Rivulis Irrigation Ltd. of Israel and Eurodrip S.A. of Greece announced today that the two companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement in an all-share transaction, creating a global leader in micro irrigation.

Bluenet Technologies and Aréte Consulting Services have announced the planned merger of their all their business operations to provide broader services in technology, analytics, testing and managed services to their current clients and prospects.

Andrew Waldeck, partner at Innosight and coauthor of the HBR article "The New M&A Playbook."

You would have given your bank account numbers and IFSC codes for various financial transactions. Unless these accounts are seamlessly merged into the financial system of the anchor bank, you would be required to change the details of your bank account.

The Department of Justice has released the agenda and list of participants for its March 11, 2020, public workshop to solicit public dialogue on the proposed vertical merger guidelines. The workshop will be the first in a two-part series hosted together with the Federal Trade Commission. The two half-day workshops will allow for a dynamic discussion about the proposed guidelines to complement the written public comments about the proposed guidelines that were submitted to the agencies.

The Department of Justice this week concluded an arbitration that will resolve a civil antitrust lawsuit challenging Novelis Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Aleris Corporation. The lawsuit seeks to preserve competition in the North American market for rolled aluminum sheet for automotive applications, commonly referred to as aluminum auto body sheet. This marks the first time the Antitrust Division has used its authority under the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. § 571 et seq.) to resolve a matter.

The Department of Justice prevailed in a first-of-a-kind arbitration, which will resolve a civil antitrust lawsuit challenging Novelis’s proposed merger with Aleris Corporation.  As a result, Novelis must divest Aleris’s entire aluminum auto body sheet operations in North America, which will fully preserve competition in this important industry.  In addition, under the terms of the arbitration agreement between defendants and the Department, Novelis must reimburse the Department for its fees and costs incurred in connection with the arbitration.

The Department of Justice announced today that it is requiring United Technologies Corporation (UTC) and Raytheon Company (Raytheon) to divest Raytheon’s military airborne radios business and UTC’s military global positioning systems (“GPS”) and large space-based optical systems businesses in order to proceed with their proposed merger.  Without these divestitures, the merger would eliminate competition between two of the primary suppliers of military airborne radios and military GPS systems to the Department of Defense (DoD), and enable the merged firm to lessen competition for multiple components used in reconnaissance satellites sold to DoD and the wider U.S. intelligence community.  

Sabre Corporation and Farelogix, Inc. announced today the termination of their merger agreement.

Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc. and McGraw-Hill Education Inc. mutually agreed to abandon their plans to merge after the Department of Justice informed the companies it had serious concerns that the proposed transaction, as structured, would harm competition.

A windrow merger includes at least one pickup head member and an internal drive assembly disposed within a longitudinal aperture defined internal to the at least one pickup head member, the drive assembly being for imparting a rotational motion to a plurality of tines by means of a drive shaft operably coupled thereto, the drive shaft extending in opposed directions from the drive assembly. A method of forming the windrow merger is further included.

Governor Ned Lamont says United Technologies will continue to expand and hire new workers in Connecticut despite its merger with Raytheon. The company plans to move its headquarters to Boston.

Two major Connecticut banks announced Tuesday they will merge in a $759 million deal.

Local governments have expressed concern about a decision to kill off merger discussions between four Wheatbelt shires.

The Town of Narrogin says the latest proposal to merge with the neighbouring Narrogin Shire is just weeks from being finalised.

The Local Government Advisory Board says its decision to terminate the proposed merger of four Western Australian Wheatbelt shires was driven in part by financial concerns, a lack of common goals and the community's reaction.

The Town and Shire of Narrogin have chosen to pursue an amalgamation option which would deny residents the opportunity to defeat it through a vote.

The Shire of Narrogin says its proposed amalgamation with the Town of Narrogin will require about $2 million of state funding if it is to go ahead.

Regional local governments say the Western Australian Government's handling of council mergers in Perth is increasing their fears they will be forced into mergers they do not want.

A Liberal MP has told State Parliament that council amalgamations should have started in regional Western Australia.

Two of the world's biggest gold mining companies have merged in a $14 billion deal. What does it mean for the Kalgoorlie Super Pit and other Aussie gold mines?

Back when T-Mobile and Sprint were trying to gain regulatory approval for their $26 billion merger, executives repeatedly promised the deal would create jobs. Not just a few jobs, but oodles of jobs. Despite the fact that US telecom history indicates such deals almost always trigger mass layoffs, the media dutifully repeated T-Mobile and Sprint executive claims that the deal would create "more than 3,500 additional full-time U.S. employees in the first year and 11,000 more people by 2024."

About that.

Before the ink on the deal was even dry, T-Mobile began shutting down its Metro prepaid business and laying off impacted employees. When asked about the conflicting promises, T-Mobile refused to respond to press inquiries. Now that shutdown has accelerated, with estimates that roughly 6,000 employees at the T-Mobile subsidiary have been laid off as the freshly-merged company closes unwanted prepaid retailers. T-Mobile says the move, which has nothing to do with COVID-19, is just them "optimizing their retail footprint." Industry insiders aren't amused:

"Peter Adderton, the founder of Boost Mobile in Australia and in the U.S. who has been a vocal advocate for the Boost brand and for dealers since the merger was first proposed, figures the latest closures affect about 6,000 people. He cited one dealer who said he has to close 95 stores, some as early as May 1.

In their arguments leading up to the merger finally getting approved, executives at both T-Mobile and Sprint argued that it would not lead to the kind of job losses that many opponents were predicting. They pledged to create jobs, not cut them.

“The whole thing is exactly how we called it, and no one is calling them out. It’s so disingenuous,” Adderton told Fierce, adding that it’s not because of COVID-19. Many retailers in other industries are closing stores during the crisis but plan to reopen once it’s safe to do so."

None of this should be a surprise to anybody. Everybody from unions to Wall Street stock jocks had predicted the deal would trigger anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 layoffs over time as redundant support, retail, and middle management positions were eliminated. It's what always happens in major US telecom mergers. There is 40 years of very clear, hard data speaking to this point. Yet in a blog post last year (likely to be deleted by this time next year), T-Mobile CEO John Legere not only insisted layoffs would never happen, he effectively accused unions, experts, consumer groups, and a long line of economists of lying:

"This merger is all about creating new, high-quality, high-paying jobs, and the New T-Mobile will be jobs-positive from Day One and every day thereafter. That’s not just a promise. That’s not just a commitment. It’s a fact....These combined efforts will create nearly 5,600 new American customer care jobs by 2021. And New T-Mobile will employ 7,500+ more care professionals by 2024 than the standalone companies would have."

That was never going to happen. Less competition and revolving door, captured regulators and a broken court system means there's less than zero incentive for T-Mobile to do much of anything the company promised while it was wooing regulators. And of course such employment growth is even less likely to happen under a pandemic, which will provide "wonderful" cover for cuts that were going to happen anyway.

Having watched more telecom megadeals like this than I can count, what usually happens is the companies leave things generally alone for about a year to keep employees calm and make it seem like deal critics were being hyperbolic. Then, once the press and public is no longer paying attention (which never takes long), the hatchets come out and the downsizing begins. When the layoffs and reduced competition inevitably arrives, they're either ignored or blamed on something else. In this case, inevitably, COVID-19.

In a few years, the regulators who approved the deal will have moved on to think tank, legal or lobbying positions at the same companies they "regulated." The same press that over-hyped pre-merger promises won't follow back up, because there's no money in that kind of hindsight policy reporting or consumer advocacy. And executives like John Legere (who just quit T-Mobile after selling his $17.5 million NYC penthouse to Giorgio Armani) are dutifully rewarded, with the real world market and human cost of mindless merger mania quickly and intentionally forgotten.

German multinational Bayer underestimated the risks of acquiring Monsanto. Now, the company is desperately seeking to contain the damage by selling business divisions and cutting jobs. So far, though, none of these moves have helped.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has simplified the system for certain mergers to be notified to it.

The two major companies cited what they considered onerous divestiture requirements from the U.S. Department of Justice as the reason behind their joint decision.

The post McGraw-Hill and Cengage Abandon Merger Plans appeared first on Market Brief.

Sprint will need to divest to Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and its prepaid business to Dish Network, a satellite TV provider, so Dish can become a viable fourth competitor in the market.

Digital advertising platforms Taboola and Outbrain have entered into an agreement to merge, in order to provide enhanced advertising efficacy and reach marketers worldwide.

Banknet releases Handbook on Mergers and Acquisitions in Indian Banking System

Germany-based entrepreneurial firm, Aquila Capital, opened an office this month in Oslo, Norway, to coordinate investment and transaction management as well as operations in the hydropower sector.

Introduction The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), the authority responsible for operating and enforcing the UK merger control regime, has published its updated Retail Mergers Commentary (“New Commentary”).1 The CMA ...

On 3 June 2019, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) published a report1 by economic consultancy firm Lear, commissioned by the CMA, on merger control in digital markets (“Report”). On the...

  The Singapore office of global legal practice Eversheds Sutherland today announced the appointment of Gerard Ng as a partner in the Banking and Financial Services Practice group. With over 20 years of experience, Gerard is a specialist in len...

O2 and Virgin media sign a £31.4 billion merger agreement to form a telecom giant in the UK. The new company will boast 46 million total subscribers and revenue of £11 billion. The joint venture plans on making a £10 billion investment in the United Kingdom in five years. Earlier this week on Thursday, Spain’s Telefonica (EBR: TFA) and UK’s Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA) announced to have signed a £31.4 billion...

Billionaire Alex Waislitz stands to make millions after two financial services companies agreed to merge.

The two firms have announced plans to bring together their mobile, broadband and pay-TV services.

Vodaphone Hutchison Australia's boss says the deal is now a step closer to reality and plans are in place to bring the two companies together mid-year.

The closing of the acquisition remains subject to other customary closing conditions

AbbVie and Allergan have waited for nearly a year for their much-discussed merger to pass muster. Finally, after pushback from consumer groups and tight scrutiny from regulators, the FTC has granted its green light. The partners face just one final hurdle to consummating their deal. 

At the eighth annual International Competition Network (ICN) conference in Zurich, Switzerland, the ICN adopted new Recommended Practices for substantive merger analysis and presented two new reports on the analysis of tying and bundled discounting and loyalty discounts and rebates under unilateral conduct laws.

Media executive John C. Malone will pay a $1.4 million civil penalty to settle charges that he violated premerger reporting and waiting requirements when he acquired Discovery Holding Co. voting securities. The Department’s Antitrust Division, at the request of the Federal Trade Commission, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against Malone for violating the notification requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act of 1976. At the same time, the Department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, will settle the charges.

The Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that they will solicit public comment and hold joint public workshops to explore the possibility of updating the Horizontal Merger Guidelines that are used by both agencies to evaluate the potential competitive effects of mergers and acquisitions.

The settlement requires the companies to pay a total of $900,000 in civil penalties for violating premerger waiting period requirements.

The Department will require Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. to license its ticketing software, divest ticketing assets and subject itself to anti-retaliation provisions in order to proceed with its proposed merger with Live Nation Inc.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan abandoned its attempt to purchase Physicians Health Plan of Mid-Michigan after the Department informed the companies that it would file an antitrust lawsuit to block the acquisition.

The department said that today’s settlement will restore competition in voting equipment systems in the U.S. and that, without the divestiture, the acquisition would result in higher prices, lower quality and a reduced incentive to innovate.

The department said that the transaction as originally proposed would combine two of only four companies that provide specialized pumping services, called stimulation services, necessary for the production of oil and gas from wells in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued today revised Horizontal Merger Guidelines that outline how the federal antitrust agencies evaluate the likely competitive impact of mergers and whether those mergers comply with U.S. antitrust law.

API Healthcare Corporation has abandoned its merger plans with Kronos Inc. after the Department of Justice expressed concerns that the acquisition would have reduced competition and increased prices in healthcare-specific workforce management technology.