Merger activity decreased last week with two new deals announced but one of these was a blockbuster deal worth $21 billion and at a 108% premium to Friday’s closing price. None of the pending active deals were completed last week.
There was also a private deal nearly double the size of the public ones with NVIDIA agreeing to buy Arm Holdings from SoftBank Group for $40 billion.
Baring Private Equity Asia announced the acquisition of Virtusa Corporation (VRTU) in an all cash deal valued at $2 billion, representing a premium of approximately 27% to Virtusa Shareholders.
The highlight for last week was the dispute between LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Tiffany. According to Reuters, LVMH decided to walk away from the multi-billion-dollar deal. Tiffany then said it is suing LVMH and seeking a court order requiring the French group to abide by its contractual obligation under the deal to complete the transaction on the agreed terms. Owing to these events, there has been a significant change in the spread for this deal but I am surprised Tiffany is not down more on this potential deal break. We are going to continue to track this as an active deal until the lawsuit is settled.
You can find all the active deals listed below in our Merger Arbitrage Tool (MAT) that automatically updates itself during market hours.