Another non-denial, denial - part 2

And now the heavyweight wire services are battling it among themselves with non-denial, denial stories.

Yesterday Bloomberg revealed that:

Exxon Mobil said to have abandoned £70 billion BP takeover deal - part 2

Wow - these "old" or "stale" deal stories are becoming quite fashionable.

Reuters has just unveiled an "exclusive" scoop revealing ChemChina made a multi-billion takeover approach for BG Group, which has just been bought by Royal Dutch Shell. Here is the link:

Quelle Surprise: Relypsa said to have received approaches

US biotech Relypsa shot up 67pc on Thursday thanks to this (see below) Reuters piece:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-relypsa-m-a-idUSKCN0X42B3

Quelle Surprise: Reuters reports £1 billion Argus Media Group sale is in the final stages

This story - http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-argusmedia-sale-idUKKCN0WX1WH - broke on Reuters this afternoon.

It pretty much regurgitates what I wrote earlier in the week but adds a couple more names to the final shortlist of bidders for Argus Media Group, the oil price information provider.

Back on Tip TV talking about Whitbread, LSE and Actelion - part 2

There were a flurry of stories this evening about US pharmaceutical company Medivation hiring JP Morgan to field takeover offers.

From a quick glance at Twitter it appeared that Bloomberg, Reuters and CNBC in the US
were claiming to have the "sources familiar with the matter" backing the story up. So, Medivation's shares were sharply up in the aftermarket.

Quelle Surprise: Reuters reports Roche approached Pacific Biosciences about a takeover

Reuters has picked up on another one of my Tip TV stories.

Yesterday, the news agency "broke" the story that Swiss pharma giant Roche had approached Pacific Biosciences about a takeover deal. Here is the link:

Quelle Surprise: Reuters reveals Brookfield is weighing $30 billion takeover of General Growth Properties

I would have done this post earlier but I have been sidetracked by, well, general larking about, including a jolly nice lunch with an old contact at Richard Caring's The Ivy, where I spotted Tory party supremo Lord Feldman chowing down.

Anyway, that's enough of the blatant name dropping. The point of this post is to highlight that Reuters last night picked up on my tip from earlier in the week on Tip TV about US property giant General Growth Properties.

Hedgies get hot under the collar over Dialog deal - part 2

So, Arrowgrass appears to have got one over rival Elliott Advisers - it's just been announced that Dialog Semiconductor's purchase of Atmel has been approved.

Here is a link to the a Reuters piece on the news, which has just broken:

A remarkable coincidence

I see Reuters is reporting US pharmaceutical company Salix has hired bankers from Centreview Partners to look at strategic options. Here is a link:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/20/us-salix-sale-exclusive-idUSKBN0KT27E20150120

Reuters lands Shire scoop; more on Tip TV later

Great hit from Olivia Oran and Mike Stone over at Reuters with a story about AbbVie's £26 billion plus takeover approach for London-listed Shire.

Here is a link to the original Reuters piece: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/19/us-shire-abbvie-exclusive-idUSKBN0EU2Q020140619?irpc=932. AbbVie have subsequently confirmed making an approach to Shire but it has been rejected. Clearly, though, this puts Shire "in play".

How to tell whether a merger rumour will come true.....

A couple of US academics have just published some research on Merger & Acquisition (M&A) reporting (a subject close to my heart) in the US.

They have come up with some interesting theories on how to tell whether M&A stories will come "true".