Oxford Instruments shares sink as it sells quantum business to US firm June 10, 2025 Oxford Instruments has become the latest British business to hand its quantum technology to the US after reaching a deal with California-based Quantum Design. The FTSE 250 business has offloaded its quantum arm, called NanoScience, to the US firm in a £60m deal, a move it said would help improve focus on profitability amid a [...]
Lord Ashcroft bought shares in Mitie on day it made offer for firm he founded June 10, 2025 Lord Ashcroft bought shares in Mitie on the same day it unveiled £370m takeover talks for a business he co-founded, City AM can reveal. The peer and Tory grandee spent £1m acquiring 714,600 shares in the facilities management company on Thursday 5 June, company filings show, the day the firm confirmed it was in talks [...]
Bargain basement Britain: Tech takeovers continue with three billion-pound swoops in a day June 9, 2025 The frenzy of UK tech takeovers showed no signs of slowing down on Monday after three separate billion-pound M&A moves were made within hours of each other as US tech giants continued their hunt for British bargains. First to announce a move on Monday was London-listed semiconductor firm Alphawave, which confirmed it had reached an [...]
Vodafone completes £15bn Three mega-merger with major pledge June 2, 2025 FTSE 100 giant Vodafone has vowed to invest as much as £1.3bn in network infrastructure over the next 12 months after completing its blockbuster £15bn merger with British rival Three. The capex commitment is part of a pledge to invest £11bn over the next decade by the combined entity, which will be called VodafoneThree and [...]
Is Natwest set for a deal spree after privatisation? May 27, 2025 As Natwest finally breaks from the shackles of government ownership, the banking juggernaut may be gearing up for an acquisition spree. The FTSE 100 giant is speculated to return to privatisation in a matter of days after the government accelerated its sell off over the last year. Shares in the firm rose one per cent [...]
‘Governance horror-show’: AVI hits out at takeover plan from Dan Loeb-backed Third Point May 21, 2025 A major shareholder of a London-listed business backed by New York hedge fund manager Dan Loeb has hit out at its planned takeover of a US insurer. AVI, which controls a 7.1 per cent share of Third Point Investors, described its takeover proposal as a “governance horror-show”. “Third Point Investors has for some time been [...]
Yodel’s £106m takeover by InPost put on ice after High Court order May 19, 2025 Yodel’s £106m acquisition by InPost has been put on ice after an injunction was filed with the High Court in the latest twist in a long-running legal spat. Last month, City AM reported that Poland’s InPost had agreed to buy Liverpool-headquartered Yodel in what was described as a “pivotal milestone” at the time. InPost said [...]
Package deal: Evri to merge with DHL ecommerce arm May 14, 2025 Parcel delivery company Evri is set to merge with DHL eCommerce UK, the e-commerce logistics specialist of DHL Group, in yet another example of consolidation in the sector. The merged Evri business is set to deliver over a billion parcels and a further billion business letters annually, with 30,000 couriers and 12,000 office staff, DHL [...]
Virgin Media O2 to create £1.4bn giant in mega deal May 12, 2025 Virgin Media O2 has announced plans to create a new communications and IT giant which is expected to turn over around £1.4bn. The move will see Virgin Media O2 and Daisy Group combine their direct B2B (business to business) operations. Virgin Media O2 is to own 70 per cent of the new entity, with Lancashire-headquartered [...]
Breadmakers Hovis and Kingsmill in merger talks May 3, 2025 The owners of two of Britain’s biggest bread producers – Hovis and Kingsmill – are reportedly in discussions regarding a merger between the two firms as challenges deepen for the market. Associated British Foods (ABF), the owner of Kingsmill’s parent company Allied Bakeries, and investment firm Endless, which owns Hovis, are in talks about a [...]