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- Morrison (WM) Supermarkets Plc (LON: MRW)
Supermarket chain Morrisons turned down a £5.5bn ($7.65bn) preliminary takeover bid from US private equity firm Clayton Dubilier and Rice (CD&R) on Monday, 21 June 2021. However, considering a £3.2 billion pounds of Morrisons’ debt, the total value of the deal would have reached to almost £9 billion.
The fourth largest supermarket chain in the UK rejected the offer after consulting with their financial advisor Rothschild & Co, saying that the value of 230p a share is not the appropriate price a share should be bought for, and it is highly undervalued, keeping in view the company’s future growth prospects.
- AstraZeneca Plc (LON: AZN)
EU has given approval to Koselugo, a drug co-developed by AstraZeneca and Merck to treat children with NF1. The drug was approved as per the SPRINT Stratum 1 Phase II trial, which showed positive results for NF1 treatment.
NF1 is a complex multi-system human disorder that happens due to mutation of a gene on chromosome 17, leading to the production of a protein called neurofibromin. NF1 results into growth of tumours along with the nervous system, that can develop anywhere in the body. However, NF1 is a rare genetic condition that affects one in 3,000 people worldwide.
Koselugo drug demonstrated an objective response rate (ORR) of 66% in paediatric patients with NF1 PN and showed positive results such as reducing the size of inoperable tumours in children, reducing pain, and improving quality of life when treated with this drug twice-daily as oral monotherapy.
- GlaxoSmithKline Plc (LON: GSK)
Emma Walmsley, the CEO of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, said the company has plans to make sales of over £33 billion and increase adjusted operating profit by 10% by 2031. Besides this, the company plans to reduce the dividend payout by 30%.
Above mentioned are the part of Emma’s plans for the new GSK, post the split, which is due next year. However, the company is also planning to offload its consumer healthcare division by the mid of 2022. The company is facing immense pressure from activist investor Elliot Management that has built multi-billion-pound worth of stake in GSK.
- Symphony Communication Services, LLC
Symphony, a leading financial markets infrastructure and technology platform, has acquired the trader voice and electronic communication platform, Cloud9 Technologies.
Symphony, currently valued at £1.01 billion, is the communication provider for various banks such as HSBC, Credit Suisse, and Citygroup. With this latest acquisition, the company further aims to expand its customer base of half a million users.
With this acquisition, Symphony will turn out to be the leader in front office communications with new services and solutions combining trader voice with natural language processing (NLP) and automation. All 100 employees of Cloud9 Technologies across London and New York will join Symphony’s team as part of the deal.
- Google and Amazon
Google and Amazon, the two tech majors, may have to face legal action over breaking consumer law in the country, as the UK competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is going to investigate fake five-star reviews on their website.
The regulator is of the opinion that these firms have not done enough to deal with the widespread problem of fake reviews, which could have negatively impacted the genuine and law-abiding businesses selling through these websites. The competition watchdog has already started a formal probe following an initial investigation last year.
