Kerry Stokes has taken the unprecedented step of declaring that his job as executive chairman of Seven doesn’t include fronting retail investors at tomorrow’s shareholder meeting.
Mergers and acquisitions
M&As: when “merchant banker” is rhyming slang for “real estate agent”
Shareholders should be afraid. The nascent sharemarket boom is starting to encourage chatter of mergers and acquisitions: a handy way for investment bankers to charge enormous fees and for executives to increase their remuneration.
Stokes’ successful merger hides behind-the-scenes campaign of spin
The Seven Network and WesTrac are set to merge, following a concerted campaign of intimidation and aggressive lobbying by the Seven-Stokes camp.
Shareholders miss out in CAMAC report
The Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee’s latest report on Schemes of Arrangement does little to strengthen the rights of minority shareholders, and is unlikely to upset many lawyers or bankers.
How Kraft gobbled up Cadbury
The Kraft snack food empire just got even more monolithic, finally succeeding in its bid to take over British chocolate giant Cadbury in a £11.9bn (about AU$21bn) takeover deal. The Guardian has a taste of how the deal went down.
ANZ goes shopping in the wake of the GFC
Busy times at ANZ — it’s moved to take over 100% of ING’s trans-Tasman wealth management and life insurance operations. And today it opens its first regional branch in China. Could AMP be next? asks Adele Ferguson.
Cheap money fuels takeover splurge
The past week has seen two big takeover attempts that tell us that the financial alchemists and spin doctors are out peddling their wares again: last week it was Disney and Marvel, overnight it was Kraft bidding for Cadbury.
Food fight: Kraft looks to conquer Cadbury
Kraft Foods has vowed to doggedly pursue a takeover of Cadbury, after the British chocolate empire rejected a $US16.7 billion bid, with the intention of creating a “global powerhouse of snacks, confectionery and quick meals.”
Skype and eBay break up
It seemed like such a promising marriage four years ago when eBay bought out VoIP telco Skype, but it has all ended in tears, with the online auction site announcing it will soon be offloading the company at a loss. So what went wrong for the formerly happy couple?
Killing Spider-Man: Disney buys up Marvel Comics
While Marvel shareholders prepare their pockets for the $30 per share they’ll receive from the company’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, the most pressing issue for the Marvel minions is wondering exactly how Disney will abuse their beloved superheroes, writes Clem Bastow.
Time for Twitter to cash in?
Last year, Twitter turned down a $500 million buy-out offer from Facebook. It made sense: Twitter was the hottest property going around, and its social stock is still rising. But with others on its tail, should the company quit while it’s still ahead?
The search is over: Yahoo gives in to Microsoft
Yahoo has officially given up on trying to best Google in the search engine game, finally reaching a partnership deal with Microsoft after years of negotiations and scrapping their own search engine in favour of the software giant’s new model, Bing.
Charting Amazon’s acquisitions
With news that online retail giant Amazon has bought out the slightly-less-giant online retailer Zappos for $920m, Meet the Boss have drawn up a handy chart tracking their ongoing global domination.
ACCC flailing as Kirin mops up Lion Nathan
Kirin breweries of Japan has been ‘dying’ to expand in Australia.
Kirin seeks to buy-out Lion Nathan
Japanese brewer Kirin have made an approach to buy-out Australian brewer Lion Nathan, of which they already own a 46.1% share.
Why a public interest test for media mergers is a good idea
Why is a public interest test for media a good way to stop further concentration? Here are three very simple reasons, writes Julian Thomas.
