AT&T deal may yet help more indie M&A shops 27 Oct 2016 The year's biggest merger enlisted boutiques Perella Weinberg and Allen & Co alongside their bigger Wall Street rivals. If the $85 bln Time Warner acquisition emboldens other CEOs, the likes of Lazard and Moelis should benefit. They can use the help amid a patchy advice market.
Blockchain for banks will eat its creators 27 Oct 2016 A transaction involving Wells Fargo and a cotton trader has made the payment technology a reality. Meanwhile a consortium-backed platform will soon share its code. Banks act like this is a good thing, but their role as middlemen in markets like corporate bonds and FX is at risk.
Twitter’s Jack Dorsey can’t square two-job circle 27 Oct 2016 The $12 bln social-media service will slash 9 pct of its workforce after a botched sale process. Revenue and user growth is slowing, making next year's profit target optimistic. The whole mess suggests it's time for Twitter's lame one-year experiment with a two-timing CEO to end.
GE plays tactical hardball with Elliott 27 Oct 2016 The U.S. industrial firm is feuding with the hedge fund over two 3D-printing companies. It refused to cave in to Elliott on one, opting for a rival instead, and raised its bid on the other. This is a decent enough compromise and will stop activists from seeing GE as easy prey.
Tesla’s surprise profit paves way for more capital 26 Oct 2016 Elon Musk's electric-car maker moved back into the black. The small Q3 income could help investors see clear to approving the silly SolarCity deal. Tesla and Musk also have sent mixed signals about needing fresh money, but now would be as good a time as any to try and top up.
Brazil twists knife with reversed JBS carve-up 26 Oct 2016 The $11 bln meatpacker lost a fifth of its market value after the state development bank vetoed a spinoff of international operations that would have cut the company's financing costs. It's a reminder to global investors that the country's interfering ways will be slow to change.
Amazon is trying to deliver everything to everyone 26 Oct 2016 The near $400 bln internet giant's efforts in gadget production, online video, shipping logistics and even bricks-and-mortar stores may smack of hubris. But there's a method to the ambition. Feedback loops mean it may be easier for Amazon to crack multiple markets at once.
Comcast schools AT&T on media M&A 26 Oct 2016 The cable giant now streams a third of its revenue from NBC Universal, a deal it concluded in early 2013. The regulatory and political climate was more accommodating and CEO Brian Roberts' strategy sound. AT&T's $85 bln bid for Time Warner, by contrast, is a dog's breakfast.
Apple demonstrates why it doesn’t need Time Warner 25 Oct 2016 The iPhone maker sniffed around, but never made a bid for, the media firm AT&T's buying. It would've been an alarming acknowledgement of a tough future in the maturing smartphone market. A decent new iPhone and rising service revenue are sufficient to forestall desperate M&A.
Under Armour succumbs to all-powerful fads 25 Oct 2016 The $13 bln athletic-wear maker's shares tumbled after it warned of slowing U.S. growth and are now down 60 pct this year. Rivals from Lululemon to Nike to Gap give consumers a dizzying array of similar choices. Under Armour is learning the hard way about fashion's fickle ways.
Cox: AT&T opens itself up to activist attack 25 Oct 2016 CEO Randall Stephenson is an old-fashioned empire builder cut from Jean-Marie Messier cloth. In an era of pushy investors, however, running roughshod over shareholders to play Hollywood mogul doesn't fly. There's a blueprint for challenging this terrible plan to buy Time Warner.
T-Mobile US tail wags dog of Time Warner deal 25 Oct 2016 The carrier's price war has won it customers and profit - but left Sprint in the red and in part prompted AT&T's $85 bln bid for the media giant and Verizon's M&A hunt. T-Mobile CEO John Legere may have more fight left in him, but ultimately will face the same pressure as rivals.
Could Trump TV be a business success? 25 Oct 2016 If the real estate mogul loses the U.S. presidential election, he may start an online venture tapping his base of supporters. A new Breakingviews calculator lets readers decide how many viewers he could attract and how much it might cost to see if it would make any money.
GM rides cruise control to top of auto cycle 25 Oct 2016 A strong third-quarter showing extended the smooth ride Detroit's top carmaker is having as U.S. sales peak. Ford's engine, meanwhile, is already sputtering. GM may even have a bit more gas in the tank. CEO Mary Barra, though, may find that the going will soon get tougher.
AT&T runs corporate finance into populist uprising 25 Oct 2016 The $85 bln acquisition of Time Warner would consolidate an industry already controlled by a small group. It's just the sort of concentrated power that gave rise to the likes of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. This deal, which both oppose, could become a symbol for the movement.
Free trade can survive its Wallonian wobble 25 Oct 2016 The tiny Belgian region is holding up a trade pact between Europe and Canada. That doesn’t mean such deals are impossible, though - they just need even more time and creative thinking. The messy process also undermines the notion that ordinary people have no say in globalisation.
AT&T’s media mega-deal is doomed sooner or later 24 Oct 2016 The $85 bln Time Warner takeover got off to an ominous start, trading 20 pct below the agreed price. Political backlash has begun and regulatory approval is uncertain. Even if AT&T clears those hurdles, all the buzzwords in the world won't save the muddled strategic logic.
Internet of Things gets wakeup call from fridge 24 Oct 2016 Twitter, PayPal and other major sites were knocked offline after hacked devices were used to overwhelm an important web-traffic hub. For Cisco, Google and others moving headlong into the networking of everyday objects, it's a clear warning about the many security risks involved.
Rockwell’s smart-jet hopes crash into reality 24 Oct 2016 Investors wiped up to 6 pct off the avionics supplier's stock after it agreed to pay $6.4 bln for seatmaker B/E Aerospace. Rockwell is betting the tie-up will win it a larger share of commercial airlines' digital transformation. The market for new planes, though, is stalling.
Online stockbroker deal merely delays inevitable 24 Oct 2016 TD Ameritrade's $4 bln purchase of Scottrade stacks up financially, thanks to cost cuts, a tax break and sale of a banking unit. Income and margins should rise, too. But it still leaves the firm, and rivals like Schwab, facing the twin dangers of index investing and robo advice.