The battle for control of Lagardere enters what may be its final stage, as well-funded Vivendi is taking steps towards a full takeover. Vivendi announced an agreement to buy activist investor Amber Capital’s significant minority stake in Lagardere, paying €24.10 a share for Amber’s block of over 25 million shares, comprising just under 18 percent of shares outstanding. That price provided a good premium above the market close of €19.49 on Wednesday. Vivendi and Amber had a reciprocal right to buy each other out if either party wanted to sell. The FT reported, “Last week, Amber told Vivendi it wanted […]
Finance
WH Smith Stock Jumps On News of Activist Investor
Shares of UK retailer WH Smith have gained almost 10 percent in less than two days this week, following the news that Los Angeles-based activist investment firm Causeway Capital increased their holdings. Causeway now owns 11.84 million shares in WH Smith, just over 9 percent of the company, making them the single-largest shareholder. For now, everyone is spreading peaceful and happy messages about the investment. Director Jonathan Eng told the Sunday Times, “We are firm believers in the strategy and management team of WH Smith, which is why we first invested last March and why we have continued to add […]
Finance: EQT Invests in Storytel
The fast-growing Swedish audiobook streaming service Storytel received a boost from big Swedish-based private equity and investment firm EQT’s Private Value. In a press release issued Tuesday, the company revealed that EQT recently acquired 6.6 million shares in Storytel, close to 10 percent of shares outstanding. EQT Public Value’s Joakim Rubin has been nominated as a director of Storytel. Also making news is the nomination of board member Stefan Blom to take over as chair from longtime leader Rustan Panday. Blom was a c-suite executive at Spotify for seven years. Storytel shares rose over 8 percent on Tuesday on the […]
Acquisitions: Hachette UK Buys Arcadia
Hachette UK has acquired independent publisher Arcadia Books, which will operate within the MacLehose Press imprint at Quercus. Associate publisher Katharina Bielenberg will take over as publisher at Arcadia. Since the death of founder Gary Pulsifer in 2016, the company has been run by Piers Russell-Cobb at MediaFund. Quercus noted in the announcement: “Arcadia has since its inception been passionately committed to publishing a wide and diverse range of voices, with an especially strong list of international literature in translation.”
Follett School Solutions Acquired By Francisco Partners
Follett Corporation has sold Follett School Solutions, the company’s K-12 software and content division, to tech-focused investment firm Francisco Partners, which owns the K-12 education-focused businesses Renaissance Learning, Discovery Education, Freckle, myON and Mystery Science. Earlier in the year, Francisco bought VitalSource from Ingram Content Group. The terms of the deal were not announced. Follett Corporation will continue to own and operate college bookstores through the Follett Higher Education Group, as well as what remains of Baker & Taylor. Britten Follett, a fifth-generation family member, will become ceo of FSS Content, while Paul Ilse, former ceo of Discovery Education (another […]
McGraw Hill to Acquire Achieve3000
McGraw Hill was the winning bidder in the sale of New Jersey-based edtech company Achieve3000. The deal is expected to close within 60 days, and it underscores support for McGraw from their new private equity owners at Platinum Equity. Terms were not disclosed, but earlier in August, sources told PE Hub that Achieve3000 had sales of about $100 million and EBITDA of $50 million, looking for a robust valuation of over $700 million. In the announcement, managing director at Platinum Equity Luke Myers, said: “We are making good on our pledge to help McGraw Hill accelerate its digital transformation, which […]