Quelle Surprise: A counterbidder emerges for Home Retail Group

Regular viewers of Tip TV won't be surprised to learn of Steinhoff's 175p a share counter bid for Home Retail Group.

That's because just over 11 days ago I highlighted on the show there were vague rumours doing the rounds about a potential counter offer for Home Retail Group. Here is the link:

Quelle Surprise: J Sainsbury agrees 161p a share takeover bid for Home Retail Group

I see J Sainsbury and Home Retail Group have effectively agreed a deal that will see the latter taken out for 161p a share by the FTSE 100 company. Here is the link:

http://www.investegate.co.uk/sainsbury-j--plc--sbry-/rns/possible-offer-for-home-retail-group-plc/201602020704437439N/

Weekend review on Sky, Home Retail Group, J Sainsbury, Slater & Gordon, Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group.

There is plenty to reflect on in the British business press this weekend.

First off, I note that the Financial Times has done a reverse ferret of its position on whether wiley old Rupert Murdoch will have another run at Sky.

Back on Tip TV talking about GlaxoSmithKline, Home Retail Group and General Growth Properties - part 2

There is an interesting piece in the The Times this morning about J Sainsbury's submitting a revised offer for Home Retail Group (I would paste the link but it doesn't seem to work).

The piece, written by my old boss Richard Fletcher, sort of echoes some of the things I talked about on Tip TV earlier in the week.

4 into 3 or 6 into 5?

Ben Marlow's comment piece in today's The Daily Telegraph is worth a read.

Marlow - a former colleague from time as a cub reporter at Mergermarket.com and a top hack - makes some interesting points about Britain's beleaguered supermarket sector and the potential for consolidation. In case you missed Marlow's article, here is the link:

Deals, deals, deals...

Well that didn't take long - dealmaking (in the UK, at least) is back in full flow.

And I guess my chums Oliver Shah and Daniel Dunkley of The Sunday Times deserve some credit for today's news about J Sainsbury's £1 billion bid for Home Retail Group.

Weekend review

It's always tricky at this time of the year to rustle up decent jackanories but my old colleague Graham, "Ruddy", Ruddick hasn't done too badly this weekend.

Graham, who works at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, got a decent line from his interview with Andy Clarke, the chief executive of Asda, about potential consolidation in Britain's ailing supermarket sector.

Weekend review on Shire, Merck, Cubist, Crystal Amber and J Sainsbury

Hat tip to David Gelles of The New York Times for landing the scoop about US drugs giant Merck talking to Cubist Pharmaceuticals about a takeover deal of more than $7 billion.

Here is a link to David's piece: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/merck-in-talks-to-acquire-drug-maker-cubist-for-more-than-7-billion/?_r=0

Dixons Carphone overtakes some of Britain's biggest listed retailers in market capitalisation

Oh look - as of tonight's market close, Dixons Carphone is now larger than both J Sainsbury and WM Morrison, two of Britain's largest supermarket groups.

Dixons Carphone's shares have come a long way since I revealed back in February on little old Betaville that FTSE 250 companies Carphone Warehouse and Dixons Retail were in serious merger talks.

A Sunday review on a Monday...

Tucked away in the middle of Oliver Shah's story on J Sainsbury in The Sunday Times this weekend was quite an interesting nugget of information that appears to have been overlooked by the market.

Yesterday, Oliver revealed within the body of his news article on J Sainsbury that Crystal Amber, the activist investor run by Richard Bernstein, has been looking at the supermarket group with a view to advising a large US fund on carrying out an activist campaign involving the company.

Supermarket sweep

Mike Ashley's multi-million pound punt on Tesco has certainly caused a stir in the London market this morning.

Ashley is a born trader and maverick entrepreneur and I would certainly be wary of betting against him. However, let's not forget that some of the sharpest "professional" investors in global stock markets have already this year taken substantial positions in listed British supermarkets and, so far, it doesn't appear (I say "appear" as these positions may have been hedged) to have been a good trade.

The Financial Times and J Sainsbury

Bryce Elder, the stock market reporter over at the Financial Times, has this morning touched upon quite an interesting theory whistling around the London market.

Towards the end of Bryce's market report, the genial scotsman talks about how "activist funds are rumoured to be taking an interest in the supermarket after the stock's 31pc slump since mid-December".