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, Allstate acquired National General, American consumer finance company Affirm gained Canadian company PayBright, and SoFi announced plans to go public.
Allstate Corporation buys National General Insurance
Well-known US primary insurer Allstate Corporation has closed its $4 billion acquisition of National General Holdings. The acquisition, which was announced in July of last year, is part of a strategic decision for Allstate to expand its personal insurance lines.
National General is a New York-based personal lines insurance company serving a wide range of customer segments through a network of approximately 42,300 independent agents for property-casualty products.
Tom Wilson, Allstate’s chair, president and CEO said that “Independent agents will now have more protection offerings for customers, with a strong technology platform creating growth opportunities for them and Allstate. National General’s accident and health business will also further expand Allstate’s circle of protection.”
Affirm expands North American reach by acquiring PayBright
Consumer finance company Affirm announced that it has completed the $264 million acquisition of PayBright, a leading Canadian buy-now-pay-later provider.
Affirm, founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levichin, is a leading fintech firm in America. The company claims that it provides a more flexible and transparent alternative to credit cards.
According to Affirm, the businesses that the two companies serve are complementary rather than overlaying, as such, the combination of the two companies creates opportunities to expand their footprint across North America and scale their platforms.
Completing the acquisition before its upcoming IPO would likely make Affirm a more compelling business, as the company aims for a $9 billion valuation.
Personal finance company SoFi goes public
Personal finance company Social Finance, Inc. (SoFi) announced late Thursday that it is going public through merging with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. V, a special purpose acquisition company.
SoFi was last valued at $5.7 billion in private markets, and the company has raised cash from SoftBank and billionaire investor Peter Thiel. The announced transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter, gives SoFi a valuation of $8.65 billion.
The San Francisco-based fintech company was founded in 2011 with a focus on student loan refinancing. The company has grown over the years to also offer stock and cryptocurrency trading, personal and mortgage loans, as well as wealth management services.
In Other News
Other notable events this week include:
- US drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen Corp. has struck an agreement to buy a majority stake of Alliance Healthcare, a distributor owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, for about $6.5 billion.
- UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division has agreed to acquire Change Healthcare for approximately $13 billion, with $8 billion in cash plus an additional $5 billion in debt.
- Healthcare insurance company Centene Corporation and Magellan Health have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Centene will acquire Magellan Health for $2.2 billion.
- Twitter is acquiring social broadcasting app Breaker just a month after Twitter announced another big move: the creation of a new audio-enabled chat rooms feature, Twitter Spaces.
- Roku announced that it is acquiring the rights to stream Quibi’s entire content library of 75 original shows to its more than 50 million users, all of which will be available on Roku’s free, ad-supported channel.
