Merger activity increased last week with four new deals announced, two pending deals closing and one deal failing. You can find all the active deals listed below in our Merger Arbitrage Tool (MAT) that automatically updates itself during market hours.
Qualcomm’s (QCOM) acquisition of NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) fell through last week nearly 21 months after the deal was announced in October 2016. I participated in the merger briefly and exited the position when it was trading close to the original acquisition price of $110/share. The deal was renegotiated higher to $127.50 in February of this year after the activist firm Elliott Management got involved. Despite numerous extensions, approvals from various regulators and Qualcomm fending off a potential acquisition by Broadcom, the final straw that broke this deal’s back was failure to get approval from Chinese regulators.
The expanding trade war with a bolstered CFIUS and aggressive Chinese regulators will result in fewer cross-border deals. The ones that do are likely to have large spreads that reflect the risk of these deals falling apart and in some instances opportunities for arbitrageurs.
There was one new deal announced in the Deals in the Works section.
Deal Statistics:
New Deals: