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Back when mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity was at its peak in the U.S. market, the term “Merger Monday” became routinely employed by analysts as if the bringing together of major corporations was a routine calendar occurrence. Since the cooling off of M&A activity subsequently, “Merger Monday” has been mothballed. But two deals this morning allow us to bring back the term once again.
U.S. cable giant Comcast (CMCSA - Free Report) has at last broken into the international market with its acquiring of U.K.-based Sky Communications for $40.1 billion (U.S., GBP 30.6 billion), or $22.65 per share (GBP 17.28). This deal was a long time in the making, but was actualized as the result of a dramatic sealed-bid auction. Comcast was competing with 21st Century Fox (FOXA - Free Report) for the British media major.
For its part, Fox already owns a 39% stake in Sky and its 23 million subscribers. This latest development might be expected to have some effect on Fox’s own deal with its assets going to The Walt Disney Company (DIS - Free Report) , which has already agreed to take over Fox earlier this year. We don’t expect the Disney-Fox deal to fall apart as a result of today’s announcement, but we will continue to follow what happens with the considerable amount of Sky stock that Fox still holds.
Also, Sirius XM (SIRI - Free Report) has bought its way into the mobile app streaming service environment with its purchase of Pandora , the online radio company which has struggled with trying to turn a profit basically since the company went public 7 years ago. Sirius will pay $3.5 billion for Pandora, which amounts to $10.14 per share — higher than Pandora’s 52-week peak, but well beneath its IPO price of $16.
This transaction had been on the radar since Sirius took a 15% stake in the algorithmic music service last year. It allows Sirius immediate access to a non-auto mobile market that had previously eluded them. For Pandora, the company had come up short in 2 of its previous 3 earnings quarters, and the roughly $1.5 billion in revenues the company had been expecting for full-year 2018 is basically what Sirius XM pulls in during a single quarter.
One small piece of economic data also hits the tape this morning ahead of the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) tomorrow: the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for August. The headline number of +0.18% is better than analysts had expecting, and comes dead-even with the upwardly revised July read. This number connotes slightly greater-than-expected economic growth in the U.S.’s third-largest city.
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M&As To Watch For
Back when mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity was at its peak in the U.S. market, the term “Merger Monday” became routinely employed by analysts as if the bringing together of major corporations was a routine calendar occurrence. Since the cooling off of M&A activity subsequently, “Merger Monday” has been mothballed. But two deals this morning allow us to bring back the term once again.
U.S. cable giant Comcast (CMCSA - Free Report) has at last broken into the international market with its acquiring of U.K.-based Sky Communications for $40.1 billion (U.S., GBP 30.6 billion), or $22.65 per share (GBP 17.28). This deal was a long time in the making, but was actualized as the result of a dramatic sealed-bid auction. Comcast was competing with 21st Century Fox (FOXA - Free Report) for the British media major.
For its part, Fox already owns a 39% stake in Sky and its 23 million subscribers. This latest development might be expected to have some effect on Fox’s own deal with its assets going to The Walt Disney Company (DIS - Free Report) , which has already agreed to take over Fox earlier this year. We don’t expect the Disney-Fox deal to fall apart as a result of today’s announcement, but we will continue to follow what happens with the considerable amount of Sky stock that Fox still holds.
Also, Sirius XM (SIRI - Free Report) has bought its way into the mobile app streaming service environment with its purchase of Pandora , the online radio company which has struggled with trying to turn a profit basically since the company went public 7 years ago. Sirius will pay $3.5 billion for Pandora, which amounts to $10.14 per share — higher than Pandora’s 52-week peak, but well beneath its IPO price of $16.
This transaction had been on the radar since Sirius took a 15% stake in the algorithmic music service last year. It allows Sirius immediate access to a non-auto mobile market that had previously eluded them. For Pandora, the company had come up short in 2 of its previous 3 earnings quarters, and the roughly $1.5 billion in revenues the company had been expecting for full-year 2018 is basically what Sirius XM pulls in during a single quarter.
One small piece of economic data also hits the tape this morning ahead of the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) tomorrow: the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for August. The headline number of +0.18% is better than analysts had expecting, and comes dead-even with the upwardly revised July read. This number connotes slightly greater-than-expected economic growth in the U.S.’s third-largest city.