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.
Apologies for a headline that posits a question. The problem is Betaville's best sources are certain Permira is the private equity firm that is taking a look at Bwin.party Digital Entertainment. However, people familiar with the private equity firm have tried to pour cold water on the tale, denying the buy-out shop has any interest in the online gaming company. Talk about awkward. ..
There appear to be some pretty divergent views within the financial media about what mega deal Vodafone is planning to do next.
Last Friday Bloomberg reported that Vodafone was looking at a $130 billion merger with Jon Malone's Liberty Global: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-28/vodafone-said-to-eye-takeover-of-malone-s-liberty-global.html..
I see Dalian Wanda, the multi-billion dollar Chinese conglomerate, is still getting a lot of attention in the British newspaper business pages - this time for getting into pig farming and pork production. Here is a link to a Financial Times piece on the topic: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a3571d66-7a26-11e4-8958-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3KpuRbCmr..
I see most of today's broadsheet newspaper business sections have given Dalian Wanda's interest in buying a stake in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, the US studio behind "The Hunger Games", a lot of space and attention...
Here is an interesting snippet on a live M&A situation...
Here is something to cheer you up on a cold, grey Monday morning - a couple of my Betaville """"""exclusive""""" jackanories have just been confirmed. ..
It sounds like the Mouchel sale I was talking about on Tip TV yesterday morning is getting closer to completion...
In case you missed it, here is my Tip TV clip from this morning's session.
In case you are following the Big Bus Tours auction in detail, I hear from good sources four bidders have been shortlisted to participate in the sale process...
Oh look - as of tonight's market close, Dixons Carphone is now larger than both J Sainsbury and WM Morrison, two of Britain's largest supermarket groups...
I have to admit I was a little bit surprised to see reports this week claiming America's Stryker Corporation is "discussing the financing" of a multi-billion pound acquisition of orthopaedics maker Smith & Nephew...
Wow - the UK M&A market has suddenly roared back into life. And to think last Thursday I was on Tip TV noting how quiet it was in the British dealmaking scene for this time of year...
This is rather intriguing. Click on the link below and you will see that Caterham, the Formula One team that recently found itself in financial difficulty, has found a new sponsor in North Square Blue Oak and is set to race in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend...
Nick Batsford - aka Moose - very kindly asked me back onto Tip TV to talk about M&A. As usual, it was great fun and also a great honour - I preceded veteran City commentators such as Panmure Gordon's David Buik.
Here is a link to today's clip: http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/ma-ben-harrington-betaville-blogspot/ ..
It's game over for investors that were betting on a potential counter bid from US group Microchip Technology for London-listed CSR...
Typical. I mentioned it was unusually quiet in the UK corporate dealmaking scene in a post this morning and a couple of hours later my rivals unearth a cracking scoop...
It's unusually quiet in the UK corporate dealmaking scene so I thought I would take a look at a story in another sector I have a profound interest in: Premier League football...
Tucked away in the middle of Oliver Shah's story on J Sainsbury in The Sunday Times this weekend was quite an interesting nugget of information that appears to have been overlooked by the market...
[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].