brilliant column this morning was alluding to was I suggesting in yesterday's post about Afren although I have to admit his missive was somewhat more sophisticated, detailed and eloquent than mine. If you haven't read Alistair's column, here is a link to it: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/alistairosborne/article4305158.ece..
The boys over at FT Alphaville might have knocked off until the New Year but don't worry, little old Betaville will keep on going until 2015.
First, let's address this rather cheeky bid from for Afren from Seplat, which I have to admit I had never heard of until this morning.
Afren said today that after seeing its share price rise significantly on Friday, it had received:..
I hear Quindell's board met this afternoon to discuss some of the findings of PricewaterouseCoopers's "independent review" into the beleaguered company's claims processing business...
The Financial Times is really on fire at the moment. Following yesterday's scoop about a takeover bid for Lloyd's of London insurer Catlin the venerable newspaper this afternoon broke the story about the owner of British Airways considering a 1.1 billion Euro offer for Aer Lingus. Here is a link to that piece:..
Hat tip to Bryce Elder, the stock market reporter over at the Financial Times...
I see from today's newspaper coverage there were a whole bunch of suitors for Lastminute.com, the online travel agent that was the icon of the dot com boom and bust in the late 90s/early noughties...
Wow - Talisman Energy has leapt over 45pc in early trade after agreeing to a knockout $8.3 billion offer from Spain's Repsol...
Gary Parkinson, the stock market reporter over at The Times, is back on top form with a brilliant and amusing column on bonuses.
Here is a link to Parky's piece:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/tradesecrets/article4297079.ece..
There has been lots of coverage in the last few days about Repsol's renewed interest in buying the ailing Canadian oil company Talisman Energy for up to $8 billion. Here is a link to a Financial Times piece: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c74867e-8202-11e4-a9bb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Ltzlu99D..
The festive season is already starting to take its toll on me but I dragged myself into Tip TV this morning. Here is a link to today's clip: http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/mergers-acquisitions/
UPDATE: Apologies. I think I said in today's Tip TV clip that I wrote about Severn Trent for dealReporter in February 2014 but it was actually published in late January. ..
Much of today's coverage in the British newspaper business sections is focused on Tesco's terrible problems so I thought would post a piece linked to the retailer even if that connection is pretty tenuous...
Here is an interesting snippet on the Rio Tinto/Glencore situation...
Hat tip to David Gelles of The New York Times for landing the scoop about US drugs giant Merck talking to Cubist Pharmaceuticals about a takeover deal of more than $7 billion...
[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].