This‌ ‌week, two large tech companies go their separate ways, Fiverr makes a move to compete with LinkedIn’s latest offering, and Coca-Cola grabs a larger slice of the proverbial sports drink pie with its acquisition of Bodyarmor. 

VMWare Splits Off From Dell

Cloud computing and virtualization technology company VMware has split from Dell. 

Dell shed its 81% stake in VMware (owned since 2016), creating an independent company with a stock market value of almost $64 billion. The two companies will continue to maintain close ties—Dell CEO Michael Dell and private equity partner Silver Lake Partners still hold a majority stake. But the move to separate operations allows Dell and VMware to expand their respective technologies with new partners. 

Dell intends to strengthen the company’s leadership in technology infrastructure and corporate contracts, expand data management tools with cloud and 5G technology, and modernize its mobile infrastructure and customer experience in the “do-from-anywhere” economy.

Fiverr Acquires Freelance Management Software Company Stoke Talent

Fiverr has acquired Stoke Talent, a software company which lets companies manage their freelance teams. 

The $95 million deal is largely a response to LinkedIn launching a competitive freelance platform, Service Marketplace. 

Fiverr intends to integrate its freelance onboarding features with Stoke’s payment and budgeting platform. Following the acquisition, Stoke will continue to operate independently, but freelancers hired through Fiverr can be onboarded and paid through Stoke. 

The relationship makes Fiverr more central to how those companies employ and pay freelancers overall, even if they aren’t originally sourced via Fiverr. Approximately 4 million customers in 160 countries have used Fiverr to engage with freelancers spanning over 500 categories.

LinkedIn currently has some 2 million freelancers registered, but has an established, much larger platform to back the new marketplace; the platform boasts 800 million users and a strong presence in professional networking and job-hunting markets, making it a formidable competitor in the freelance marketplace. 

Coca-Cola Acquires Competing Sports Drink Bodyarmor 

The Coca-Cola Company announced that it has acquired full ownership of sports drink maker Bodyarmor for $5.6 billion; it’s the largest brand acquisition in the company’s history. 

The acquisition will help the soft drink giant take on PepsiCo in the sports drink category. The latter’s Gatorade currently owns nearly 70% market share, compared to just 14% for Powerade. 

By branding itself as a healthier sports drink, Bodyarmor has overtaken Coke’s Powerade as the second-largest player in the category. The acquisition is a natural next step for the company: since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Coke has been revamping its portfolio and killing off drinks that were not selling well, like the Coca-Cola Plus Energy drink in North America. 

In‌ ‌Other‌ ‌News‌ ‌

Other deals and developments are taking place:

• AerCap Holdings, an Irish aircraft leasing company, has completed its acquisition of GE’s Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). The deal is worth $23 billion in cash and $1 billion in AerCap notes, giving GE approximately 46% stake in AerCap.
• Hyatt Hotels Corp. signed a deal to acquire Apple Leisure Group, a resort company backed by KKR & Co, for $2.7 billion in cash. The move adds roughly 33,000 rooms across 100 hotels and resorts to the Hyatt portfolio, including popular all-inclusive properties under brands such as Secrets Resorts and Dreams Resorts. 
• Rogers Corporation announced that it will be acquired by DuPont de Nemours, Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at $5.2 billion. 
• ViacomCBS announced that it is acquiring a majority stake in Spanish-language content producer Fox TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico from The Walt Disney Company.
• Sustainable shoemaker Allbirds Inc. debuted as a public company on Wednesday after pricing its shares at $15 apiece and raising $303 million. The stock price surged 90% and closed at $28.64, giving the company a valuation of roughly $4.1 billion.

In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, Novartis acquires a big player in cardiovascular health, PayPal acquires coupon tool Honey and Uber acquires a geographical asset. 

The Medicines Company Acquired By Novartis AG

On January 6, Novartis AG announced that it has completed the acquisition of The Medicines Company, approximately 2 months after signing the definitive agreement. 

This acquisition was valued at approximately $9.7 billion at the time of the agreement on November 24, 2019. 

The deal will amplify Novartis’ cardiovascular commercial capabilities as Novartis will now have another tool in its arsenal to combat America’s leading cause of death and disability.

Honey Science Corporation Acquired By PayPal 

PayPal has completed the acquisition of Honey Science Corporation. 

The announcement was made on January 6 with a cash value of approximately $4 billion. 

Platforms such as Uber and Amazon have created the expectation of being able to obtain any item or service effortlessly through the palm of your hand. Honey has been able to fulfill this expectation in eCommerce by providing a platform where customers can obtain coupon codes instantly on their mobile device. 

With 17 million monthly active users, Honey can expect tremendous growth as the synergy between its application and PayPal’s merchant paying technology may influence customers into using both companies’ tools for most of their shopping needs.

Uber Moves Into the Middle East With Careem, Inc. 

Uber kicked off the new year by announcing the completion of a $3.1 billion acquisition of Careem Inc., a transportation network company based in Dubai. 

Careem operates in over 100 cities across 14 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Under the terms of the deal, Uber has acquired Careem’s mobility, delivery, and payments business. The regulatory approval process in Pakistan, Qatar, and Morocco is ongoing, and the transaction will not close in these territories until the legal authorities responsible issue approval. 

Careem will continue to operate independently as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber, allowing the company to preserve its brand and current leadership. 

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week:

• Schneps Media, the largest group of community media in the NY region, has announced its acquisition of METRO New York and METRO Philadelphia on January 6, 2020. 

• Hostess Brands, owner of the famous Twinkie brand, has completed the acquisition of Voortman Cookies Ltd., the #1 brand for crème wafers and sugar-less cookies.  

• Media Classified, a six-time award-winning print and digital publishing company, has acquired City Parent Magazine, a monthly parenting and lifestyle publication. 

• Speedo USA is set to be reunited with Speedo International after the apparel conglomerate PVH agreed to sell its perpetual license to Pentland Group, the parent company that acquired Speedo in 1991. 

• Procter & Gamble has announced its intention to acquire Billie, a subscription service for shaving and body care products for women. 

• IAC plans to sell off a majority stake in CH Media, the parent organization of CollegeHumor, to Sam Reich — the Chief Creative Officer of CH Media. This deal was announced on January 8, 2020 and comes with over 100 layoffs, leaving less than 10 people in the company. 

• Food delivery service GrubHub may soon be acquired by a major grocery store. Walmart seems especially keen on purchasing GrubHub as a way to enter the “dark kitchen” business — a budding market for kitchens that prepare and deliver food without a retail presence. 

In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, Onex Corporation acquired WestJet Airlines, Hasbro acquired children’s media company Entertainment One, and VMware acquired Pivotal Software. 

WestJet Airlines Acquired By Onex Corporation 

Investment manager Onex Corporation has acquired Canadian airline WestJet Airlines Ltd. in a transaction valued at approximately $5 billion. 

Onex Corporation manages approximately $33 billion in assets and generates approximately $28 billion in annual revenue. WestJet Airlines flies to over 175 destinations in over 20 countries, and has been recognized for the past 3 consecutive years as Best Airline in Canada. 

Hasbro Acquired Children’s Entertainment Company

Toy and board game producer Hasbro has completed an acquisition of Entertainment One (eOne) in a $4 billion all-cash deal. 

Hasboro has eyes on eOne’s long-running animated children’s television series “Peppa Pig” as a potentially highly profitable merchandised preschool brand. 

It also plans to capitalize on eOne’s production and distribution infrastructure as a pipeline to expand its own brands of television and merchandise products. These include “Transformers,” “My Little Pony” and the board game Monopoly.  

Pivotal Software Acquired by VMware

Software company, VMware has announced the completion of the cloud-native platform provider, Pivotal Software. The deal has been struck for $2.7 billion. 

Acquiring Pivotal enables VMware to expand from its current state as a virtual machine company into a cloud-native offering vendor. 

Dell Technologies is a majority shareholder of VMware. Pivotal went public in 2018, but following a poor earnings report in June, the stock tanked by 42 percent in one day. VMware rescued the struggling company by offering $15 a share. 

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week:

• Private equity firm Thoma Bravo announced that it has finalized its acquisition of J.D. Power, a global leader in data analytics and consumer intelligence. 

• Communications and security products supplier Anixter International Inc announced that it has reached an agreement to be acquired by investment firm Clayton, Dubilier and Rice LLC (CD&R) in an all-cash $4.3 billion deal.  

According to analysts at PitchBook, “IPO market is likely to remain steady next year, there will be fewer splashy listings coming to market, and premium valuations are going to be reserved for companies with a very clear path to profitability.” There are five notable companies that fit the profile and are likely to make their way into the public markets in 2020; they are Airbnb, Capser, Didi Chuxing, DoorDash and Robinhood.

It’s almost 2020! But before the ball drops and you start putting those New Year resolutions into practice, 2019 warrants some reflection. 

Instead of getting personal, let’s look at the big picture of media and ad tech. It’s been a big year for mergers and acquisitions across the board; 2019 was the year Disney became an even bigger behemoth, Viacom and CBS kissed and made up, and Nexstar Media Group became the largest local TV broadcaster. 

This is part two of our ten notable deals from 2019, as covered by MediaRadar.

Amazon Moved the Needle With Ad Tech

Amazon moved quickly on Sizmek, which declared bankruptcy earlier this year. Amazon bought the ad tech company for $30 million — pocket change for the FAANG company. But the deal still had some big implications for ad tech. Here’s what we wrote back in July:

“Owning Sizmek moves Amazon closer to challenging Google and Facebook’s apparent duopoly in programmatic digital advertising. Owning Sizmek’s Ad Server also makes it easier for Amazon customers to utilize the full stack of ad options.”

Roku Makes a Different Ad Tech Investment With DataXu

Roku, the OTT company, acquired DSP DataXu for $150 million. “Dataxu’s contributions are expected to accelerate Roku’s ad tech roadmap and ability to serve a wide array of advertisers,” we wrote of the acquisition. As part of the announcement, one Roku SVP said that the move is designed to progress Roku toward buy-side tools. 

Fox Moved Beyond Media 

Last year, Fox Corp made an announcement that left some scratching their heads: they were acquiring a 67 percent stake in Credible Labs, an online loan service provider, for $265 million. The deal went through in October. 

The move may seem a bit strange, but is designed to position Fox to have a more direct relationship with consumers. After selling a huge chunk of its business to Disney, Fox is a smaller media company focused on local networks. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch noted that the company is planning to promote Credible through their core brands such as Fox Business and Fox Television Stations. 

Meredith Corporation Sold Sports Illustrated IP 

Publisher Meredith Corporation officially sold its Sports Illustrated brand to Authentic Brands Group for an estimated $110 million halfway through this year. The deal was unique, since Meredith will continue publishing the magazine:

“According to the terms of the deal, Meredith will still publish Sports Illustrated but will cede marketing, distribution and licensing to Authentic Brands. The move effectively transfers ownership of the intellectual property behind the iconic magazine.”

Nexstar Media Became the Biggest Local Broadcaster 

In September, the FCC approved Nexstar Media Group’s takeover of Tribune Media, valued at $7.2 billion in total. 

The Nexstar press release details just how big of a change this deal signifies: 

“The combination creates the nation’s largest pure-play local broadcast television and digital media company, with national coverage and reach to approximately 39% of U.S. television households. Nexstar will benefit from increased operational, geographic and economic diversity and scale as a result of Tribune Media’s diverse portfolio of media assets including owned or operated broadcast television stations in major U.S. markets; compelling local news and entertainment content; significant broadcast distribution; ownership of WGN America, a growing national general entertainment cable network; a 31.3% ownership stake in TV Food Network, a top tier cable asset; and equity holdings in several digital media businesses.”

It’s almost 2020! But before the ball drops and you start putting those New Year resolutions into practice, 2019 warrants some reflection. 

Instead of getting personal, let’s look at the big picture of media and ad tech. It’s been a big year for mergers and acquisitions across the board; 2019 was the year Disney became an even bigger behemoth, Viacom and CBS kissed and made up, and Nexstar Media Group became the largest local TV broadcaster. 

This is part one of our ten notable deals from 2019, as covered by MediaRadar. 

Spotify Invested in Podcasts With Gimlet 

Early in 2019, Spotify made a move to position itself as an ‘audio company’ instead of simply a ‘music streaming platform’. The Swedish startup-turned-global-runaway-success acquired Gimlet, a relatively small New York-based media company, for $200 million. 

Shortly after the acquisition, we wrote about why Spotify bought Gimlet. The highlight? There’s gold in them podcast advertising hills. “Despite the small ad revenue associated with podcasting, the digital broadcasts seem to have a huge audience. Half of Americans listen to podcasts, and over a third of those people listen to at least one full podcast episode weekly,” we wrote at the time. “The acquisition adds a new development in the conversation surrounding the power of podcast advertising.” 

Given that IAB predicts podcast advertising revenue will reach nearly $900 million in 2020, it seems this was exactly right. 

Disney Spent $71 Billion on Fox 

After a nearly two-year struggle toward the finish line, complete with a bidding war with Comcast and regulatory hoop-jumping, The Walt Disney Co. completed its $71 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox Inc. entertainment assets earlier this year. 

MediaRadar data showed that the networks Disney bought from Fox will push Disney to the #1 spot in terms of market share for the national TV ad market. If advertiser buying behavior remains consistent, Disney & NBCUniversal will likely account for over 4 of every 10 dollars spent on national TV advertising.

We also later found that Disney brought Fox assets into its ad sales fold, with an 81 percent overlap in advertisers across its new channels. 

Viacom and CBS Became One — Again 

Viacom and CBS announced their reunification in August, with a plan to create a $30 billion media company to rival Disney and Comcast both in content and streaming capabilities. Look back at our M&A report from August:

“Viacom’s Paramount film studio and MTV and Nickelodeon cable networks will be added to the broadcast giant CBS,” writes Edmund Lee at The New York Times. It’s also a clear move to bolster streaming capabilities for both companies. “The deal will allow the company to invest more in streaming, which is the future of entertainment. CBS already has a thriving digital television service with original series.” At the same time, Viacom brings the extensive catalogues of Paramount, MTV and Nickelodeon. 

You can also see our M&A coverage from earlier this month, when the deal was finalized. 

Northstar Travel Group Added B2B Travel Sites to Its Holdings

In October, Northstar Travel Group announced its acquisition of travAlliance. The former is a travel industry B2B information and marketing solutions company, while the latter focuses primarily on marketing for the North American travel industry. With the acquisition, Northstar took over travAlliance’s media brands: TravelPulse.com, Agent at Home, Travel Agent Academy, and Agent Studio. 

AT&T Divests from Hulu to Focus on Its Own Streaming Capabilities 

AT&T’s WarnerMedia had an almost 10% stake in Hulu, which it sold in April for $1.43 billion. The deal gave Disney a controlling ownership in the streaming platform and positioned AT&T to launch HBOMax, yet another addition to the streaming wars, in May 2020. 

In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, it’s all finance: E*TRADE invests in student loan financing, SunTrust and BB&T finally complete their merger, and 3M sells its drug delivery business to an investment group. 

E*TRADE Acquires Student Loan Startup Gradifi 

E*TRADE Financial, an online financial planning and trading platform, has acquired Gradifi. The startup provides employer benefits focused on student loans and financial wellness. 

This acquisition was valued at $30 million. 

U.S. student loan debt totals approximately $1.6 trillion as of March 2019 and is projected to increase to nearly $2 trillion by 2022. Gradifi serves to accommodate this extensive crisis by offering employers the ability to provide benefits for student loan contributions, refinancing options, and educational resources. 

E*TRADE’s acquisition positions the financial company to take advantage of the increasing demand of student loan options. 

SunTrust Banks and BB&T Complete Merger

SunTrust Banks and BB&T announced their plans for a merger of equals back in February. Over half a year later, the two banks are finally one. 

Now operating under the name Truist Financial, the combined companies have become the sixth-largest U.S. bank holding company, with a clientele exceeding 10 million households and operating over 2,000 branches across the nation. 

When the merger was first announced, bank officials expected around $1.6 billion annual cost reductions. Because the banks overlap in their coverage — about 740 of the banks’ branches are located within two miles of each other — the bulk of reductions will likely come from branch closures and layoffs. The transition to the full ‘Truist experience’ will occur as systems get integrated over the next two years, but clients can now use BB&T and SunTrust ATMs to make withdrawal without incurring out-of-network fees. 

3M Drug Delivery Business Being Acquired by Altaris 

The American multinational conglomerate 3M has agreed to sell its drug delivery business to Altaris for $650 million; the deal includes cash, an interest-bearing security, and a 17 percent non-controlling interest in the new company Altaris Capital is creating. 

According to the terms of the deal, 3M will retain their transdermal drug delivery business. The drug delivery branch Altaris is set to acquire earns about $380 million in annual revenue. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020. 

900 3M employees are expected to join Altaris upon completion of the sale. This deal is the latest in divestments from 3M, which has also sold its bullet-resistant helmet and body armor business, its gas and flame detection business, its fiber-optics telecommunications business and its passport and identity business. 

The money raised by these divestments has been used to fund the recent $2.5 billion acquisition of Acelity, Inc. 

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week:

• In a deal valued at $195 million, Sony Pictures Television has acquired the British children’s entertainment producer Silvergate Media. Silvergate currently produces eight different children’s animated series, including Peter Rabbit which has won five daytime Emmy Awards since 2014. 

• Fortinet, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, has acquired CyberSponse, a leading Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform provider. Fortinet serves several large scale enterprises and organizations by providing high-performance security across various segments of IT infrastructure.  

• Merck Group  announced on Monday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire biopharmaceutical company ArQule for $20 per share, or approximately $2.7 billion in cash.  

• Dupont has signed an agreement to acquire Desalitech Ltd., a provider of closed circuit reverse osmosis (CCRO) systems. The deal is expected to close in January 2020. Dupont is a leader in water purification and separation technology including reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, ion exchange, and electrodeionization. 

• According to Reuters, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warned that Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev’s proposed $11 billion sale of its Australian operations to Japan’s Asahi Group may stifle competition in the cider and beer market. AB InBev announced in July that it is selling its Australia-based Carlton & United Breweries to Asahi as part of its plan to lower debt after acquiring SABMiller in 2016.  

• After a wave of big name initial public offerings this year, NASDAQ is poised to raise more funds than NYSE for the first time since its fumbled Facebook IPO in 2012. As of now, a total of $34.4 billion was raised from NASDAQ-listed IPOs, while only $26.2 billion was raised at NYSE. 

In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, Forbes expands its revenue streams with an analytics investment, Viacom and CBS remerge to stave off stiff streaming competition, and Richard Branson drops his plan to sell his majority stake in Virgin Atlantic.

Quantalytics AI Labs Acquired by Forbes 

Forbes Media has purchased a majority stake in stock prediction tool, Quantalytics AI Labs, formerly known as Quantamize. 

Quantalytics utilizes artificial intelligence to analyze and forecast stock performances. This acquisition comes almost one year after Forbes celebrated its most profitable year in a decade.

The actual figures were never publicized, but CEO Mike Federle claimed 2018 brought revenues up by more than 18 percent as profits increased by 42 percent. Forbes, which is owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments, a Hong Kong-based investment company, plans to incorporate predictive insights from its new analytics toy in their reporting, delivering it to their 94 million monthly unique visitors and 45 million social media followers. 

The acquisition of Quantalytics is just one step in a broader business strategy for Forbes to diversify their revenue avenues. Last year, the media organization also acquired The Memo, a British online business publication. 

Viacom Merges With CBS Corporation 

Viacom and CBS have re-merged to create the entertainment industry’s newest conglomerate, operating the studios of Paramount Pictures; cable channels like Showtime, BET, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, TV Land, The CW, and Comedy Central; and the major publishing house, Simon & Schuster. 

While the final cost of the transaction was not disclosed, previous releases valued the deal at up to $15.4 billion. 

The on-again, off-again relationship between the two companies started when they first merged in 1999, then broke up in 2005, and are now back together as ViacomCBS. This reunion speaks to the philosophy that the two entertainment entities are stronger together, as they compete against internet companies including Amazon and Netflix. They intend to take on the streaming giants by beefing up their own streaming service, CBS All Access. The platform will offer 14 original shows, including Star Trek: Discovery, The Good Fight, Why Women Kill, and The Twilight Zone. 

Richard Branson Drops His Plan to Sell Stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways

According to Bloomberg, British billionaire Richard Branson is dropping his plan to sell part of his airline company Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. to Air France-KLM Group. Branson will keep his 51 percent majority stake in the company. 

His plan, which was announced two years ago, would sell a 31 percent stake in his airline company for around $284 million. The original plan was to set up a revenue and cost sharing three-way venture between Branson, Air France, and Delta Air Lines, which already owned a 49 percent stake. 

Although the sale will not move forward, the original revenue and cost sharing pact will still hold, according to people familiar with the negotiations. A final agreement between Virgin Atlantic and Air France should be reached in the weeks to come. 

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week: 

• Private equity giant, Silver Lake Partners, has purchased a 10% stake in City Football Group (CFG) for $500 million. 

• Energy Transfer LP, owner of one of the United States’ largest and most diversified energy asset portfolios, has acquired SemGroup Corporation. The acquisition was valued at approximately $5 billion according to the previous announcement. 

• Kings & Convicts is acquiring craft beer brand Ballast Point and its associated production facilities and brewpubs from Constellation Brands, Inc. Although financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Constellation had bought the craft beer brand in 2015 for approximately $1 billion.  

• Astellas Pharma Inc., a Tokyo based pharmaceutical company, and Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. have announced a definitive agreement for Astellas to acquire Audentes. The acquisition is valued at $3 billion dollars and is expected to close within the first quarter of 2020.  

• PepsiCo has announced a definitive agreement to acquire snack food producer BFY Brands, maker of air-popped snack brands PopCorners, Flex Protein Chips, and Flourish Veggie Crisps.

• Hostess Brands and Voortman Cookies Limited have entered into a definitive agreement under which Hostess will acquire Voortman Cookies. The agreement is valued at approximately $320 million and is expected to close in early January of 2020.

• Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced that it is acquiring steel maker AK Steel Holding Corp. for $1.1 billion in a stock deal. 

In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, Charles Schwab is poised to lead online trading, LVMH moves on Tiffany & Co and eBay sells StubHub to a Swiss ticket company. 

TD Ameritrade Being Acquired by Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab is buying TD Ameritrade in an all-stock transaction valued at $26 billion, or approximately $48.50 per share. 

The combination of the two financial titans will create an immense brokerage and wealth management firm, with at least $5 trillion in assets and 24 million clients. The combination will also likely incur the scrutiny of antitrust regulators, even though it comes as no surprise. 

The brokerage industry is going through a period of increased consolidation and concessions amid massive disruption. In the last year alone, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade have all gotten rid of online trading commission fees. 

News of the deal follows the recent announcement that TD Ameritrade CEO Tim Hockey will step down in February 2020, though this move is allegedly independent of the current deal. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2020.

Tiffany & Co. Being Acquired by LVMH

Tiffany & Co. is officially ending its 182-year run as an independent company. 

The iconic company, popularly known from namesake film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is being acquired by LVMH in a $16.2 billion deal. 

The deal follows a period of continuous struggle for the luxury jewelry company; since 2015 Tiffany has experienced declining annual sales and profit. While the company hoped to make a stark turnaround and capture new, younger consumers with the appointment of a new CEO in 2017, it was not enough. Additionally, while the company hoped to make headway in China, the U.S.-China trade war has made significant advancement difficult. 

The acquisition will strengthen LVMH’s place in the bridal and diamond jewelry category specifically — the conglomerate currently owns BVLGARI, Chaumet, and Fred Joaillier — and help to solidify their presence in America. The Tiffany deal is LVMH’s largest luxury goods transaction ever, and their first major acquisition since the Belmond hotel group acquisition last December. 

eBay Sells StubHub to Viagogo 

eBay announced that it is selling its StubHub ticketing business to Geneva-based ticket reseller Viagogo Entertainment Inc. for $4.05 billion. 

Once completed, the combined company will be a major player in a $10 billion global resale market, which sells hundreds of thousands of tickets every day in more than 70 countries. 

StubHub and Viagogo are both leading online ticket resellers in the secondary market for live entertainment event tickets. StubHub was acquired by eBay in 2007 for $310 million, and the business has grown tremendously since then. The website logged 240 million unique visitors last year and sold total tickets valued at more than $4.75 billion. StubHub is mostly present in North America, while Viagogo mainly operates in the U.K. and Europe. The two are international competitors, and the combination will allow fans to buy any event tickets in the world in one place, in their own language and currency, according to Viagogo CEO Eric Baker. 

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week: 

• The Michelin Guide has acquired American wine publication Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate. The announcement was made at the “Matter of Taste” event in New York on November 22, 2019, approximately two years after Michelin initially bought a 40% stake in The Wine Advocate. 

• Zoetis, Inc., the world’s largest producer of medicine and vaccinations for pets and livestock, announced that it has acquired nationwide veterinary reference laboratory company ZNLabs. 

• Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is ponying up $9.7 billion to acquire The Medicines Company. The acquisition is a very pointed move to acquire Medicines’ experimental, cholesterol-reducing drug inclisiran, which is in late-stage clinical trials. 

A Mitsubishi-led consortium announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Dutch utility company Eneco in an all-cash deal valued at $4.52 billion, beating off rival bids from Royal Dutch Shell and private equity firm KKR.

In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, acquisitions span media properties, luxury properties and cloud technology.

New Media and Gannett Complete Merger

New Media Investment Group Inc. and Gannett Co., Inc.have jointly announced the successful completion of their merger. 

New Media’s purchase of Gannett was valued at approximately $1.1 billion, about $300 million less than its initial value at the time the deal was announced in August. 

Starting November 20, 2019, the combined company will operate under the Gannett Co. brand name; New Media will change its ticker symbol to GCI. New Media is one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States, with 152 daily publications. New Media publications reach over 21 million people in the US on a weekly basis. Gannett Co produces content that reaches more than 125 million people monthly. This content includes more than 100 media brands, including USA TODAY.

Michelin Acquires Travel Agency Tablet

Michelin has acquired Tablet Inc., an online travel agency that provides a selection of luxury hotel options. 

The acquisition of Tablet will greatly strengthen Michelin’s business in the travel industry. The Tablet selection currently has 3,500 hotels to choose from; this selection of hotels includes reviews and descriptions to assist travellers in getting the best experience possible. 

Similar to Michelin, Tablet’s selection of hotels hold merit and can only be listed after rigorous evaluation. Laurent Vernhes and Michael Davis, co-founders of Tablet, said: “Michelin and Tablet share an unbiased approach to curation. Our dedication to integrity has made us leaders in our respective fields, and now we’re combining forces for a ground-breaking union that will change the scale of Tablet and transform the Tablet Plus program.”

Google Expands Cloud Computing With CloudSimple

After just a few months since announcing their partnership, Google has announced the acquisition of CloudSimple for an undisclosed amount. 

CloudSimple is a leading provider of dedicated environments for the operation of VMware workloads on the cloud. The acquisition of CloudSimple builds upon Google’s cloud-computing division. It’s a unit that Google has been assembling through various other acquisitions, including Alooma, a data integration company, Elastifile, a data storage company, and Velostrata, a cloud migration company. 

The string of acquisitions strengthens Google’s position as a competitor against the leading cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Although the Google Cloud Platform has a smaller market share than these FAANG+M competitors, the overall cloud unit has reached an impressive $8 billion annual run rate.

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week: 

• Hillenbrand, Inc. has announced the completed acquisition of Milacron Holdings Corp. The completed deal was valued at approximated $1.9 billion. 

• Nearly a year after announcing the controversial deal, the Federal Trade Commission finally greenlit the merger between pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb and cancer drug specialist Celgene Corporation. Per the terms and conditions of the deal, Bristol-Myers acquired the business of Celgene for $74 billion, with the exception of its psoriasis drug Otezla which the FTC required be divested upon completion of the deal. 

• Kylie Jenner has sold a majority stake (51%) in her namesake cosmetics line to beauty conglomerate Coty Inc. for $600 million. 

• The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is acquiring the remaining interest it does not own in Have & Be Co. Ltd., the South Korean company behind skin care brands Dr. Jart+ and Do The Right Thing. 

• VC giant SoftBank has entered into an agreement through which its subsidiary Z Holdings, Yahoo Japan’s parent company, will merge with LINE Corporation, the Tokyo-based subsidiary of South Korean internet search engine Naver Corporation.  

• Paypal is making a foray into the online shopping space with its announced acquisition of Honey Science Corporation, also known as Honey, the popular money saving service in the form of app or browser extension. The deal is priced at $4 billion, the largest acquisition in PayPal’s history. 

• Online securities brokerage companies Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade are rumored to be merging. According to sources, Schwab will offer $26 billion for TD Ameritrade.

In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, noteworthy acquisitions span across diagnostic testing, craft breweries, and ad tech. 

Exact Sciences Expands Cancer Screening Capabilities

Exact Sciences Corp., a leading provider of cancer screening and diagnostic tests and owner of Cologuard, has completed the acquisition of Genomic Health, Inc. The acquisition is valued at $2.8 billion. 

Genomic Health is a leading provider of genomic-based diagnostic tests; the company has served over 1 million cancer patients using its Oncotype IQ Genomic Intelligence Platform and flagship line Oncotype DX. 

The combined company is expected to generate revenue of approximately $1.6 billion and gross profit of nearly $1.2 billion in 2020. With the combination of the two strongest and fastest growing brands in cancer diagnostics, Exact Sciences is well positioned to become a leading global cancer diagnostics company.

Roku Acquires Key DSP

Roku has completed the acquisition of Dataxu for an aggregate consideration of $150 million in cash and shares of Roku Class A Common Stock. 

Dataxu is a demand-side platform that enables marketers to plan and buy video ad campaigns through media planning tools, a proprietary device graph, and data analytics. 

Dataxu’s contributions are expected to accelerate Roku’s ad tech roadmap and ability to serve a wide array of advertisers. Roku SVP Scott Rosenberg said “Acquiring Dataxu is a natural progression of our ad tech strategy to offer more buy-side tools and to provide the industry’s best holistic TV plus OTT planning and buying solution that delivers better results for TV buyers.”

Anheuser-Busch Buys Out Its Craft Breweries 

Anheuser-Busch, owner of several craft breweries across the United States, announced that it is buying out the remaining unowned shares in Craft Brew Alliance (CBA). 

Already an owner of about a third of CBA, Anheuser-Busch proposed a deal on November 11, 2019 to purchase the rest of the shares for $220 million. 

This purchase will solidify Anheuser-Busch’s ownership of the Portland based company that makes brews like Widmer, Kona, and Redhook. Other brands include Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Wynwood Brewing, Cisco Brewers, Omission Brewing, and Portland’s Square Mile Cider Co. 

As the nation’s 12th largest brewer, CBA had a production output of over 719,000 barrels and $206.2 million in sales last year, with profits of approximately $4.1 million.

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week: 

• Fashion rental subscription service, Le Tote Inc., has completed the acquisition of Lord & Taylor for an initial payment of $75 million in cash followed by and additional $32.2 million payable in cash after two years. 

• Endeavor Business Media, LLC announced that it is buying more than 20 B2B media titles and event brands from Informa’s Industry & Infrastructure and Auto Aftermarket Media Brands, including FleetOwner, MachineDesign, and IndustryWeek. 

• Carbonite, Inc., a Boston-based cybersecurity company, announced that it has reached an agreement to be acquired by Canadian enterprise software company OpenText Corporation. Financial terms indicate that this is a $1.42 billion deal.

• Hyatt has decided to emerge as a bidder for Xenia’s Kimpton portfolio, which could be worth as much as $500 million.  

• According to the latest filings, Olympus’ Q2 financial report indicated that the company’s image division has been suffering losses, with a 17% year-to-year decrease in revenue and continued operating losses. 

• Disney’s on-demand video streaming service Disney+ officially launched this past Tuesday in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands. The service has already garnered more than 10 million sign-ups despite having multiple technical issues that prevented users from connecting to the service. To put this into perspective, it took CBS more than 5 years to reach 8 million subscribers.