The end of 2014 saw many companies realizing strong cashflows and holding capital heading into the new year. With such liquid assets it would be a strong assumption that we have some notable acquisitions and mergers ahead of us in the business world coming in 2015. Luring big companies into divesting low growth divisions might be a great way for a CEO to make his mark on a company and improve product offer, or widen revenues streams. Here are some possible mergers and acquisitions for the upcoming year.
Yahoo! | AOL Merger
Both tech giants of old have been wading through rivers of trouble during recent years. CEO of Yahoo! Marissa Mayer has a dream to build the company back to the stellar, high traffic email, news, and search engine platform, it once was. Activists would have that dream never come to actualize itself as rumors of a deal with AOL, the once rival, have risen. A large scale merger would be costly and run into the tens of billions of dollars, range for settling terms.
eBay | PayPal Spinoff
News coming late last year of the breakup, eBay is set to spin off the mobile payment software that will likely be the biggest IPO of the year in 2015. Currently Goldman Sachs is advising eBay on the divestiture and the online marketplace has seen swelling of its market capitalization since news hit. Stock price for the bidding giant may spike even more once the IPO is finished.
Darden Restaurant Woes
In an effort to please investors, Darden putting one of its food chains up for sale for $2.1 billion, Red Lobster. This only frustrated those with stake in the deal as they thought it was too low of a price tag for the chain. Now Darden is under the microscope to improve Olive Garden, despite its recent positive market performance. Should Darden fail to make the necessary improvement, look for a breakup of the umbrella company.
Hewlett-Packard Split?
HP is set to cut its consumer division apart from its corporate services sector. Consumer products include printers and laptops, with this division gone, corporate services will operate under HP Enterprise Group. While this divestiture is underway, HP is already looking at IT giant EMC as a possible acquisition for the new year. Keep your eyes peeled with HP in 2015.
Tim Warner Cable | Comcast
TWC has been planning to acquire Comcast since last year, but with antitrust laws being reviewed in the deal, it may not make it past D.C. $45 billion is on the line for the deal and should a break up of the agreement occur, some heavy fees will be charged to all but Comcast, who does not have break up fees in the deal.
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