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, Charles Schwab is poised to lead online trading, LVMH moves on Tiffany & Co and eBay sells StubHub to a Swiss ticket company. 

TD Ameritrade Being Acquired by Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab is buying TD Ameritrade in an all-stock transaction valued at $26 billion, or approximately $48.50 per share. 

The combination of the two financial titans will create an immense brokerage and wealth management firm, with at least $5 trillion in assets and 24 million clients. The combination will also likely incur the scrutiny of antitrust regulators, even though it comes as no surprise. 

The brokerage industry is going through a period of increased consolidation and concessions amid massive disruption. In the last year alone, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade have all gotten rid of online trading commission fees. 

News of the deal follows the recent announcement that TD Ameritrade CEO Tim Hockey will step down in February 2020, though this move is allegedly independent of the current deal. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2020.

Tiffany & Co. Being Acquired by LVMH

Tiffany & Co. is officially ending its 182-year run as an independent company. 

The iconic company, popularly known from namesake film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is being acquired by LVMH in a $16.2 billion deal. 

The deal follows a period of continuous struggle for the luxury jewelry company; since 2015 Tiffany has experienced declining annual sales and profit. While the company hoped to make a stark turnaround and capture new, younger consumers with the appointment of a new CEO in 2017, it was not enough. Additionally, while the company hoped to make headway in China, the U.S.-China trade war has made significant advancement difficult. 

The acquisition will strengthen LVMH’s place in the bridal and diamond jewelry category specifically — the conglomerate currently owns BVLGARI, Chaumet, and Fred Joaillier — and help to solidify their presence in America. The Tiffany deal is LVMH’s largest luxury goods transaction ever, and their first major acquisition since the Belmond hotel group acquisition last December. 

eBay Sells StubHub to Viagogo 

eBay announced that it is selling its StubHub ticketing business to Geneva-based ticket reseller Viagogo Entertainment Inc. for $4.05 billion. 

Once completed, the combined company will be a major player in a $10 billion global resale market, which sells hundreds of thousands of tickets every day in more than 70 countries. 

StubHub and Viagogo are both leading online ticket resellers in the secondary market for live entertainment event tickets. StubHub was acquired by eBay in 2007 for $310 million, and the business has grown tremendously since then. The website logged 240 million unique visitors last year and sold total tickets valued at more than $4.75 billion. StubHub is mostly present in North America, while Viagogo mainly operates in the U.K. and Europe. The two are international competitors, and the combination will allow fans to buy any event tickets in the world in one place, in their own language and currency, according to Viagogo CEO Eric Baker. 

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week: 

• The Michelin Guide has acquired American wine publication Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate. The announcement was made at the “Matter of Taste” event in New York on November 22, 2019, approximately two years after Michelin initially bought a 40% stake in The Wine Advocate. 

• Zoetis, Inc., the world’s largest producer of medicine and vaccinations for pets and livestock, announced that it has acquired nationwide veterinary reference laboratory company ZNLabs. 

• Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is ponying up $9.7 billion to acquire The Medicines Company. The acquisition is a very pointed move to acquire Medicines’ experimental, cholesterol-reducing drug inclisiran, which is in late-stage clinical trials. 

A Mitsubishi-led consortium announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Dutch utility company Eneco in an all-cash deal valued at $4.52 billion, beating off rival bids from Royal Dutch Shell and private equity firm KKR.