Fancy that: Whirlpool buys Indesit stake; Reynolds in advanced talks to buy Lorrilard

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of days Betavillers. I have been down in deepest, darkest Kent with little access to the internet.

Anyway, I just thought I would write a quick post to celebrate the (or potential) announcement of a couple of big deals covered in depth on Betaville over the last few months.

First off, I see US electrical goods company Whirlpool has finally announced it will buy a 67pc stake in Indesit, the Italian company that sponsors Arsenal Football Club, from the Merloni family for about $1 billion. The US group then plans to make a tender offer for the rest of the outstanding stock.

Although I wouldn't claim to have landed a clean scoop on this one (Whirlpool had been mentioned as an acquirer in the Italian press before I published), Betaville provided some pretty detailed coverage on Whirlpool's advisers and potential acquisition financing for the deal that I believe clearly showed the US company was the most serious bidder interested in buying the Italian company.

Here is a link to that article: http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/whirlpool-prepares-takeover-of-arsenal.html

On another note, its looks like this Reynolds/Lorillard $50 billion merger is likely to be announced on Monday morning. Again, I'm not claiming to have landed a clean scoop, but I would like to think Betaville and my piece in The Times added some insight into the situation with exclusive new stories.

Here are the links to those pieces:

http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/hat-tip-to-ft-alphaville-for-breaking.html

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/consumer/article4086903.ece

However, the Reynolds/Lorillard deal hasn't completed, so there still could be a few more twists and turns in the tale. Keep an eye on Betaville for potential updates...