#acquisition

When does Xerox figure out that it has bought out too many organizations and splits things back up?

BP sold a majority stake of Castrol to private equity. Do you think we'll make a similar move with Mobil 1?

This has all of the signs of getting primed to find a buyer. Shed thousands upon thousands of highly compensated employees with 20+ years of tenure. No rhyme or reason to the ones chosen other than they are too costly to the bottom line. Not looking at the individual persons to see what value they bring to the organization; just treating them as nothing more than a line item on a spreadsheet. Welcome to the new Corporate America. Shareholders are the most important people; no longer the customer (internal or external).
Remember when they used to say "our employees are our greatest asset." Well, they don't say that anymore. They finally realized people are not assets, because they don't own them. People are free to take their talents elsewhere. You also don't layoff assets. People should never be treated like tangible objects.
After the 13K depart, try and make sense of a wounded and abandoned organization that's left with huge holes. Good luck to the ones that are left behind to clean up the mess. Try and pick up the pieces and keep your head above water until you can find the right buyer.
Your largest expense is employee payroll. Shed as much as you possibly can to attract the right buyer.
Just my two cents (pun intended).

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple and Nike Board of Directors member, just purchased 50,000 shares of Nike stock at the current price, costing him $2.9+ million.

https://www.gurufocus.com/news/4086202/nike-nke-director-tim-cook-acquires-295m-in-company-shares

Is this a vote of confidence in the company's future or a PR move?

Tim Cook has a reported net worth of $2.6 billion, so dropping a couple million on some Nike stock is spending couch cushion money for him.

About time. Business has been awful, strategy is non-existent, and products in the toilet. Sounds about right for someone to scoop up for $2B (overpriced)

Don’t know if anyone has seen the videos but there’s a big potential criminal case forming against PayPal and their subsidiary honey for multiple charges in more than 20+ class action lawsuits. Honey was acquired by PayPal in 2019/2020 for $4 billion when Schulman was still CEO. Investigative journalists have brought to light dirt on both sides primarily due to Honeys practices which now trickle under the PayPal umbrella/leadership.

Do you think this potentially is the reason some higher ups at PayPal are getting a free ticket out and coming here in case any action gets taken against PayPal? Does this question the new leadership at VZ?

https://www.hcltech.com/press-releases/hclsoftware-acquire-jaspersoft-cloud-software-group

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracles-larry-ellison-agrees-to-backstop-404-billion-in-financing-for-paramount-acquisition-of-warner-bros-145133265.html

Larry Ellison, the centibillionaire founder and executive chairman of Oracle (ORCL), agreed to personally backstop $40.4 billion in equity financing for Paramount's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros.

Diversification away from a stodgy old tech company to more influential properties is the order of the day.

Xerox and Lexmark Secure Majority of $385 Million of USGPO Contracts in 2025. (Google this)

Intel has finally realized it’s no longer strong in innovation. Launching a new node by effectively poaching technology through equipment vendors is a step toward eventually selling the company to TSMC.

Anyone have any inside scoop? It does impact long term employees.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288847/000128884725000177/fivn-20250729.htm

Now sale will only need to be approved by a implement majority, not 2/3rds that doomed Zoom’s $15B takeover bid

Removal of Supermajority Vote Threshold
Since its initial public offering, the Company has maintained a voting threshold in its Certificate of Incorporation of at least sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) in voting power of the stock of the Company for (i) amendments, alternations, changes or repeals, or adopting provisions inconsistent with, certain sections of the Company’s Certificate of Incorporation, and (ii) amendments, alterations, changes or repeals of the Company’s Bylaws (the “Supermajority Vote Threshold”). While the Board believes that the Company’s stockholders have benefited from having the Supermajority Vote Threshold, the Board determined on July 29, 2025 that it is advisable and in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders to remove the Supermajority Vote Threshold.
The Board intends to approve and recommend to the Company’s stockholders at the 2026 Annual Meeting an amendment to the Company’s Certificate of Incorporation to replace the Supermajority Vote Threshold with a majority vote threshold, effective at the conclusion of the 2027 Annual Meeting.

Layoff notices are being issued to Cadence Bank staff. The job reductions stem from Huntington Bank's recent acquisition. Huntington Bank described the cuts as part of a merger integration. Huntington pledged to maintain operations in Tupelo, Mississippi. More job reductions are anticipated, though Huntington aims to restore positions by 2028.

https://www.djournal.com/news/business/cadence-bank-layoffs-begin-company-maintains-it-is-committed-to-tupelo/article_05b780fe-6373-4bb7-a31e-c9da3b8be5f3.html

They haven't found a way to profit off of AI yet, given the costs. And it's a massive risk.
Remember blockchain, NFTs, and the Metaverse / VR? All giant fails.
Now, LLMs have obviously more practical / actual use cases. But they have plenty of flaws and it's not guaranteed those can all be addressed and it can be converted into a profitable, effective product.

The company just announced selling the telco business to HCLTech. I would be jumping ship. If the company is politely saying that they don’t want this business anymore, then you might be worse off than at HCLTech.

Where in the strategy of the Lexmark acquisition was there the action to railroad Xerox completely. Xerox is far from perfect (and Lexmark is far from perfect as well. They did lose £600M last year) BUT Xerox does have a heritage, does know some stuff and has done some good stuff and yet Lex are railroading every decision - ignoring Xerox people, no regard for any Xerox experience and ignoring everything that has ever been done. Why don’t the EC just pay off Xerox people and leave the apparently-Lexmark-wonders to manage it all?

Billionaire Darwin Deason The Man Who Sold ACS To Xerox for $6.4 Billion in 2010 Passes Away at 85. (Xerox's Largest Chairholder)

Heard a rumor this week. Curious if anyone has heard anything about Humana being sold?

How much did we lose on that deal?

Any updates on Shell buying LLOG, what will happen to the people working offshore on the platform?

Warner Bros Discovery has urged shareholders to reject a $108.4bn hostile takeover offer from Paramount Skydance, branding it “inadequate” amid an extraordinary corporate battle to control the legacy media conglomerate.

In a blunt letter to shareholders on Wednesday morning, WBD accused Paramount of having “consistently misled” investors by claiming its bid has a “full backstop” – a safety net to ensure it has sufficient funds – from the Ellisons.

Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Following a careful evaluation of Paramount’s recently launched tender offer, the Board concluded that the offer’s value is inadequate, with significant risks and costs imposed on our shareholders,” Samuel A Di Piazza Jr, chairman of WBD’s board, said in a statement. “This offer once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated to Paramount throughout our extensive engagement and review of their six previous proposals.

“We are confident that our merger with Netflix represents superior, more certain value for our shareholders and we look forward to delivering on the compelling benefits of our combination.”

Source: The Guardian

Yes, Verizon is in the process of acquiring Frontier Communications in a major $20 billion deal announced in September 2024, with the goal of integrating Frontier's significant fiber network to expand Verizon's broadband offerings nationwide, and the acquisition has received regulatory approval (like from the FCC and state PUCs) with an expected closing by early next month. This acquisition combines Frontier's pure-play fiber assets with Verizon's wireless and existing fiber (Fios) services, aiming to create a stronger, combined broadband and mobile provider.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/irobot-co-founder-says-ftcs-opposition-amazon-deal-wrong-minded-following-bankruptcy-filing

The bankruptcy filing follows the termination of iRobot's proposed $1.4 billion acquisition by Amazon, which was abandoned in January 2024 amid a probe by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – led by Lina Khan – and European regulators. The FTC's antitrust investigation was focused on Amazon's ability to favor its own products over its rivals.

iRobot co-founder and former CEO Colin Angle told FOX Business in an interview that the FTC's decision to oppose the merger struck him as "wrong-minded" and harmful in retrospect.

"I bet if you asked almost anyone prior to the blocking of the deal with iRobot: Would you rather see iRobot innovating like crazy, coming out with new and better robots for your home, or would you like to see it file for Chapter 11 in the process of being sold to a Chinese manufacturer?" he said. "The wrong thing probably happened."

Layoffs have been announced in the next few months.

The question on everyones lips, might this really happen.Stock up 15pc since rumour was leaked.Is there something in the speculation??? Does Peter want out???

“The acquisition of Armis marks a clear entry by ServiceNow into cybersecurity”

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/qagxm0z4y

So we buy WB, for $80b, sell for $40b, then watch a bidding war for it as it gets resold? Thats what you people call a genius leader. Board won’t do anything cause it’s filled with other flunkies who weren’t popular with the worker bees. If you have to tell me how great you are….you’re probably not very good at what you do.

Netflix and the Hollywood End Game
Monday, December 8, 2025

Warner Bros. started with distribution. Just after the turn of the twentieth century, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner bought a second hand projector and began showing short films in mining towns across Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1907 they purchased their first permanent theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Around the same time, they began distributing films to other theaters, and by 1908 they were producing their own movies in California. In 1923 the brothers formally incorporated as Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., becoming one of the five major Hollywood studios.

What the brothers realized early on was that distribution was not a particularly good business. You had to maintain the theater, source films to show, and your profit was capped by seating capacity, which you had to work constantly to fill. Every empty seat represented revenue lost forever. Producing films, on the other hand, was far more lucrative. A movie could be made once and monetized repeatedly.

In this sense, Hollywood was the tech industry before there was a tech industry. Studios invested heavily upfront in assets that could be leveraged again and again. While Warner Bros. and its peers did at times own large theater chains as part of vertically integrated businesses, the 1948 Paramount decrees forced a breakup. The theaters were spun out because content creation was simply the better business.

That business improved over time. Television created expansive new licensing opportunities for films and later TV shows. Homes had more televisions than cities had theaters, and access was constant. Home video added another window, allowing movies to generate revenue through rentals and sales. The largest windfall came from the cable bundle, where roughly 90 percent of households paid increasing monthly fees for access to vast amounts of content they mostly did not watch. Hollywood revenue became a de facto annuity.

Internet Distribution and Aggregation

Netflix, founded in 1997, also began with distribution, specifically DVDs by mail. Its streaming service launched in 2007, exactly 100 years after the Warner brothers bought their first theater. The differences were fundamental. Internet distribution meant Netflix was available everywhere, with no physical infrastructure to maintain. Every additional customer carried near zero marginal cost, and the potential market was theoretically the entire world.

Over time, Netflix, like Warner Bros. before it, backward integrated into content production. Unlike traditional studios, however, Netflix’s content production has always existed solely to serve its distribution. Netflix understood something Hollywood was slow to grasp. On the Internet, distribution is even more scalable than content.

This is not immediately obvious. Content is scarce and exclusive, while Internet access is universal. Yet universal access creates an abundance of content far beyond what anyone can consume. This shifts power to Aggregators that organize content on behalf of users, delivering a satisfying experience. Consumers flock to the Aggregator, suppliers follow, content increases, and the cycle reinforces itself. Over time, the largest Aggregators gain overwhelming advantages in customer acquisition and churn reduction. That is the true source of their economic power.

Hollywood studios learned this lesson painfully over the past decade. As Netflix grew and commanded a superior stock multiple despite producing what many considered inferior content, studios believed they could win by leveraging their content libraries. Content was king in a world constrained by physical distribution. On the Internet, customer acquisition and retention in a world of infinite alternatives matter more. That was Netflix’s advantage, and it has only grown.

## Netflix Buys Warner Bros.

On Friday, Netflix announced it would acquire Warner Bros. for $72 billion. The deal follows Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to split its studios and HBO Max from its cable networks. The transaction values Warner Discovery shares at $27.75, with an enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion.

Paramount had submitted a $30 per share all cash bid for the entire Warner Bros. Discovery business, including cable networks. Netflix, by contrast, is acquiring only the Warner Bros. studio assets. Reports suggest the remaining business is being valued at roughly $5 per share, implying Netflix effectively outbid Paramount.

It is also worth noting the asymmetry in resources. Paramount’s bid would not have been supported by its operating business, which is valued around $14 billion, but by the personal wealth of David Ellison’s family. Netflix, meanwhile, is valued at approximately $425 billion and generated $9 billion in cash flow over the past year. This was not a fair fight.

This outcome aligns with a scenario outlined in 2016, where Netflix was positioned not as another cable channel, but as a dominant Aggregator with power over suppliers. Netflix’s superior viewing experience drove user acquisition. Its user base attracted suppliers, which improved its offerings, which attracted more users. In the most optimistic outcome, Netflix would become the only TV service consumers need.

One obvious path would have been Netflix becoming the primary buyer for Hollywood suppliers, as seen in its relationship with Sony. However, several developments may have pushed Netflix toward outright ownership.

In 2019, Netflix launched Formula 1: Drive to Survive. The show dramatically increased the value of Formula 1 media rights, yet Netflix captured none of that upside. In 2023, NBCUniversal licensed Suits to Netflix, turning a dormant library show into a streaming phenomenon and revealing Netflix’s ability to dramatically increase IP value. In 2025, KPop Demon Hunters became a global hit, largely enabled by Netflix’s algorithmic distribution.

Great content still needs distribution and effortless access to prove its worth. KPop Demon Hunters succeeded on merit, but only because those merits were accessible on the world’s largest streaming service.

Netflix executives appear to have concluded that licensing leaves money on the table. If Netflix can uniquely increase IP value, owning that IP becomes the logical step. Forcing consolidation in Hollywood and removing a rival streamer in the process only strengthens the case, despite the risks and high price.

## Netflix’s Market and Threat

The removal of a rival streamer raises regulatory scrutiny. Media mergers receive intense oversight, and this deal will be no exception. President Trump publicly noted concerns about market share, signaling a lengthy Justice Department review.

This deal differs from past cases. It is partly vertical, with a distributor acquiring a supplier, which is typically approved. However, Netflix is likely to make Warner Bros. content exclusive over time, sacrificing short term licensing revenue for long term pricing power.

It is also partly horizontal, as Netflix is effectively acquiring and shutting down a competing streaming service. Horizontal mergers receive greater scrutiny because they reduce competition. Netflix may argue that HBO Max customers largely overlap with Netflix subscribers, and that consumers benefit by paying for fewer services in the short term.

Ultimately, the case hinges on market definition. If defined narrowly as subscription streaming, Netflix faces challenges. If defined as TV viewing broadly, including linear TV and YouTube, Netflix’s share is far smaller, and its primary threat becomes clear.

That threat is YouTube. YouTube dominates consumer time spent, including on TVs, and does so with content acquired for free. It will always have more new content than any professional studio.

Professionally produced content’s advantage lies in longevity and rewatchability. Libraries matter. Netflix’s ability to make library content more valuable explains why it may be initiating Hollywood’s end game now. The true threat to Hollywood is not just free distribution, but the fact that anyone can now create content, and that reality is already winning in the market.

Strong rumors of an upcoming acquisition in the security sector

Anyone know what we’re doing with them? resale?

Looks like the layoffs are put on hold for the time being with the acquisition of KC.

Hope you all still hanging in there aren't getting abused between doing more with less, major changes to ACA, plus onboarding another Blue on top of it.

The silence in Honeywell is concerning. The more I think about what is coming next and seeing how much staff cuts are happening, a shrinkage is inevitable. There are only two paths that seem possible:

1. HON LT and BoD already have some transformational M&A of some type of a mega merger or mega acquisition in the works to shape the new narrative, or
2. Focus on the Aero split just like GE did and then handover Honeywell to a new CEO to drive the next phase of transformation to a different company.

What do these mean for staff? What else could happen next?

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/south-koreas-sk-ford-motor-end-us-battery-joint-venture-2025-12-11/

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/grocery/shopping/2025/12/10/interim-kroger-ceo-buys-boston-home-for-11-5m-report-says/87709886007/

The settlement requires the largest divestiture of outpatient healthcare services to resolve a merger challenge (by number of facilities) and imposes a $1.1M civil penalty for false certification
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland today entered the Final Judgment proposed by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, together with its state co-Plaintiffs, requiring broad divestitures to resolve Plaintiffs’ challenge to UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s (UnitedHealth) $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys Inc. In addition, Amedisys must pay a $1.1 million civil penalty to the United States for falsely certifying that it had provided “true, correct, and complete” responses under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

“Under President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, this Department of Justice has moved quickly to resolve transactions, ensuring Americans see the benefits sooner,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “This settlement preserves competition where it matters most for American families – healthcare.”

“This is a tremendous outcome for competition in the healthcare industry, where competition itself is critical to the public interest and the well-being of all Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “I commend the Antitrust Division’s Staff for prosecuting this case throughout a contentious litigation to reach this settlement on behalf of seniors, hospice patients, nurses, and their families.”

The settlement requires UnitedHealth and Amedisys to divest at least 164 home health and hospice locations (including one affiliated palliative care facility) across 19 states, accounting for approximately $528 million in annual revenue. By number of facilities, this is the largest divestiture of outpatient healthcare services to resolve a merger challenge. In addition, the proposed settlement:

Obligates UnitedHealth to divest eight additional locations if it fails to obtain regulatory approval for the divestiture of associated facilities without the additional locations;
Imposes a monitor to supervise UnitedHealth’s divestiture of the assets and compliance with the consent decree;
Provides the divestiture buyers with the assets, personnel, and relationships to compete against UnitedHealth in the overlap areas;
Incorporates robust protections to strengthen adherence to the decree and deter interference with the divestiture buyers’ ability to compete; and
Requires Amedisys to pay a $1.1 million civil penalty and train its corporate and field leadership on antitrust compliance for falsely certifying that the company had truthfully, correctly, and completely responded to the United States’ requests for documents.
The Court has appointed William E. Berlin, of Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, to serve as monitor in this matter.

UnitedHealth is a vertically integrated insurer, healthcare provider, pharmacy benefit manager, and healthcare software and services vendor headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. UnitedHealth acquired Amedisys’s home health and hospice rival LHC Group Inc. (LHC) in 2023. Amedisys was a home health and hospice

Do you think Oracle will spin off business units to raise cash?

With the announcement yesterday alongside the rebranding a separate email said that the UK&I was to become a separate entity, wonder if eventually it will be sold off?

It's not often that an acquisition is completed and all employees of the acquired/sold org remain employed. Are we looking at the same thing? I'm just hoping that if we're looking at layoffs once we're officially no longer part of Teleflex, it's not anything major outside of redundant positions.