It was what can only be termed a “blockbuster” of a Super Sunday on September 13th as several notable deals were announced. The news of M&A activity stretched into Monday for the fastest start to a week for global deal-making in 2020.The Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. and U.S. pharmaceuticals [...]
Robinhood is a popular financial services app that offers commission-free trading. The company boosted its value to $11.2 billion after raising $200 million in its latest Series G round. This represents a $320 million upsize from its last funding round, and took place just over a month ago on July [...]
Cannabis Companies Are Ready for Mergers and Acquisitions After nearly a year when there was almost no deal-making, cannabis companies are now readying themselves for M&A activity. That’s due to realistic stock valuations and the anticipated of continued legalization in the U.S. which attracts buyers to the cannabis industry—a [...]
Remitly Grows During Pandemic as Digital Money Transfer Business The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has generated growth opportunities for technology-driven money transfer companies. The Seattle-based digital remittances startup Remitly just joined the unicorn company club, raising $85 million in a Series F round that has propelled its valuation to $1.5 [...]
Hyliion to Merge with Tortoise Acquisition as SPACs Rise in Popularity Hyliion, a company specializing in heavy duty electric-powered trucks, announced its merger with Tortoise Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) at the end of June. The deal is on schedule to close this fall. The Texas-based trucking [...]
B2B FinTech Space Shows M&A Activity to Secure Future Markets Of course, headlines are full of the potential acquisition of TikTok by Microsoft, but there is plenty of merger activity beyond consumer-centric technology companies. There’s a good deal of market consolidation going on in B2B FinTech space, as organizations [...]
Diverse Workforces Go Hand-in-Hand with Increasing Innovation Diverse teams produce better business outcomes, yet companies have struggled for years to implement practices that have resulted in noticeable improvements. While progress in most sectors has been minimal, tech companies in particular have struggled to hire and retain women and minorities. [...]
Honeywell Seeking Acquisition Targets Despite Decline in Revenue Even though the North Carolina-based conglomerate suffered a sharp decline in revenue in the second quarter and a decrease in demand in some business of its units because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Honeywell International still says it will use its liquidity [...]
Laboratory Services Industry Enjoys Plentiful M&A Deals Laboratory services businesses took part in five deals in Q1. This puts the sector on pace to close a similar number of deals to prior years. Kaufman Hall, a financial consultancy firm, published first-quarter data in a recent report, which looked at [...]
Diversity Goals Can Be Achieved When Businesses Implement Plans As the old adage goes, “actions speak louder than words.” Companies have devoted significant time, energy and resources into diversity and inclusion initiatives with the ultimate objective of improving representation. However, without concrete steps to make these goals actionable, diversity [...]
Fintech Acquisitions Focus of Payment Companies Visa and Mastercard Top payment companies Visa and Mastercard both made major fintech acquisitions in 2020. These fintech acquisitions are a sign that traditional financial institutions are embracing the need for technology-focused payment solutions. Visa’s Acquisition of Plaid Visa announced it is acquiring [...]
Qumulo Reaches Unicorn Status Amid Demand for Cloud Data Storage Cloud data startup Qumulo raised $125 million in its latest Series E round, putting it in unicorn territory at a $1.2 billion valuation. Led by BlackRock and backed by Kleiner Perkins, Highland Capital Partners, Madrona Venture Group and Amity [...]
Chevron Acquisition of Noble Energy May Signal End of M&A Downturn Chevron Corp. reported recently that it had arrived at a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of Noble Energy, Inc. The all-stock transaction is valued at $5 billion, or $10.38 per share. Assuming Chevron’s July 17th closing price [...]
Diversity and Inclusion in Tech: The Pathway Forward It’s no mystery that tech has a diversity problem. Despite years of pledges to promote more underrepresented candidates and countless diversity reports, the numbers have barely budged. The industry has long paid lip service to diversity ideals, touting how diverse workforces [...]
Packaged Food and Beverage M&A Activity Rebounds Undoubtedly, the global outbreak of the coronavirus has had a dramatic and negative impact on the daily lives of all people. COVID-19 has also had a significant effect M&A activity in the United States. Another outstanding year of M&A volume through February [...]
B Corps vs. Benefit Corporations: Understanding the Key Distinctions The terms “B Corp” and “Benefit Corporation” are often used interchangeably in common parlance, but they have distinct legal meanings. A number of prominent brands including Patagonia, Lemonade, Ben & Jerry’s, Warby Parker and Kickstarter have attained B Corp status. [...]
Wealth Management Industry Shows Decline in Pandemic Like Others The wealth management industry saw one of its most extraordinary periods for M&A activity in its history in Q2 2020. The most-recent Echelon RIA M&A Deal Report finds that there were 35 recorded deals in Q2. That is a 20% decline [...]
Cancer Drug Partnership Between AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo AstraZeneca PLC has announced that it has agreed to pay an estimated $6 billion to acquire Daiichi Sankyo Co., the manufacturer of a promising lung and breast cancer drug. It’s AstraZeneca’s second potential blockbuster oncology deal in the past two years. [...]
Global M&A Activity Down in Q2 Because of Coronavirus Global M&A activity dropped to its lowest point in over a decade in the second quarter of this year, according to data provider Refinitiv. Companies retreated from their growth and expansion plans to concentrate on protecting their operations and employees [...]
Western Union and MoneyGram Might Need to Merge to Survive The COVID-19 pandemic has literally made paper money a dirty word, making consumers choose electronic forms of payment, rather than handling bills. In fact, a 2002 report in the Southern Medical Journal showed pathogens, including staphylococcus, were found on 94% of [...]
