US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order that would grant approval to the $59bn tie-up of T-Mobile US and Sprint Corp.
"The evidence conclusively demonstrates that this transaction will bring fast 5G wireless service to many more Americans and help close the digital divide in rural areas," Ajit Pai said in a statement.
Morrison & Foerster is advising Softbank. Richards Layton and Finger, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Latham & Watkins, Hogan Lovells, DLA Piper, Allen & Overy, PJT Partners, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Evercore, Deutsche Bank are advising Deutsche Telekom. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, Potter Anderson & Corroon, Morrison & Foerster, Goodwin Procter, The Raine Group, SMBC Nikko, Mizuho Securities, JP Morgan, Centerview Partners are advising Sprint.
United Technologies and Raytheon received requests from US antitrust regulators relating to the $121bn merger. Both companies were asked to provide documentation regarding the merger.
Citigroup, RBC Capital Markets, and Shearman & Sterling are advising Raytheon. Evercore, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Sullivan & Cromwell are advising United Technologies.
Syncora Holdings, a Bermuda-domiciled holding company, sold Syncora Guarantee, an insurance company, to an entity organized by GoldenTree Asset Management for $392m.
Frederick Hnat, CEO and President of Syncora, remarked that “this agreement is the culmination of years of hard work and focus on our core strategies of risk reduction, asset monetization and enhancing value for our shareholders. We are very pleased with the terms of the agreement with Star Insurance, an entity organized by GoldenTree, one of the largest independent asset managers focused on credit, and believe that it helps accomplish our long-stated goal of optimizing shareholder value and returning capital to shareholders.”
Goldin Associates, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton and Sidley Austin are advising GoldenTree. Moelis & Co and Debevoise & Plimpton are advising Syncora.
Aterian Investment Partners, a private investment firm, acquired Bright International, the largest producer of hair bleach products in the United States for the industry's leading health & beauty and personal care brands. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Christopher H. Thomas, Co-Founder and Partner at Aterian, said, "As Bright's partner we look forward to bringing further innovation, capital and resources to the organization while maintaining the customer-centric approach and manufacturing expertise that made Bright the world-class operation it is today. The company will be a platform for further investments in the consumer, health & beauty and personal care industry."
GulfStar Group and Snell & Wilmer advised Bright. PwC and Kirkland & Ellis advised Aterian.
Private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Company acquired Lone Star Construction, a leading vertically-integrated provider of construction and demolition and municipal solid waste disposal and related environmental services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Lone Star represents an excellent addition to our portfolio of companies in the environmental services sector," said Glenn Shor, a Partner with JFLCO. "Lone Star's industry-leading reputation, vertically integrated service offering and strategically located asset base reflect core characteristics we seek in our investment portfolio. We are eager to continue Lone Star's history of excellence and look forward to supporting the continued growth of the business through organic development and complementary bolt-on acquisitions."
Stifel and Hunton Andrews Kurth advised Lone Star. Jones Day advised J.F. Lehman & Co. Monroe Capital provided debt financing.
Intact Financial, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada, agreed to acquire The Guarantee Company of North America, a specialty lines insurer in Canada and the US, and Frank Cowan Company, a managing general agent focused on specialty insurance, for $753m in cash.
"The acquisition of The Guarantee Company of North America and Frank Cowan Company is strongly aligned with our strategic and financial objectives," said Charles Brindamour, Chief Executive Officer, Intact Financial Corporation. "We are delivering on our objectives to grow in Canada and build a leading North American specialty platform. I'm enthusiastic about what we will accomplish by leveraging the combined expertise of our teams and our expanded offering."
Reuters reported that an education group seeking to increase access to college textbooks and research materials asked the US government to block the proposed merger of textbook publishers McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage. The deal was announced in May 2019. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The proposed merger "will significantly decrease competition in a market already rife with anti-consumer behavior," the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition said in a filing with the Justice Department's Antitrust division.
REPAY, a leading provider of vertically-integrated payment solutions, acquired TriSource Solutions, which provides back-end transaction processing services to independent sales organizations, for $65m. The acquisition was financed with a combination of cash on hand and proceeds from borrowings under REPAY's existing credit facility.
"We are excited to join the REPAY team," said Deborah Brown, COO of TriSource Solutions. "We have partnered with REPAY for many years and believe they will help us to accelerate our processing business growth. We look forward to working alongside the REPAY team to drive long term growth at the combined company."
AskBio, the world's foremost clinical stage and gene therapy platform company, acquired Synpromics, the leader in gene control synthetic promoter technology, bioinformatics and intelligent data-driven design. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"By combining Synpromics's customized synthetic promoters with AskBio's capsids and Pro10™ manufacturing cell line, we have achieved technical leadership in each of the critical components for successful development of rAAV-based therapeutics," said Sheila Mikhail, CEO and co-founder of AskBio. "With the Synpromics acquisition, we have enhanced our collective ability to develop highly targeted and maximally expressed gene therapies. Today AskBio is better positioned to tackle larger pathway diseases, as we continue our efforts to bring curative therapies for rare disease to patients in need."
Rothschild & Co advised Synpromics.
UPS, a global leader in logistics, acquires a minority stake in TuSimple, an autonomous driving company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We are honored by UPS’s strategic investment and their vote of confidence in TuSimple, this proves their commitment to staying at the forefront of innovation,” Xiaodi Hou, TuSimple Founder, President & CTO.
Nexteligent Holdings, an aggregator of healthcare professional services and technology firms, acquired Revenue Maximization Group, a national provider of revenue cycle management solutions, for a combination of cash and stock. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"We are extremely pleased to welcome RMG's CEO, Stuart Miller, into the Nexteligent family. His talent as an industry leader and the suite of revenue cycle services that RMG brings to Nexteligent makes this transaction an important lever for accelerating business development and new product innovations," noted Nexteligent Chairman and CEO, Paul Cristiano. "With the addition of RMG, we achieve a major milestone toward fulfilling our vision to be the preeminent aggregator of specialized healthcare organizations with strong value propositions and established niche positions in their space."
Tufts Health Plan, a Massachusetts-based health insurance company, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a not-for-profit health services company based in the New England region, signed an agreement to merge. The new organization, yet to be named, will become one of the region’s largest nonprofit health services organizations, providing health coverage in all segments of the market regardless of a person’s age, income, life circumstance or health status. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Building upon our collective synergies and strengths – which includes being among the top-rated health plans in the country for quality – will unlock value that can be immediately reinvested in our members and the communities we have the privilege of serving,” said Greg Tranter, chair of the board for Tufts Health Plan. “I am excited about the future.”
Nuclear Networking, an area performance marketing agency, announced a merger deal with Stratex Digital Marketing, a Denver-based digital marketing agency. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Tyler Horsley, Founder, and CEO of Nuclear Networking stated: "We know one of our major competitive advantages in Digital Marketing is the superior level of qualified talent we employ and team within the market. Significant investment has been made to bring together the brightest minds under one roof. The merger with Stratex was another step in expanding Nuclear's competitive advantage while expanding our product offering without venturing too far from our core."
Data Facts, a nationwide provider of mortgage lending solutions and national and international background screening solutions, acquired Strategic Information Resources, a regional provider of credit information helping financial institutions evaluate loan applicants. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Data Facts' founder and CEO, Daphne Large, said. "We celebrate a new milestone today as the Data Facts family formally welcomes our highly regarded peer, SIR. Aligning with a firm that complements our approach provides an unparalleled depth of services to exceed client needs and expectations. Their team impresses me, with some of their team offering 20, 30, even 40 years of valuable industry experience. Every SIR and Data Facts employee, under the Data Facts umbrella, will be integral in pushing the boundaries of innovation and creating opportunities to increase client efficiencies."
SARORAS Private Capital lead a majority investment into InCrowd, a pioneer of real-time data market insights in the life sciences industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Diane and I are excited about the next phase of growth for InCrowd,” said Janet Kosloff, InCrowd CEO. “Our new investors have significant experience in building and growing businesses in our industry. We have great alignment of vision and strategy and look forward to working with them to build on the success we have had to date. Our team will thrive under their leadership, and our clients will continue to enjoy high-quality insights and service.”
Saama Technologies, the advanced clinical data and analytics company, acquired Comprehend Systems, which provides a suite of cloud applications and consulting services that dramatically improve the clinical trial process. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“The Comprehend-Saama transaction creates a data analytics powerhouse with a singular vision of improving human health through the application of AI-powered solutions for actionable clinical trial insights,” said Rick Morrison, Founder and Chairman of Comprehend. “The combined 30-plus years of experience of these two companies as data analytics innovators provides exciting opportunities to speed biopharma’s development of new therapeutics and to have broader industry reach.”
Lodge Cast Iron acquired Portland-based Finex, a cast iron cookware manufacturer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We were not pursuing acquisitions but have been familiar with the Finex brand for years and the timing worked out perfectly as they were looking for a partner to invest in their continued growth,” Lodge President and CEO Mike Otterman said.
VMware in talks to acquire Pivotal for $4bn.
VMware, a leading provider of cloud computing and virtualization software and services, is in advanced talks to acquire Pivotal Software, a leading software developer and management tool, for $4bn according to a regulatory filing from Dell.
Dell Technologies is the controlling stockholder for both companies. Pivotal shares jumped 63% to $13.60, while shares of VMWare were down about 3% at $148.25 in extended trading.
Special board committees at both companies are negotiating an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Class A stock of Pivotal for cash at $15 a share. The offer price represents an 81% premium to Pivotal’s Wednesday close.
Koch Industries sold oil-sands properties to Paramount.
Koch Industries, an American multinational corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, sold its oil-sands assets to a unit of Paramount Resources, a Canadian petroleum company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“The majority of Koch Oil Sands licenses have been transferred to Paramount Resources. All of the remaining licenses are for well sites and [they] have been abandoned, which means that they have been permanently sealed and taken out of service,” Alberta Energy Regulator spokesman Shawn Roth said.
Agri Tech Farms International obtained financing from an Asian wealth fund. (FS)
Agri Tech Farms International, a Vancouver-based early-stage life sciences company, received a commitment letter for up to $300m in investment through an undisclosed Asian wealth fund. The company is currently negotiating final terms of the financing with the Asian fund.
