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In a much-talked-about piece in the New York Times recently, Hernan Cristerna, Co-Head of Global M&A at JP Morgan Chase, diagnosed the global mergers and acquisitions market as alive and very much kicking – in spite of ongoing Brexit anxieties and considerable political uncertainty around the Trump administration. Cross-border European-US transactions have already increased by over 80% this year, with some truly blockbuster deals counting among them such as Johnson & Johnson’s… Read More
American computing giant Microsoft continues to expand its acquisitions of Israeli-based software companies, with a reported $100 million deal for cybersecurity start-up Hexadite. Founded in Tel Aviv and now based out of Boston MA, Hexadite deals in cyberattacks and mitigating damage to systems through machine learning, which helps its clients increase productivity and reduce costs. The software can easily be added to existing firewall solutions, making it simple for Microsoft to integrate… Read More
Following our report last month on the $130bn mega-merger between US chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont, a new deal has announced the creation of a chemicals giant with a market value of approx $14 billion. This latest high-profile transaction across the diversified chemicals sector sees companies are striking ever more aggressive deals to find new ways to slash costs and gain greater scale of their segments, typifying the current market trend… Read More
Pinterest, the photo sharing site, has announced this week its acquisition of Jelly, the Q&A app founded by Biz Stone, cofounder of Twitter, in 2013. Jelly officially launched in 2014 and received a disappointing reception. Stone and fellow Jelly cofounder Ben Finkel subsequently changed directions by launching photo app Super before relaunching Jelly again in 2016. The latest iteration of the app repurposed the Q&A format as a search engine, but like… Read More
Political and economic uncertainty caused pharma M&A to slacken off in 2016, seeing deal values in the sector falling to $273.7bn from $392.4bn the previous year. While 2016 was far from catastrophic for pharma M&A it failed to reach the all-time highs achieved from the mega-deals in 2015, and the collapse of the $160bn mega-deal between Pfizer and Allergan was just one of the year’s setbacks for the sector. Despite this, M&A… Read More
Despite major political disruption from events such as Britain leaving the EU and the election of a new president of the United States, 2016 is gearing up to be the biggest year for M&A deal announcements since 2007. According to the Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor, which has a proven track record for accuracy, there will be a three per cent increase in the total number of M&A deals to be announced globally… Read More
American beauty giant Estée Lauder is no stranger to M&A. The company, founded by its namesake in 1946, already owns a number of the beauty industry’s most popular and largest brands, including MAC, Clinique, La Mer and Jo Malone. However, it is the beauty powerhouse’s latest acquisition of cosmetics company Too Faced, for a reported $1.45bn, which has captured the interest of industry commentators. The purchase of Too Faced, a popular brand… Read More
Benchmark International has successfully negotiated the sale of Action Concrete Pumping, Inc. (“Action Concrete”) to Brundage-Bone Concrete Pumping Inc. (“Brundage-Bone”), a portfolio company of Peninsula Pacific Strategic Partners, LLC. The transaction represents the strategic expansion of Brundage-Bone throughout the Southeast US and further consolidation of the concrete pumping industry. Based in Greenville, South Carolina, Action Concrete is a full service concrete pumping company that specializes in residential and commercial concrete pumping and… Read More
October was a fantastic month for Benchmark International and we are proud to announce that our teams in the UK and US have completed deals with an overall, combined transaction value of $160,000,000. With 60 deals completed in the UK and US across Q1, 2 & 3, there are no signs of slowing down as we continue to successfully manage mergers and acquisitions on our clients’ behalf. The Deals: Warkentine Inc. (DBA Computer RX) to… Read More
M&A in the Biotech sector rose by 25 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the two previous quarters, but is still down in activity seen in 2015. This activity was driven by small and medium deals but also the biggest deal of the year so far; German drug manufacturer Bayer’s takeover of the US agricultural seed producer, Monsanto, for $66 billion. August was a period of buyer’s remorse,… Read More