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, The Simply Good Foods Company makes an acquisition, Walgreens may go private, and Xerox submits a bid for HP. 

Simply Good Foods Company Acquires Quest Nutrition

The Simply Good Foods Company, which markets and sells branded nutritional foods and snacking products, has acquired Quest Nutrition for $1 billion. 

Quest is a healthy lifestyle food company with a philosophy focused on creating high protein snacks with minimal sugars and net carbohydrates. Quest will be complemented by Simply Good Foods’ Atkins brand to create a portfolio that benefits from consumer mega trends related to healthy eating and better nutrition. 

The pairing of these two brands (Atkins and Quest) is estimated to bring annual net sales to nearly $900 million, along with strong operating margins. “The acquisition of Quest brings together two great nutritional snacking brands that provide the combined business with greater consumer and channel diversification,” said Joseph E. Scalzo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Simply Good Foods. 

Walgreens Boots Alliance to Become Private

According to Bloomberg, Walgreens Boots Alliance’s CEO Stefano Pessina is contemplating a deal to make the company private. 

Walgreens Boots, the owner of drug stores Walgreens, Duane Reade and drugstore.com currently has a market capitalization of approximately $55 billion. 

If the deal were to succeed, it will become the largest leveraged buyout in history. 

The current largest leveraged buyout in history happened in 2007 when TXU Corp was sold to private equity firm KKR & Co, and TPG. It was not clear how many buyout firms are willing to participate in such a deal; so far, the company has only held private talks with KKR & Co. In recent years, Walgreens Boots has been under tremendous pressure from competitors at different sectors; it has lost in-store sales to Amazon.com, Inc. and healthcare and pharmacy sales to CVS Health Corp. The company’s deal to buy rival Rite Aid was blocked by regulators in 2017.     

Xerox Makes a Bid for HP 

Xerox Corporation, the company that is synonymous with printing and photocopying, has approached HP for a takeover bid. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, people close to the matter said that the offer will be an all-cash deal valued at $27 billion. 

HP, not to be confused with HPE Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is a printer and computer company; the two separated in 2017. 

Xerox and HP, two of the biggest names in the printing and inks industry, have faced business difficulties in recent years as consumer behavior eroded traditional printing business across the board. 

It was no coincidence that both companies have announced restructuring plans to streamline measures and cut costs a few months earlier. A combination of these two companies would make strategic sense, as they could create greater efficiency and scale to cut costs to the tune of $1.5 billion or more per year.

In Other News

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

• TELUS, a dynamic world-leading communications and information technology company with over 14 million customers, has acquired ADT Security Services Canada, Inc. (ADT Canada). 

• Adorama Inc. has announced its acquisition of Scuba.com. Before acquiring Scuba.com, the company already owned Leisure Pro, one of the first internet-based diver supply companies. Adorama’s watersports equipment portfolio now consists of the two largest scuba diving equipment retail sites. 

• Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, a leading national homebuilder and developer, has entered a definitive agreement to acquire William Lyon Homes. 

• Fox Corporation has reached an agreement to acquire three television stations from Nexstar Media Group for $350 million. Two of these stations are based in Seattle; Q13 Fox (KCPQ) and JOEtv (KZJO). The third is Milwaukee-based Fox 6 Milwaukee (WITI).