SHARE
AT&T, owner of HBO and Warner Bros studios, and Discovery, home to lifestyle TV networks such as HGTV and TLC, said on Monday they will combine their content assets to create a standalone global entertainment and media business.
Discovery chief executive David Zaslav will lead the proposed new company, which will comprise one of Hollywood s most powerful studios, including the Harry Potter and Batman franchises, news network CNN, sports programming and Discovery s unscripted home, cooking and nature and science shows.
Shares in Discovery climbed about 16 per cent to $41.3 in premarket trade but fell 2 per cent afterward as investors digested that it would take time for Discovery to scale up in streaming, said Rich Greenfield, partner at LightShed Partners.
SHARE
The US securities regulator is considering new guidance to rein in earnings growth projections made by listed blank-cheque companies, and clarify when they qualify for certain legal protections, according to sources.
The previously unreported measures being weighed by staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would escalate its crackdown on the deal frenzy in special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, which it worries is putting investors at risk.
The SPAC market had already started to lose steam after the SEC earlier this month suggested warrants issued by SPACs should be accounted for as liabilities instead of equity instruments, and the potential new guidance could compound that slowdown.
SHARE
South-East Asia s biggest ride-hailing and food delivery firm, Grab Holdings, agreed to a merger on Tuesday with US-based Altimeter Growth Corporation in a deal that gives Grab an initial equity value of about $39.6 billion and will lead to a public listing.
The merger, the biggest blank cheque company deal ever, underscores the frenzy on Wall Street as shell firms have raised $99 billion in the United States so far this year after a record $83 billion in 2020.
Singapore-based Grab s agreement with a special purpose acquisition company backed by Altimeter Capital includes a more than $4bn private investment in public equity by investors including BlackRock, Fidelity International, Janus Henderson Investors and Temasek Holdings.
Retailer Next said on Thursday it had pulled out of the bidding as it was unable to meet the price expectations of the collapsed fashion chain.
ASOS is not holding any talks about buying Topshop stores, Sky News said, citing unnamed insiders. But it was also keen to acquire Arcadia s Miss Selfridge brand alongside Topshop and Topman, Sky said.
ASOS is competing against rivals including Boohoo Group , US retailer Authentic Brands Group, which is working with JD Sports Fashion, and Chinese fashion group Shein, the report added.
Arcadia went into administration in November, putting more than 13,000 jobs at risk and becoming Britain s biggest corporate casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic.