In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, the MediaRadar research team 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 CBS forges ahead with its hopeful acquisition of Starz, Goldman Sachs is set to acquire B&B Hotels and Natura & Co.’s acquisition of Avon Products makes the fourth largest beauty company in the world.
CBS Continues Talks to Acquire Starz
According to a report by CNBC, CBS is expected to continue its talks with Lions Gate to purchase their premium streaming channel Starz. An earlier $5 billion offer was purportedly rejected by Lions Gate for undisclosed reasons, as was first reported by The Information last week.
Staring down the double barrel of a shotgun named ‘Netflix & Amazon’, many technology companies have started to warm to the idea of consolidating their subscale media companies to compete against the streaming behemoths.
Talks between Lions Gate and CBS are reportedly far from assured; should the transaction actually take place, CBS still plans to continue its merger discussions with Viacom.
Goldman Sachs Set to Acquire B&B Hotels
The hospitality company B&B Hotels is currently in talks to be acquired by the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs.
Since being bought by PAI Partners three years ago, B&B Hotels has grown at an exponential rate to become one of the leading hotel platforms across 12 European countries and Latin America — the company now boasts nearly 500 locations.
The sale also comes off the heels of a new report by CBRE detailing the increasingly busy hospitality market, showing that hotel deals in Europe have increased 52 percent. Goldman Sachs has been increasingly active in the U.S. real estate market over the past few months.
While terms of the deal have not been disclosed, the Financial Times estimates that a tentative transaction could be worth anywhere from $1.9-2.1 billion.
Natura & Co. and Avon Become the Fourth Largest Beauty Company
The Brazilian personal care company Natura & Co. has officially entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Avon Products Inc., creating the fourth largest beauty company in the world.
This deal largely completes Avon’s pivot to the much more lucrative foreign beauty markets, which have been more profitable in recent years.
Leveraging its multi-channel capabilities to target consumers globally and a network of over 3,200 stores and 6.3 million representatives, the combined company has the potential to see gross revenues of over $10 billion and an expanded footprint in over 100 countries.
The deal is valued at $3.7 billion, and is expected to close in early 2020.
In Other News
These are some other notable deals or developments from the past week:
- Event management technology provider Cvent, Inc. has completed the acquisition of Wedding Spot, Inc, a wedding venue sourcing platform.
- Ticket broker TicketCity has acquired fan travel website Fandeavor.
- Toll Brothers, the nation’s leading luxury home builder, announced that it has acquired Atlanta-based Sharp Residential, one of the largest private home builders in Atlanta.
- Perdue Premium Meats Co., a subsidiary of Perdue Farms, has entered into an agreement to acquire Panorama Meats.
- Entertainment powerhouse Endeavor Group Holdings, the parent company of talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment LLC, announced that it has filed to go public with the SEC. It aims to raise roughly $500 million at a market valuation of $6 billion.
