In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development.
This week, IBM acquires its largest acquisition with Red Hat, Transfast Remittance is being acquired by Mastercard, and Virgin Galactic is going public.
IBM Makes Its Biggest Acquisition in Red Hat
IBM has completed the acquisition of software company Red Hat, Inc. for $34 billion. The deal constitutes the largest acquisition in IBM history. Red Hat, which focuses on cloud-based enterprise software, will retain its name and operate as a unit under IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive Software segment. IBM was an early proponent of cloud computing over a decade ago, but it was edged out by Amazon and Microsoft — the duopoly in cloud computing right now. IBM believes that acquiring Red Hat will give them an edge in the hybrid cloud market, targeting companies that want to use the cloud but would rather keep important and sensitive data on their own computers.
Mastercard Extends Cross-Border Reach With Transfast Remittance
Mastercard has acquired Transfast Remittance, a global payments company with cross-border reach. Adding Transfast will build on Mastercard’s strength in payments by enabling it to better serve consumers, businesses, and government entities. In short, the addition will make performing cross-border transactions faster and easier. This deal echoes Mastercard’s abandoned bidding fight with Visa in its pursuit of Earthport PLC a few months ago. Earthport, also a cross-border payment specialist company, went on to accept a deal from Visa for $320 million.
Virgin Galactic is Set to Go Public
Still skittish about taking that out-of-this-world step into investing in space travel? Think again, because billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is going public. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the specially designed acquisition company Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corporation will invest $800 million in Virgin Galactic for a 49% ownership stake, allowing Branson’s company to go public through the already publicly traded Social Capital. Branson has long expressed his yearnings for more people to experience space travel, selling $80 million worth of seats to 600 people for future space flights. Virgin’s deal with Social Capital is expected to close near the end of this year.
In Other News
These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week:
- Lactalis Group, the world’s largest dairy products corporation, has acquired Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy from Ehrmann AG. The deal includes the Green Mountain Creamery and Liebe brands.
- Visa has announced its intention to buy payment technology solution provider Verifi, a leader in fraud protection.
- Cisco has agreed to acquire Acacia Communications for $2.6 billion, setting Cisco up to scale digital processing efforts.
- Broadcom is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity firm Symantec Corporation. It would be Broadcom’s second major investment into software after its acquisition of CA Technologies last year.
