Buyer Target Daimler Benz Chrysler (USA)

Buyer

Daimler Benz

(USA)

Daimler is the 13th largest car manufacturer in the world and is Germanys largest industrial group. At the time of the merger in 1997, Daimler Benz (as it was known) had just 1% share of the US market, was incredibly labour intensive in its production methods and lacked the economies of scale that leading car manufacturers enjoy.

Target

Chrysler (USA)

Chrysler was founded in 1925 and has over 50,000 employees throughout the world. Chrysler suffered in the recent recession and in 2008 was the subject of a $12.5 billion bailout by the US Government. However, in the mid 1990s Chrysler was the most profitable car business in the world and held a 23% market share in the US. Despite their American success, the company was overshadowed in Europe by rival American and Japanese car manufacturers.

Deal Type Merger Value $38bn Year 1998

Integration Horizontal Geography Domestic

Key Quotes: "The Merger of Equals" Jurgen Schrempp (Daimler Chairman): "This is a historic merger that will change the face of the automotive industry Newsweek: DaimlerChrysler was "the worst-executed big takeover since God invented corporations."

Success or failure? By around 2005, the merger began to unravel and in 2006 DaimlerChrysler reported losses of around $1.5 billion. In 2007, they also announced 13,000 job losses as the group teied to return to profitability and in 2007 Daimler and Chrysler demerged.

Buyer

Unilever (UK)

Unilever - Anglo Dutch consumer conglomerate, owning hundreds of food, personal care and home care products from Persil to Oxo, Lynx to Liptons tea, Dove to Flora. At the time of this takeover they had also just acquired Slim-Fast. Unilever has recently decided to concentrate on 400 key brands and dispose of up to 1,200 less profitable brands. Unilever paid £203m, at $43.6 a share, a big premium over the previous day's closing share price of $34.93.

Target

Ben & Jerry’s (USA)

Formed in 1978 by two school friends in Vermont, USA. Known for its quirky flavours and natural ingredients, with a strong social aspect to the business; in 1985 Ben & Jerry's Foundation receives 7.5% of annual pre-tax profits. Ben & Jerry's established a distinctive position in a market which had previously been dominated by mass market brands Walls and Lyons Maid, with Haagen-Dazs leading the luxury sector. In 1999, Ben & Jerry's had sales of $237m, 90% of which were in North America. Operating income was $13.5m.

Deal Type Takeover Value £203m Year 2000

Integration Horizontal Geography Cross-border

Key Quotes: Unilever: " this takes us into the super premium category for the first time. Ben & Jerry's is an incredibly strong brand name with a unique consumer message. We are determined to nurture its commitment to community values." Ben and Jerry's:"...joining forces with Unilever will create an even more dynamic, socially positive ice cream business with a much more global reach."

Success or failure? Unilever dominates the ice cream market. Ben & Jerry's is the only Unilever brand with its own board and its own CEO; social conscience remains important – e.g. support for the Occupy movement. They retain their factories in Vermont, where they employ 600 people to manufacture 90% of the ice cream they sell in the US.

Buyer

Pearson (UK)

Pearson PLC is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world. In 2010, Pearson’s sales were £5.7bn, achieving a profit of £857 million. Pearson provides educational materials, technologies, assessments and related services to teachers and students of all ages.

Target

Edexcel (UK)

Edexcel is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main educational examination boards, and is wholly owned by the private-sector Pearson PLC making it the UK's only privately owned exam board (all the others are registered charities).


Integration Diversification Geography Domestic

Key Quotes: Pearson and Edexcel hailed the link-up as the first step towards a modernisation of examination marking and processing in the UK through the use of new technology, and insisted that despite Edexcel being privately owned, they would be regulated by OFQUAL.

Success or failure? Edexcel, which is now Britain's biggest exam board, is now a £1 billion business which has seen its profits rise more than sixfold over the past seven years. In 2010, Edexcel made a profit of more than £60 million — compared with just more than £10 million in 2004.

Buyer

WM Morrison (UK)

Morrisons is the UKs 4th largest Supermarket with 455 stores. In 2004 Morrisons paid £3bn to buy Safeway which also resulted in counter offers from Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's. Morrisons expect to make annual cost savings of over £215 million and the move increases the pressure on Sainsburys for 3rd place. Prior to the takeover, Morrisons consisted of only 119 stores.

Target

Safeway (UK)

Safeway was a UK based supermarket chain which was founded in 1962 by the American company, Safeway Inc. Prior to the takeover by Morrisons (a much smaller retailer and mainly based in the North), Safeway consisted of 479 stores across the UK.

Deal Type Takeover Value £3bn Year 2004


Key Quotes: Sir Ken Morrison said the deal would transform the company's growth prospects and bring lower prices to Safeway's customers. "It's a big opportunity for us," he said. "We want to impose our culture on the Safeway business."

Success or failure? In 2006 Morrisons posted its first ever loss of £313 million due to takeover costs and write-offs. However, by 2010 Morrison's profit had risen to £858 million.

Buyer

Santander (Spain)

Banco Santander is the largest bank in the Eurozone, with large-scale operations throughout Europe, Latin America and the USA. Has the world's largest network of branches and 90 million customers worldwide. Banco Santander’s international strategy in the last few years has been aimed at attaining a diversified presence with critical mass and high market shares in its main markets.

Target

Abbey National (UK)

Abbey National plc was a UK-based bank and former building society. The business was originally formed in 1944 and was the first UK building society to float on the London Stock Exchange in 1989. The share price of Abbey National declined slowly over 4 years, partly due to a disastrous investment in wholesale loans. A major reorganisation of the business was announced in 2003.



Key Quotes: Anto Nolan (Shareholder): I believe that this offer represents incredibly bad value for shareholders. Moreover, if I wanted to hold Spanish stock I would have purchased it already! Luqman Arnold and Stephen Hester have not done what they set out to do - maximise shareholder value.

Success or failure? Jan 2012: In the UK, where the Spanish bank owns Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and part of Bradford & Bingley, profits in 2011 were down 40% to just under £1bn. A flotation of the UK business, already severely delayed, now appears to be more than a year away as it grapples with an economy that is growing much slower than it had expected.

Buyer

News Corporation (USA)

News Corp is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009. The company's chairman and chief executive is Rupert Murdoch.

Target

MySpace (USA)

Myspace was founded in 2003 and by June 2006, withover 100 million registered accounts, had surpassed Google as the most visited website in the USA. At its peak, when News Corp attempted to merge it with Yahoo! in 2007, Myspace was valued at $12 billion. By April 2008 Myspace had been overtaken by Facebook in the number of worldwide users and since then declined steadily despite several redesigns.

Deal Type Takeover Value $580m Year 2005


Key Quotes: Rupert Murdoch (News Corp Chairman) on Twitter Jan 2012: Many questions and jokes about My Space.simple answer - we screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons Nov 2011: We bought it MySpace for $600 million. We could have sold it for $6 billion a month later.”

Success or failure? In June 2011, News Corporation sold MySpace to online advertising firm Specific Media. The sale terms were not disclosed, but there were unconfirmed reports that price paid was as low as $35m.Pop star and actor Justin Timberlake will take a stake in the business, Specific Media said.

Buyer

ITV (UK)

Created by the merger of Carlton and Granada, in 2005, ITV controlled more than half of the UK television advertising market. ITV's objective was to have 50% of its revenues from outside its ITV1 channel by 2012, including contribution from mobile phones, online and other new media.

Target

Friends Reunited

(UK)

Friends Reunited quickly gained users after launch in 2000. In doing so, the website gave the UK its first taste of social networking and by 2005 it was one of the most popular websites. However, its revenues were from subscriptions rather than from advertising. You had to pay in order to get the contact details of the friends you were reunited with via the website.



Key Quotes: Jeff Henry (ITV): "The acquisition of Friends Reunited is also a key step in the delivery of our strategy to drive new revenue streams for the company" Steve Pankhurst (Founder) said the business was now "all grown up - it is time for my wife Julie and I to let go knowing it is in safe hands".

Success or failure? In August 2009, ITV sold Friends Reunited for £25m. The buyer was Brightsolid Limited, which is owned by DC Thomson, Dundee-based publisher of comics such as the Beano. In 2011, Brightsolid wrote down the value of its investment to just £5m.

Buyer

Cadbury (UK)

Cadbury is a confectionary company and is the industry's second-largest globally after Mars. It is a leader in mass-market chocolate products. The Cadbury's confectionary empire includes brands such a Dairy Milk, Roses, Flake, Double Decker, Turkish Delight and Boost.

Target

Green & Black’s

(UK)

UK-based Green & Black's was founded in 1991 by Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley. The company produces a range of chocolate bars, ice cream, biscuits and hot chocolate with its principal manufacturing sites in Poland and Italy. Its products are organic and premium-priced.



Key Quotes: Todd Stitzer (Cadbury CEO): "Our businesses share a passion for quality products and ethical values" William Kendall (G&B): "The premium quality chocolate market is growing fast globally and Green & Black's taste combined with its organic and ethical integrity puts it in pole position to benefit from this"

Success or failure? By 2011, Green & Black's annual sales had risen to over £40m. However, revenue growth which was hitting levels of between 60 per cent and 70 per cent a few years ago is known to have fallen sharply.

Buyer

Disney (USA)

An American multinational media conglomerate headquartered in Walt Disney Studios, California. It is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Operates one of the largest and best-known studios in Hollywood. Disney; owns TV networks such as ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN; publishing, merchandising, and theatre divisions; and owns and licenses 14 theme parks around the world.

Target

Pixar (USA)

A multi-Oscar winning American computer animation film studio, best known for its CGI-animated feature films such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc and A Bug's Life. Formed in 1979, Pixar was acquired by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986.

Deal Type Takeover Value $7.4bn Year 2006


Key Quotes: Robert Eisner (CEO Disney) "The addition of Pixar significantly enhances Disney animation, which is a critical creative engine for driving growth across our businesses. We welcome and embrace Pixar's unique culture, which for two decades has fostered some of the most innovative and successful films in history” Steve Jobs (Pixar): "Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders"

Success or failure? Since 2006, Pixar has released WALL-E & Toy Story 3 (the highest-grossing animated film of all-time).The $602 million average gross of their films is by far the highest of any studio in the industry.

Buyer

Dubai Ports World

(UAE)

A major operator of over 50 marine ports across 31 countries, employing over 30,000 people

Target

P&O (UK)

A British shipping and logistics company formed 1837. In the 1980's & 90's P&O diversified into property investment and development and exhibition and conference centres, but most of these activities were disposed of following the company's decision in 1999 to concentrate on maritime and transport. By 2006 P&O was the world's fourth largest operator of ports.

Deal Type Takeover Value £3.9bn Year 2006


Key Quotes: Sir John Parker (Chairman P&O): "Putting P&O and DP World together will create one of the top three leading ports groups in the world" "As for the suggestion that foreign ownership was something to bemoan, the chairman pointed out that P&O itself had taken over 125 firms in its history and now obtained 92% of its operating profits from its ports business outside the UK."

Success or failure? In 2010, DP World reported revenues of $3.1bn and profits of $503m. This compared with revenues of $2.1bn and profits of $188m in 2006.

Buyer

Google (USA)

Google is an American multinational Internet and software corporation specialising in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. It hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products.

Target

YouTube (USA)

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal on which users can upload, view and share videos. YouTube launched in November 2005 and grew rapidly. After just 20 months of operation, the investors in YouTube agreed to a takeover by Google. Under the deal, which was financed by the issue of Google shares, YouTube would remain a separately branded entity.



Key Quotes: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: "What tipped us over was not the business relationship here, but their vision. Video is the next stage in the evolution of the internet with communication moving from words to video streaming" David Hallerman (Analyst): Analysts also noted the similarities between the corporate cultures and how the companies developed and have grown. "Google has become a huge brand without advertising--same with YouTube,"

Success or failure? After several years of sustained growth, YouTube is current ranked as the third most visited website on the Internet, behind Google and Facebook.

Buyer

L’Oreal (USA)

L'Oreal is the worlds largest cosmetics company operating in over 23 different countires. In 2010 it achieved sales of 19 billion Euros. L'Oreal has several key brands in its portfolio, including Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren and Diesel. It also has many mass-market brands including Garnier and Ambre Solaire.

Target

Body Shop (UK)

The Body Shop was founded by Anita Roddick and the first Body Shop store opened up in 1976. The Bodyshop,which is a franchise consists of 2,400 stores in 61 countries.The Body Shop is perhaps most famous for selling products that have not been tested on animals and its strong, ethical values as well as a commitment to coroporate social responsibility.



Key Quotes: "We (L'Oreal) are adding a complimentary brand with a strong identify and values to our portflio. In addition we arre adding something to our business that it hasnt got." “It’s ironic that a company well known for its anti-animal testing stance should sell out to one that tests on animals and which has yet to show its commitment to any ethical issues at all,” Ruth Rosselson of Ethical Consumer Magazine.

Success or failure? In 2010, The Body Shop made sales of €756m and an operating profit of €36.2m At the end of 2011, The Body Shop has a total of 2,748 stores, an addition of 143 since December 31, 2010.

Buyer

Tata (India)

Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate with operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Its companies export products and services to 80 nations. The 143-year-old group has more than 90 operating companies. About 60 per cent of the conglomerate’s revenues of $83bn-plus are generated outside India.

Target

Corus (UK)

Corus Group was Europe's 2nd largest steel producer and the 8th largest in the world. Once combined, Tata and Corus would become the world’s fifth-largest steelmaking firm. Tata Steel is one of the lowest cost producers of steel in the world, producing steel at $160 a ton. Corus makes it at $540 a ton. Corus said that it had been looking for a strategic partner and a presence in a low-cost country with raw material availability.



Key Quotes: Tata Steel: "This proposed acquisition represents a defining moment for Tata Steel and is entirely consistent with our strategy of growth through international expansion. The two companies have compatible cultures of commitment to stakeholders and complimentary strengths in technology, efficiency, product mix and geographical spread."

Success or failure? Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus has not fared so well. Gross operating profit this financial year may be two-thirds lower than in 2006, just before the takeover was announced

Buyer

BSkyB (UK)

BSkyB is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting. BSkyB is the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the UK and Ireland with over 10 million subscribers. It has a market capitalisation of around £13bn. News Corporation has a 39% stake in the firm.

Target

Amstrad (UK)

Amstrad is an electronic business that was founded by Alan Sugar in 1968. It expanded into the personal computer market in the 1980s and telecommunications devices in the 1990s. Amstrad has developed a significant business manufacturing set-top boxes, with BSkyB becoming the most significant customer.


Integration Vertical Geography Domestic

Key Quotes: James Murdoch (CEO): the deal would "significantly" reduce costs in its supply chain. It would also give it improved control over the design and specification of products and more flexibility to continually improve the technology" "It will help us to drive innovation and efficiency for the benefit of our customers,"

Success or failure? In 2011, Sky TV announced it had achieved its long-term objective of having 10 million UK households with installed Sky services.

Buyer

Tata (India)

Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate with operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Its companies export products and services to 80 nations. The 143-year-old group has more than 90 operating companies. About 60 per cent of the conglomerate’s revenues of $83bn-plus are generated outside India.

Target

Jaguar Land Rover

(UK)

Jaguar Cars was bought by Ford in 1989 followed soon after by Land Rover. Jaguar fell into heavy losses under Ford ownership, reaching up to $600million per year. However, Ford continued to invest heavily in new model development until it decided to sell JLR.


Integration Diversification Geography Cross-border

Key Quotes: Ratan Tata (Chairman of Tata): “ We have enormous respect for the two brands and we will endeavour to preserve and build on their heritage and competitiveness, keeping their identities intact) Ian Callum (Jaguar): the two national cultures appear to fit together very well and Tata is being very respectful about what we are doing”.

Success or failure? In May 2011, Tata announced a further £5bn investment programme in JLR. Feb 2012: soaring sales of JLR models helped Tata Motors achieve a large rise in profits – up 41% on 2012.

Buyer

Co-operative Group (UK)

A UK consumer cooperative with a diverse range of businesses including: Food, Travel, Financial Services, Healthcare& Funeralcare . It is the largest organisation of this type in the world, with over 6 million members, who have a say in how the business is run and how its social goals are achieved. The Coop had a 4.4% share of the grocery market in 2009.

Target

Somerfield

(UK)

A UK chain of small to medium sized supermarkets, Somerfield was the sixth largest food retailer in the UK. With 977 stores, Somerfield had a 3.8% share of the UK grocery market in 2007, down from 4.5% in 2006.



Key Quotes: Peter Marks (CEO Coop): “this deal will create a stronger fifth player in food retailing and a convenience store chain with unrivalled geographic reach. We aim to double our profits over the next three years” Neil Saunders (Retail Analyst):”The benefits for the Co-op of this move are that they will have larger scale and propels them into a different league in terms of food retailing”.

Success or failure? The Co-op has initially struggle to integrate Somerfield, having rebranded around 600 of the stores it intends to keep. Sales in the acquired stores have fallen since the takeover.

Buyer

HMV (UK)

The UK’s leading specialist retailer of filmed entertainment, games, music and portable digital technology products. Following a decision to sell its Watersone's subsidiary in 2011 for £53m, HMV now has 273 retail stores, mainly in the UK, with sales of £1bn. HMV suffered a significant fall in profits in 2011; profits fell from £73m to £24m. In 2012, HMV completed a refinancing.

Target

MAMA Group (UK)

MAMA Group is a live venue and artist management company. MAMA operates venues such as the Hammersmith Apollo, G-A-Y and Barfly chains. The artist services business is responsible for the direct management of over 40 musical artists. MAMA also has interests in publishing, recording, marketing, merchandising and sponsorship. In 2008, MAMA's operating profit was £1m on sales of £11m.



Key Quotes: Simon Fox (CEO HMV): ““The acquisition represents a further significant step for HMV as we continue the transformation of our business begun in 2007. “Building on the successful platform created by the formation of our joint venture with MAMA just over a year ago, we will be embarking on exciting new growth plans for the Group in live music and ticketing.”

Success or failure? In 2011, Mama Group (renamed HMV Live) achieved sales of £46.9m and operating profit of £3.0m.

Buyer

Cisco (USA)

Cisco Systems is an American multinational that designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipments. Cisco has more than 60,000 employees and annual revenue of US$ 40.0 billion. As part of a massive rebranding campaign in 2006, Cisco Systems adopted the shortened name "Cisco" and created "The Human Network" advertising campaign. These efforts were meant to make Cisco a "household" brand. Cisco has grown through a significant series of acquisitions.

Target

Pure Digital (USA)

Pure Digital was formed in 2006 and soon launched a series of digital disposable cameras. The Flip camcorder was launched in 2007 and soon gained over 10% of the camcorder market, supported by substantial advertising and celebrity endorsement.

Deal Type Takeover Value $590m Year 2009


Key Quotes: Ned Hooper (Cisco) "The acquisition of Pure Digital is key to Cisco's strategy to expand our momentum in the media-enabled home and to capture the consumer market transition to visual networking. Pure Digital has revolutionized the way people capture and share video with Flip Video. This acquisition will take Cisco's consumer business to the next level."

Success or failure? The Flip product did not prove as popular as Cisco had thought it would have been, and in early 2011, Cisco announced they were discontinuing all Flip camera production.

Buyer

KKR (USA)

KKR is an American-based global private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts, based in New York. The firm sponsors and manages private equity investment funds. Since its inception, the firm has completed over $400 billion of private equity transactions and was a pioneer in the leveraged buyout industry.

Target

Pets At Home (UK)

Pets at Home is the largest pet supplies retailer in the United Kingdom and has around 310 stores nationwide employing around 5,000 staff. The company sells products including food, toys, bedding, medication and accessories


Integration Portfolio Geography Cross-border

Key Quotes: John Pfeffer (European Head of Retail for KKR) “We are enthusiastic about the significant further potential for Pets at Home to grow, develop and continue to deliver its unmatched breadth of products, store environment, competitive pricing and customer service.”

Success or failure? KKR intends to support Pets at Home to accelerate its growth rate of opening 20 stores a year (currently 230 stores) and expand its own-brand pet food range.

Buyer

Kraft Foods (USA)

Kraft Foods is an American multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. In 2007 Irene Rosenfeld joined Kraft as CEO March 2007 and announced a three-year turnaround plan designed to drive the profitable growth of Kraft Foods. Known as a driven and decisive leader, Rosenfeld wanted to develop new markets and expand product range.

Target

Cadbury (UK)

A leading global confectionary producer with market leading brands. A proud and long-term heritage of manufacturing in the UK and a strong reputation for corporate social responsibility.



Key Quotes: Irene Rosenfeld saw the Kraft Cadbury merger as the "logical next step in our transformation toward a high-growth, higher-margin company." She also justified the merger in order to build a "global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals." Jack Dromey (union leader): “Our fear is that the Kraft takeover is not in the national interest”

Success or failure? Early days, but Cadbury’s sales since the takeover have been broadly stable. No significant job losses yet in the UK other than the closure of the Somerdale factory.

Buyer

Fenway Sports Group (USA)

Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is an American sports investment company. It is the parent company of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox.

Target

Liverpool FC (UK)

Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, the second most in English football, as well as seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups.


Integration Portfolio Geography Cross-border

Key Quotes: "We want to create a long-term financially solid foundation for Liverpool FC and are dedicated to ensuring that the club has the resources to build for the future, including the removal of all acquisition debt,"

Success or failure? To be determined in the long-run. In February 2012, Liverpool FC won its first trophy for six years.

Buyer

Reckitt Benckiser

(UK)

Reckitt Benckiser is a UK-based global consumer goods business. It is the world's largest producer of household cleaning products and a major producer of consumer healthcare and personal products. Its brands include Dettol, Strepsils, Veet, Air Wick, Calgon, Clearasil, Cillit Bang and Vanish. With operations in over 60 countries, its products are sold in over 180 countries. This business has a market capitalisation of approximately £23.2 billion.

Target

SSL International

(UK)

SSL International is a UK-based manufacturer of personal healthcare products with Durex as its main brand. SSL has a commercial presence in over thirty countries, and manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom, Spain, China, India, Thailand.



Key Quotes: "One of the main attractions for Reckitt is SSL's big exposure to overseas markets” “The price seems reasonable considering the proposed synergies of 12.5% of SSL’s sales” [Analyst 1] “It’s an expensive deal, with questionable strategic fit” [Analyst 2]

Success or failure? Too early to say

Buyer

Coca-Cola (USA)

Coca Cola has more than 500 brands and 3,500 beverage products. Focus on new and emerging markets such as China; volume growth of 12% in Eurasia and Africa compared with 0% in Europe. Coca-Cola bought an 18% stake in Innocent in 2009 for £30m, but in 2010 increased its shareholding to 58%.

Target

Innocent (UK)

Innocent was set up in 1999 by the friends - Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright - who spent £500 on fruit, turned it into smoothies and sold them at a music festival. The firm promotes itself as ethically aware. By 2007 sales had grown to £100 million. 2008 - Tropicana launched against them, the credit crunch hit, price of fruit reached a global high. They got a very bad press for taking their products in to McDonalds.

Deal Type Takeover Value n/d Year 2010

Integration Diversification Geography Cross-border

Key Quotes: Coca Cola said Innocent's three founders would keep running the firm. Richard Reed, one of Innocent's founders, says that of 18 companies who offered investment in Innocent, Coca Cola were the only company completely supportive of 10% going to charity.

Success or failure? To be decided - forecasts for sales growth for 2012 are reduced from 35% to 25%; new products are to be launched due to Coca Cola's investment.

Buyer

British Airways

(UK)

British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations and second largest measured by passengers carried, behind easyJet.

Target

Iberia (Spain)

Iberia, is the flag carrier airline of Spain. Based in Madrid, it operates an international network of services servicing 120 destinations with a fleet of around 170 aircraft.

Deal Type Merger Value n/d Year 2010


Key Quotes: Willie Walsh (New CEO of IAG – the new company formed by the merger): “This will create a stronger business for the long-term benefit of our customers, our shareholders and our employees. “

Success or failure? To be determined. The merger was finally confirmed in early 2011. In late 2011, IAG made an agreed bid to takeover British Midland Airlines.

Buyer

Whitbread (UK)

Whitbread, Britain’s biggest hotel and coffee shop operator; two main brands are Premier Inn and Costa Coffee. New CEO Andy Harrison has set an ambitious 5 year expansion plan, seeking to expand into emerging markets. Whitbread hopes the 350 million investment in expansion will lead to a 50% increase in capacity at Premier Inn and a near-doubling in size of the 1,871-strong Costa chain.

Target

Coffee Nation (UK)

Martyn Dawes founded Coffee Nation in 1998 with an investment of £300,000 to set up a network of self-serve, coffee-to-go stations in supermarkets, service-stations and airports across the UK. In 2008, Coffee Nation obtained further growth funding from a private equity investor. Coffee Nation is now the UK market leader, supplying over 850 organisations across public and private sectors.



Key Quotes: Andy Harrison (Whitbread CEO) “Customers increasingly want great tasting coffee on the go, which makes the self serve coffee market very attractive" Martyn Dawes: “Combining Costa and Coffee Nation to create Costa Express is good news for our team and our customers and will allow us to continue to work with fantastic partners across the UK to provide customers with the highest quality coffee on the go.”

Success or failure? Following the acquisition by Whitbread, Coffee Nation was rebranded to Costa Express.

Buyer

Microsoft

(USA)

Microsoft is an American multinational that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions.

Target

Skype (USA)

Skype is a proprietary voice-over-Internet Protocol service and software application. The service, which has almost 700 million users, allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video, and instant messaging over the Internet.



Key Quotes: Mr Gates said the decision to buy Skype was strategic. "The idea of video conferencing is going to get so much better than it is today. Skype actually does get a fair bit of revenue," "It'll be fascinating to see how the brilliant ideas out of Microsoft research, coming together with Skype, what they can make of that."

Success or failure? Too early to say what the effect of Microsoft’s ownership of Skype will be

Buyer

Google (USA)

Google is an American multinational Internet and software corporation specialising in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technolo gies. It hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products.

Target

Motorola Mobility

(USA)

Motorola Mobility was formerly known as the Mobile Devices division of Motorola until it was spun-off as a separate entity in 2011. Motorola Mobility consists of the Mobile Devices business which produces smartphones and the Home business which produces set-top boxes and end-to-end video solutions.



Key Quotes: The takeover gives Google access to more than 17,000 of Motorola Mobility's patents and Chief executive Larry Page has said the move will "enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies".

Success or failure? To be determined…the takeover was given final approval by European and US competition regulators in early 2012

Buyer

Muller Group

(Germany)

Muller is a multi-national producer of dairy products and is based in Bavaria. Established in 1896 by Ludwig Muller, the company remains a family concern and is ru n by his grandson Theo Muller. It is known for its ranges of yoghurts, including the trademark Muller Corner yoghurt. The headquarters of Muller Dairy (UK) is based in Shropshire.

Target

Robert Wiseman Dairies (UK)

Britain’s biggest fresh milk company. Established as a family business, it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1994 with the family retaining 35% of the company. Operates seven dairies across the UK with customers such as Sainsbury’s Tesco and the Co-op. The company provides about 30% of the fresh milk consumed in the UK every day.



Key Quotes: Heiner Kamps (Muller CEO): “this is an exciting strategic move by Muller to enter a new market segment in the UK. The combination of these complementary businesses will form a leading dairy player offering a range of exceptional products to our customers across the UK"

Success or failure? To be determined…

Buyer

Virgin Money

(UK)

Virgin Money, is part of Virgin Group and was established in 1995. It evolved as an online financial supermarket offering credit cards, insurance policies, personal loans etc. However, it lacked a high street presence and did not offer conventional bank current accounts. Virgin Money acquired a banking licence in 2010 allowing it to become a deposit taking bank and pursue its aim to become a high street bank.

Target

Northern Rock (UK)

Northern Rock faced collapse as a result of banking crisis and was bailed out by the Bank of England (nationalised in 2008). Northern Rock has 1 million savers and borrowers and 75 High Street branches. The bank currently employs 2,500 people, down from 5,500 when it was nationalised.



Key Quotes: George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) :"We are creating a powerful new presence on the High Street" Jayne-Anne Gadhia (CEO Virgin Money): "The great thing about this business combination is that the two businesses lock together very well. "Virgin Money has credit cards, insurances and investments, and Northern Rock has mortgages, savings and current accounts. "There is no need for any jobs to be merged together, in fact this is a story for growth."

Success or failure? To be determined…

Buyer

eBay (USA)

eBay is a multi-billion dollar online business operating in over 30 different countries. Founded as AuctionWeb in San Jose, California, on September 5, 1995, one of the first items sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. In 2010 eBay achieved sales revenue of over $9.2 billion and made a profit of $1.8 billion.

Target

PayPal (USA)

PayPal is a global e-commerce business which allows payments and money transfers to be made through the internet. EBay watched the rise in volume of its online payments and realized the fit of an online payment system with online auctions. In 2002 eBay purchased paypal for $1.5 billion after noticing that Paypal was the payment method of choice by over 50% of eBay users.



Key Quotes: "Ebay and PayPal have complementary missions," said Ebay chief executive Meg Whitman. "Together we can improve the user experience and make online trading more compelling.

Success or failure? It appears that eBay and Paypal are a strong and 'complementary' fit.

Documents

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