#Acquisitions

#Acquisitions

In a memorandum opinion released Tuesday, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the FTC failed to prove its argument. The case, initially filed by the FTC five years ago, centered on Meta's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. "Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now," Boasberg said in the filing. "The Court's verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so."

Armis, a nine-year-old cybersecurity startup based out of San Francisco, intends to follow in these companies' footsteps. The company said on Wednesday that it has raised a $435 million pre-IPO round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. CapitalG made a significant investment in the round, and new investor Evolution Equity Partners also participated. The round values Armis at $6.1 billion, a meaningful jump from the $4.5 billion tender offer valuation the startup announced in August.

Rocket delivered a standout quarter, balancing short- and long-term execution in a category of one. I am very proud of the Rocket team for surpassing the high end of our adjusted revenue guidance range, accelerating Redfin momentum and closing the Mr. Cooper transaction the largest independent mortgage company deal in history, said Varun Krishna, CEO and director of Rocket Companies. We are building a vertically integrated homeownership platform for the AI era.

After leaving StubHub to join Fandom in 2019, Miller oversaw the company's $50 million acquisition of a number of entertainment content platforms from Red Ventures including TV Guide, Metacritic, GameSpot, and Giant Bomb. At the time, Miller said that the deal was meant to "expand our business capabilities and provide immersive content for our partners, advertisers and fans." The deal also led to multiple rounds of layoffs for the editorial staff at some of Fandom's newly-acquired properties.

Almost one year after the fintech giant Stripe struck a $1.1 billion deal to acquire the stablecoin startup Bridge, two other big corporate players want to scoop up a stablecoin firm of their own. The U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and the payments giant Mastercard have each held advanced acquisition talks to buy London-based BVNK, according to six sources familiar with the dealings, who asked for anonymity to talk about confidential business discussions.

At one point, Andrew Gazdecki belonged to the second of these two cohorts. "I held on because I was attached," he says of his first company, Bizness Apps, which he sold in 2017. The company, a publishing platform that helps businesses develop mobile apps, began life in 2010, riding the smartphone revolution kickstarted by Apple. When, years later, Bizness Apps began losing customers, and continued losing customers, part of Gazdecki knew it was time to sell. And yet he waited.

Langan is the chief executive of RCI Hospitality Holdings, which includes the chain Rick's Cabaret as well as Tootsie's Cabaret in Miami, which advertises itself as the largest strip club in the world and once held the Christmas party for the LeBron-era Miami Heat. Some chains are larger than RCI, but it appears to be the only publicly traded strip-club company in the world, with a significant ownership stake from BlackRock and Vanguard.

During his 24-year career at Molson Coors, Goyal has been a driving force behind many of the company's most successful recent ventures, serving in executive roles across information technology, finance and strategy. He started in Golden, Colo., at Coors Brewing Co. and has held several global leadership roles such as chief information officer for Molson Coors in the UK and chief financial officer for Molson Coors in India.

Trump TikTok Deal: President Trump claims there's a deal for TikTok to either be sold to a U.S. company or disconnected from China, though details remain unclear. Valuation and Business Considerations: TikTok is valuable mainly for its user data and addictive algorithms, but it's uncertain how profitable the platform itself is; any deal would likely need to maintain the existing user data for maximum value.

To sell or not to sell. That's the major dilemma founders around the world face: Once they've started to get big enough to attract the attention of buyers, they face the decision of whether to cash out now, or use the compliment as fuel to go even bigger. While it may seem like a no-brainer to say yes to an acquisition to the tune of millions-or even billions-it can be hard to later rest easy thinking about how much more you could have made independently.

You might say that the biggest AI startups are led by professionally unreliable narrators, who theorize about the future of their companies - and their industry, and humanity in general - with a variety of clear but sometimes conflicting biases. This can make it somewhat hard, from the outside, to figure out which vision investors are banking on, beyond a general fear of missing out: Mass labor automation? AI-assisted research? Mainstream search-like products that could unseat Google?

Disney's stock is down 11% over the past five years while the S&P 500 has risen 91%, highlighting significant struggles for Disney shareholders, largely under Bob Iger's management.

In Q4, revenue, gross margin and operating margin were at the high end of our guidance ranges, earnings per share was above the guidance range and we delivered solid operating cash flow.

Cursor is capitalizing on the disparity in the AI startup landscape by acquiring talent from startups like Koala to enhance its enterprise offerings and compete with major players.

Broadcom, with a current market cap of $1.3 trillion, aims for $2 trillion by 2026, requiring a 55% stock surge and significant AI revenue earnings.

Concentra Biosciences is rapidly acquiring struggling biotech companies, taking advantage of Bay Area firms' difficulties, including its recent purchase of Cargo Therapeutics, which faced severe setbacks this year.

The lender's robust performance is particularly notable given the turbulent backdrop of rising business taxes, persistent global tariffs, and slower-than-expected base rate cuts.

Cisco's investment strategy focuses on acquiring companies to enhance innovation rather than building completely from scratch, allowing rapid adaptation in the market.

Neri expressed optimism that the US Department of Justice will clear HPE's acquisition of Juniper Networks, while also preparing for alternative strategies if necessary.

"Rocket disclosed its proposed $1.75 billion acquisition of Redfin and $9.4 billion deal for Mr. Cooper in March, intending to boost its market presence."

Marriott has been expanding its reach through acquisitions and partnerships, reflecting a strategy to cater to travelers' growing hospitality needs.

Stash, a personal investment platform, raised $146M in Series H funding led by Goodwater Capital, bringing its total equity funding to $666M.

Japanese firm Metaplanet's acquisition of Bitcoin and bond issuance highlights the rising trend of corporate Bitcoin adoption as a strategic asset.