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☆ Ticketmaster shares spotlight with Taylor Swift
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Ticketmaster has a pretty bad seat for the Taylor Swift show. It also risks tempting Swift to turn the spotlight on Ticketmaster. In 2010, U.S. trustbusters allowed Ticketmaster to merge with Live Nation and create one of the largest event businesses in the world. Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen tried unsuccessfully to weaken Ticketmaster, but Swift might be able to move the needle. Taylor Swift and Uncle Sam would be a formidable duo.

☆ Stephen King makes for unlikely antitrust hero
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A U.S. judge blocked Penguin Random House’s $2.2 billion acquisition of rival Simon & Schuster on Monday after the Department of Justice argued it would unfairly limit pay for top authors such as Stephen King. Adding Simon & Schuster would give it 70% of the literary nonfiction market, according to NPD Book Scan. The Department of Justice drew a line in its challenge to Penguin, distinguishing highly paid writers from the rest. Follow @jennifersaba on TwitterloadingCONTEXT NEWSA U.S. judge on Oct. 31 ruled that a planned $2.2 billion merger of Penguin Random House and rival Simon & Schuster cannot go forward. German media group Bertelsmann, the owner of Penguin, agreed to buy Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global in 2020.

☆ Toshiba shareholders curb their buyout enthusiasm
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, Oct 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Toshiba (6502.T) shareholders are curbing their enthusiasm, and that makes sense. They bid up the Japanese conglomerate’s stock 8% following a report of a 2.8 trillion yen ($19.1 billion) buyout bid led by Japan Industrial Partners. That leaves the company’s enterprise value lagging the new bid by some 12%. Throw in a weak yen and all the global economic turmoil, and getting a buyout done at all will be triumph. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Qantas shareholders take cautiously to the skies
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MELBOURNE, Oct 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Shareholders have become accustomed to bad news from airlines. So it’s only fitting that Qantas Airways’ (QAN.AX)prediction on Thursday of bumper earnings prompted a somewhat muted response. The $6 billion Australian carrier reckons its underlying pretax profit for the six months to the end of December will be between A$1.2 billion and A$1.3 billion ($753 million and $815 million). But it implies investors are factoring in just A$130 million of additional earnings on an annual basis, after applying the stock’s almost 10 times forward earnings multiple and assuming a constant tax rate. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ China's soy sauce star suffers a premium downgrade
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Haitian, which with a 20% share of China’s market for cooking's brown gold, dismissed the accusations as a smear campaign. It says it complies with relevant food safety rules and stressed that food additives are common and don’t imply inferior quality. Even after the selloff, Haitian still trades at a mouth-watering 41 times forecast earnings for the next 12 months, per Refinitiv. But it’s now much closer to the 36 times fetched by Japanese peer Kikkoman (2801.T). They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Anti-woke ETF adopts progressive cause
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Keeping tabs on such corporate actions is a tall order, especially when the ETF plans to mimic the make-up of the S&P 500 Index and avoid skewing investment toward anti-woke darlings such as the oil sector. Subjects like job creation and fair pay are topics that advocates such as the Congressional Progressive Caucus are advancing. So too is BlackRock (BLK.N) boss Larry Fink, who noted how companies manage their employees is material to investors’ interests. Typically those issues fall under the "S" in the environmental, social, and governance mandates that YALL is fighting against. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Lab tie-up would have multiple ailments
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Qiagen (QIA.DE) may once again find itself at the centre of an M&A drama. The $10 billion German lab tester is in talks with $10 billion U.S. life-science company Bio-Rad (BIO.N), the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Any deal would follow Thermo Fisher Scientific’s (TMO.N) failed attempt to buy Qiagen for 11.3 billion euros ($11 billion) back in 2020. Regulators in the United States and Europe have been increasingly wary of tie-ups that could lead to higher prices. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Trustbusters’ metaverse gambit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only one making risky gambits in the metaverse. On Friday, trustbusters at the Federal Trade Commission pared back their arguments against Meta Platforms’ (META.O) acquisition of virtual reality app maker Within. The agency run by Lina Khan stepped back from initial arguments that Meta’s Beat Saber game competes directly against Within’s Supernatural fitness app. That was always an odd stretching of definitions that both limited the market to a thin slice of virtual reality and at the same time included wildly disparate apps. That resembles arguments against the 2015 merger of sterilization companies Steris and Synergy – a case the FTC lost.

☆ Grab's steady steering offers a smoother ride
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Caroline ChiaHONG KONG, Sept 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A rising tide once lifted all of Southeast Asia's technology giants. With a global recession looming and markets in turmoil, their fortunes are starting to diverge. It's a sharp contrast to its $24 billion Singaporean rival Sea (SE.N), which is retrenching globally to achieve financial "self-sufficiency". With shares down over 60% this year, Grab's confident and careful hand at the wheel gives shareholders something to cheer. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Novartis’ growth ills lay tricky treatment pathway
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Novartis (NOVN.S) is facing a prolonged period in recovery. On Thursday, the $187 billion Swiss drugmaker said it will make expansion in the U.S. market a top priority as it seeks to boost its lacklustre growth. He will also spin off its generic drug business next year and list it on the Swiss stock exchange. Strip that away from Novartis’ current enterprise value of $196 billion and the core drugs business is valued at around $167 billion. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Bank of Japan’s stubbornness keeps yen volatile
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Men look at an electric monitor displaying the Japanese yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and Nikkei share average in Tokyo, Japan September 14, 2022. read more That’s understandable, but it will make it harder to moderate an increasingly volatile exchange rate. The yen , currently trading around 144 per dollar, is at its weakest since 1998, but more important is the rate of change. A see-sawing foreign exchange rate, though, makes executives nervous. Exporters including carmakers Nissan Motor (7201.T) and Toyota Motor (7203.T), and drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical (4502.T), which reported nice forex tailwinds in its last quarterly report, are benefitting from unexpected exchange rate gains on paper.

☆ Sea CEO’s distress call will make tech waves
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A person stands in front of a signage of Southeast Asian e-commerce and gaming group Sea Ltd's, at their office in Singapore March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar SuHONG KONG, Sept 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Candour is often welcome during times of distress. Forrest Li, the chief executive of Singapore's Sea (SE.N), is not mincing his words as he sounds the alarm at his $26 billion e-commerce to video-games outfit. Losses are widening at the $11 billion super-app as it continues to invest in fintech read more . They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ U.S. trustbusters’ red faces match legal red tape
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A UnitedHealth Group health insurance card is seen in a wallet in this picture illustration October 14, 2019. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/IllustrationNEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - America’s antitrust enforcers can’t catch a legal break. Unless they start scoring court wins, competition hawks’ legacy may be less stopping M&A than making it more painful. UnitedHealth’s victory, which followed 20 months of investigation and litigation, confirms that merger reviews generally are becoming more onerous. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

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