Les Echos : Alstom: the government is considering entrusting offshore wind Areva

Alstom: the government is considering entrusting offshore wind Areva

Link to Google Translation : {http://bit.ly/1hBfZL3}
Link to frencharticle : {http://bit.ly/1iuqvrr}

The state could ask General Electric to sell Alstom offshore turbines Areva. The giant does not believe in this market.

After Arnaud Montebourg mail sent Monday to General Electric (GE) to signify that his offer could not be acceptable "as is", and statements of François Hollande Tuesday, the government is working to cushion the impact of dismantling of Alstom. According to our information, the government would, in the case of a successful bid of GE Alstom, the activity offshore wind latter is recovered by Areva. "There is an interest in having one French player in this sector," explains a government source.
The nuclear group has, too, developed in the offshore turbines and battle against Alstom in calls for tenders French - it was he who is coming off the supply of turbines for the two fields last call offers unveiled Wednesday by the Minister of Energy Ségolène Royal. Alstom had won his side with EDF in 2012 the supply of turbines for the first three wind farms in French sea.
Negotiations with GE would be facilitated by the lack of enthusiasm of the conglomerate American on the activity of the offshore wind Following his meeting with French Holland late April, the CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, was ready and said " to consider any acquisition proposal from French investors for onshore and offshore wind Alstom activities. " "GE does not believe in the offshore," says an industry source.
A bit obvious industrial interest
If this track continues, one of the topics will be the value of this activity, Areva with very little financial leeway. "All in good time. It is sure that there would be a financial issue, but they are not dizzying amounts, "says the government source. "Alstom's offshore, it is mainly yet development costs and huge technological risks," says the industry source.
It will also demonstrate the industrial relevance of such acquisition. Face a tougher than expected market, Areva has set up a joint venture with Spanish Gamesa to share the development costs of its turbines. However, prior to this combination, Areva had studied an alliance with Alstom, before renouncing it, the two turbines using different technologies and thus limiting synergies.
Moreover, the two French actors remain small behind Siemens. Last year, the German giant is awarded according to Reuters about 60% of the European market for offshore wind last year. For its part, Alstom has not installed any wind at sea, while Areva hopes to have 120 installed by the end of the year, off the German coast. An alliance would have more interest if it led to rationalize production facilities promised by the consortium French local elected officials. But back to these commitments employment and activity would probably be very difficult politically.

(BFW) *PUBLICIS, OMNICOM AGREE TO TERMINATE PROPOSED MERGER OF EQUALS

PRN 05/09 00:08 Publicis And Omnicom Agree To Terminate Proposed Merger Of Equals
 BN 05/09 00:12 *PUBLICIS CEO CITED CHALLENGES, SLOW PACE OF PROGRESS
BFW 05/09 00:11 *PUBLICIS, OMNICOM: NO TERMINATION FEES PAYABLE BY EITHER PARTY
 BN 05/09 00:11 *PUBLICIS, OMNICOM: NO TERMINATION FEES PAYABLE BY EITHER PARTY
 BN 05/09 00:11 *PUBLICIS, OMNICOM AGREE TO TERMINATE PROPOSED MERGER
BFW 05/09 00:09 *PUBLICIS, OMNICOM AGREE TO TERMINATE PROPOSED MERGER OF EQUALS
 BN 05/09 00:08 *PUBLICIS, OMNICOM AGREE TO TERMINATE PROPOSED MERGER OF EQUALS
Publicis, Omnicom Terminate Merger
2014-05-09 00:11:48.786 GMT


By Vivek Shankar
     May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Deal dropped in “view of difficulties
in completing the transaction within a reasonable
timeframe.”
  * No termination fees payable by either party
Link to Statement:{NSN N5A5QW3MMTC0 <GO>}
Link to Company News:{OMC US <Equity> CN <GO>}
Link to Company News:{PUB FP <Equity> CN <GO>}

For Related News and Information:
First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>}
First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Vivek Shankar at +1-415-617-7169 or
vshankar3@bloomberg.net

WSJ : Apple in Talks to Buy Beats Electronics

Apple in Talks to Buy Beats Electronics
Deal, Valued at More Than $3 Billion, Said to Include Headphones, Subscription Music Service

Apple is in talks to buy Beats Electronics. Above, Lil' Wayne wears Beats headphones. Getty Images
Apple Inc. AAPL -0.18% is in talks to acquire Beats Electronics LLC, the high-end headphone company that earlier this year started a subscription-music service, for more than $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beats was founded by music industry veteran Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, the hip-hop producer and artist. Its investors include Carlyle Group CG +0.26% LP, Access Industries Inc., and Vivendi SA VIV.FR -0.08% 's Universal Music Group, where Mr. Iovine has been a senior executive for many years.

The acquisition would be Apple's largest ever. Apple declined to comment. A Beats representative couldn't immediately be reached

The potential deal, reported earlier by the Financial Times, would provide Apple with an entree into two burgeoning markets: high-end headphones and subscription music. Music services that charge a flat monthly fee for access to an unlimited amount of music are growing rapidly, led by Spotify AB, which counts more than 10 million paying subscribers around the world, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, sales of song and album downloads have flattened recently, after years of explosive growth that made Apple's iTunes Store the biggest music retailer in the world. A subscription service, even a fledgling one like Beats Music, could strengthen Apple's music business and eliminate a nascent competitor.

Apple launched iTunes Radio, a free streaming-music service, in September. It has grabbed some market share from Spotify and rival Pandora Media Inc., P +0.14% but the reviews for the service have been mixed. iTunes Radio was viewed by analysts as a way for Apple to build up its advertising business.

Carlyle executives have said Beats had revenue of about $1.2 billion last year.

The company's Beats By Dr. Dre headphones, which cost several hundred dollars a pair, are often held up as a higher-quality alternative to the tiny white "earbuds" that Apple packages with its iPods and iPhones.

A sale would generate a huge windfall for Washington, D.C., based Carlyle, which paid about $500 million for just under half of Beats in late October and would reap about $1 billion in profit on its seven-month-old investment.

Barron's) With Icahn's Prodding, Hologic Stock Could Jump

With Icahn's Prodding, Hologic Stock Could Jump
The undervalued medical equipment maker's shares don't yet reflect the turnaround that's underway.

There is no shortage of reasons to dump shares of Hologic. Profits are falling, the company has a history of piling on debt, and no fewer than three CEOs have occupied the beleaguered medical equipment maker's corner office in the past 12 months.

It's not a picture that inspires investor confidence. For years, Hologic (ticker: HOLX), which makes mammography machines, laboratory equipment and surgical tools, has been under fire by analysts and investors who say the company's stock price has underperformed due to mismanagement, expensive acquisitions and debt. Earnings are falling this year as the company struggles with sluggish demand for its products.

All of this bad news has produced an opportunity for investors. Carl Icahn and other activist investors have pounced, forcing a management shake-up that led to the appointment of CEO Stephen MacMillan, who is controlling costs, paying down debt and planning to increase sales and manufacturing operations outside the U.S. He has also hinted that small divestitures are on the horizon.

Other disparate factors are also falling into place, including a change in Medicare reimbursement for 2015 that will benefit Hologic technology.

"Hologic has been undermanaged, and under the new CEO's leadership, you will get an accelerated earnings growth and a return to normalized earnings," says David Katz, president and chief investment officer for Matrix Asset Advisors.

At $24.18, shares trade at just over 16 times Wall Street's estimate of $1.50 per share for the fiscal year ending September 2015. That's not expensive, and may be an understatement of the company's earnings power. Katz forecasts per-share earnings of $1.60 to $1.70 by fiscal 2016. "The company has been under earning and that will change under new management," says Katz, who believes investors will reward the company with a higher price/earnings ratio.

Hologic has gained nearly 17% since the company unveiled fiscal second-quarter financial results last week that beat expectations and raised its financial forecasts for the fiscal year ending September 2014. That's commendable given the string of earnings disappointments during the previous fiscal year.

Still, the stock trades well below the all-time high of $36.44 that it hit in January 2008. Hologic hasn't climbed above $25 a share in six years.

Hologic focuses on women's health care, particularly screening for cancer. Diagnostic tests generated almost half of the company's $2.5 billion in revenue during the 2013 fiscal year. Another $900 million came from sales of mammography systems and other tools used to screen for breast cancer. And the rest came from surgical equipment and products used to test for osteoporosis.

A decade ago, Hologic depended almost entirely on mammography equipment for its revenue. The company owes its size and diversity to a series of acquisitions, including the $3.7 billion purchase of test-maker Gen-Probe in 2012.

But deal making has failed to deliver the hoped for growth engine. Hologic has struggled as hospitals cut spending and women put off elective medical procedures. Also use of its 3-D mammography system has been slow to grow amid a lack of insurance reimbursement.

The board rehired former CEO Jack Cumming in July to lead a turnaround. But it was too little too late. In November, Icahn disclosed a 12.5% stake in Hologic. A month later, the company unveiled a management shake-up that included appointing MacMillan, the former head at orthopedic device maker Stryker (SYK), and adding two board members as part of a deal to appease Icahn.

Things are looking up. Though the Street still forecasts a 7% decline in per-share earnings this year, Hologic has beaten estimates for the past two quarters thanks largely to rising sales of its 3-D mammography systems.

Medicare will start reimbursing for mammograms using Hologic's 3-D technology in 2015. The technology remains an important long-term growth driver for the company as hospitals convert to the newer technology and the Affordable Care Act ensures more women have health benefits needed to pay for the test, says Matrix's Katz.

Yet the biggest immediate growth opportunity is foreign markets.

Overseas sales generate one-quarter of Hologic's top line, says JPMorgan analyst Tycho Peterson. Boosting those sales and moving some manufacturing operations overseas could help Hologic lower a corporate tax rate that now sits above 34%, he adds.

"Hologic is figuring out where the growth opportunities lie and they are underexposed internationally both in revenue and manufacturing," says Peterson.

Granted, turnaround stories are tricky, and Hologic still faces serious headwinds. Governments look to hold down health-care costs. The diagnostics business faces rising competition from Roche (RHHBY). Falling sales of older mammography systems could offset rising revenue from 3-D imaging technology.

And even if every woman in America has health insurance, there's no guarantee they will schedule mammogram tests, says Susan Brown, director of education at the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Still, Hologic has room to run. The new boss certainly seems to believe so. In February, MacMillan purchased roughly $5 million worth of stock.

FT : $35bn Publicis-Omnicom ad deal unravels

$35bn Publicis-Omnicom ad deal unravels

The $35bn merger of Publicis and Omnicom has collapsed, according to people familiar with the matter, after the deal to create the world’s largest advertising company by revenues became mired in management infighting, regulatory trouble and tax issues.
The failure of the Franco-US alliance marks one of the largest merger breakdowns in history and up-ends expectations for an advertising industry that had been seeking to consolidate in response to the turmoil huge companies like Google and Facebook have wrought on their traditional business.

The collapse will also be a personal blow to executives at both companies, who closed the deal with champagne toasts by the Arc de Triomphe nine months ago. Talk has swirled around the advertising world for weeks of frayed relations between Maurice Lévy and John Wren, the chief executives of Publicis and Omnicom respectively, and their lieutenants.
A termination will shatter the two companies’ vision for a next-generation advertising and communications company that could set a “new standard” for the industry. A Publicis-Omnicom tie-up was expected to reshape the global marketing industry, leapfrogging rival WPP to the top position in the industry’s billings tables and affecting billions of dollars spent by the world’s largest brands everywhere from television networks to social networks.
The idea for the transaction, billed as a “merger of equals”, was born when Mr Levy made a joke to Mr Wren during a discussion on the rooftop of Publicis’ headquarters at the top of the Champs Elysées in Paris.
That set off months of secret meetings with advisers, resolving everything from the Dutch holding company structure to plans for the two men to serve as co-chief executives for 30 months after the deal closed.
The pair reunited at Publicis’ Paris headquarters last July to sign the deal, promoting the merger as a bet that scale matters in a new media and marketing world increasingly controlled by technology. “Size will matter,” Mr Levy told the Financial Times when the deal was announced. “What is true today is really not true tomorrow, and we have to be prepared for that.”
From the start, rivals and analysts warned that the deal would face client conflicts, regulatory risks and culture clashes. The drama crescendoed in recent weeks after Mr Wren told investors that unforeseen tax issues had thrown the merger into jeopardy.
“There is no plan B,” Mr Wren said in April. “Those things are a requirement to get a closing.” That news was coupled with reports of clashes between the two sides. Some senior executive appointments, including the role of chief financial officer, had not been announced.
The deal was structured so neither company nor its shareholders would incur tax, but the groups faced challenges receiving approval from tax authorities in France, the Netherlands and the UK.
As recently as last month, the companies said there was no reason to believe that the deal structure could not be achieved. Both CEOs added that they could still succeed on their own.
“We believe we are very well-positioned to compete in an increasingly complex dynamic landscape,” said Mr Wren in April. Mr Levy said: “If by accident things don’t happen, life is good for Publicis. Life is good whatever happens.”
The companies had expected $80m in annual tax savings and planned for a total $500m of annual savings – a conservative number by some analysts’ estimates – saying these would not require lay-offs.
Other benefits the companies outlined were expected to come from combining their ad buying groups to negotiate better rates for clients. Larger scale was also expected to spur more innovation in technology and data-related offerings by allowing them to pool research and development investment.
The deal’s unravelling could have ramifications across the industry, as the merger was expected to spark follow-on deals.
Publicis and Omnicom could now go it alone, seek a deal with another large ad company like Interpublic, buy smaller agencies in emerging markets or invest in data and marketing technologies, Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research, said in a recent research note.

(NYT) Ad Agency Giants Said to Call Off $35 Billion Merger

Ad Agency Giants Said to Call Off $35 Billion Merger {http://nyti.ms/1ovdeQr}

Omnicom Group and Publicis have called off their $35 billion merger, bringing a premature end to a deal that would have created the largest advertising company in the world, according to people briefed on the matter.

A mix of clashing personalities, disagreements over how the companies would be integrated and complications over legal and tax issues derailed the deal nine months after it was announced.

The boards of both companies met on Thursday to finalize the decision, which brings to an end an ambitious union between two companies.

Omnicom, based in New York and led by John D. Wren, grew through acquisitions and came to dominate Madison Avenue with a family of agencies including BBDO, TBWA and DDB.

Publicis, based in Paris and led by Maurice Lévy, owns Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi.

Both Mr. Wren and Mr. Lévy are strong willed, and people close to the deal said that their personalities clashed.

At the time the deal was announced, the companies agreed that both men would be co-chief executives to start, and that after 30 months, Mr. Wren, who is 60, would become sole chief executive while Mr. Lévy, 71, would become nonexecutive chairman.

But by February, Mr. Wren was signaling the deal could be in jeopardy

“This transaction is highly complex and is taking longer than we originally expected,” Mr. Wren said while discussing fourth quarter earnings with analysts.

Both companies have spent nearly a year preparing for the merger, leaving teams at both companies distracted, according to people briefed on the matter. The impending deal also created an opening for Omnicom and Publicis rivals. In recent months, WPP, the other big advertising group, has poached several big accounts from both Omnicom and Publicis.

Many of the world’s biggest corporate clients would have also then been served by the same operating company. AT&T, Visa and Pepsi are Omnicom clients, while McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Walmart work with Publicis.

>>> US Close Dow +0,20% S&P-0,14% Nasdaq -0,40%

Closing Market Summary: Small Caps Lag While Blue Chips Display Relative Strength

The stock market ended the Thursday session on a defensive note despite showing early strength. The S&P 500 lost 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (-0.4%) fell nearly 60 points from its session high. Also of note, the Russell 2000 (-1.0%) settled below its 200-day moving average after failing to retake that level during the session.

Today's affair proved to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride as equities grinded higher in the morning, but rolled to fresh lows during the afternoon before climbing off those lows into the close. Fittingly, the areas that fueled the early advance (biotechnology and high-growth names) were the same spots that paced the afternoon slide.

Equity indices climbed through the first 90 minutes of action with the four top-weighted sectors setting the pace. Consumer discretionary (+0.3%), financials (+0.2%), and technology (+0.1%) continued their outperformance throughout the session, while the health care sector (-0.5%) swung from a position of relative strength to that of weakness when biotechnology reversed from its session high. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 223.35, -4.13) lost 1.8%, ending just above its 200-day moving average (223.00) after being up as much as 1.6% during the first half of action.

Elsewhere, momentum names like Facebook (FB 56.76, -0.63), FireEye (FEYE 27.45, -1.20), LinkedIn (LNKD 145.07, +1.70), and yelp (YELP 53.29, +0.55) gave an early boost to the technology sector before sliding into the close. Facebook and FireEye ended lower, while LinkedIn and Yelp gave up a good portion of their early gains. Similarly, consumer discretionary components Netflix (NFLX 321.66, +1.12) and Priceline.com (PCLN 1108.00 -23.74) also slumped from their intraday highs. Shares of Priceline.com could not stay out of the red as the company's cautious guidance overshadowed its earnings beat.

Staying on the momentum/earnings theme, Tesla (TSLA 178.59, -22.76) tumbled 11.3% following its quarterly report that featured a bottom-line beat on deliveries that were on the low end of analyst estimates.

Once again, the underperformance of high-beta names took place against the backdrop of relative strength among blue chip issues. The price-weighted

Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a modest gain of 0.2%, narrowing its week-to-date advance to 0.2% versus a 2.7% drop for the Russell 2000 since last Friday.

Even though equities did not display weakness until the afternoon, the foreign exchange market was signaling caution for the better part of the day. Specifically, the Japanese yen surged to a session high less than an hour after the New York open and continued inching higher into the afternoon. The dollar/yen pair dove into the 101.55 area, ending the session just above yesterday's low of 101.44.

Similarly, Treasuries jumped to highs in the morning, but fell from those levels in reaction to a dismal 30-yr auction that saw a below-average bid/cover ratio of 2.09x (12-auction average 2.39x). Despite the early-afternoon dive, the 10-yr note ended in the green, adding one tick with its yield at 2.61%.

The intraday reversal did not invite unusually strong participation as less than 700 million shares changed hands at the NYSE.

Economic data was limited to just one report:

* The initial claims level fell to 319,000 for the week ending May 3 from an upwardly revised 345,000 (from 344,000) for the week ending April 26. The consensus expected the initial claims level to fall to 325,000. As expected, the recent volatility surrounding the

Easter holiday period is coming to an end. Initial claims are likely to stabilize between 320,000 and 330,000 as labor conditions improve moderately. The continuing claims level fell to 2.685 mln for the week ending April 26 from a downwardly revised 2.761 mln (from 2.771 mln) for the week ending April 19, while the consensus expected a decline to 2.750 mln. 

Tomorrow, the Wholesale Inventories report for March and the March Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey will both be released at 10:00 ET.

* S&P 500 +1.5% YTD  * Dow Jones Industrial Average -0.2% YTD  * Nasdaq Composite -3.0% YTD  * Russell 2000 -5.5% YTD

FT : Wellcome Trust raises ‘concerns’ over Pfizer bid for AstraZeneca

Wellcome Trust raises ‘concerns’ over Pfizer bid for AstraZeneca

Britain’s biggest medical research foundation has told the government it has “major concerns” over Pfizer’s £63bn offer for AstraZeneca, as the Wellcome Trust became the latest powerful voice to weigh in over the mooted deal. Sir William Castell, the chair of the world’s third largest charitable foundation, and Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust, outlined their concerns in a private letter to George Osborne last Friday as the US drugmaker made its opening offer for the UK firm.

Sir William told the UK chancellor that AstraZeneca was “critical” to the UK’s science base and raised doubts over Pfizer’s commitment to investment in Britain. “Pfizer’s past acquisitions of major pharmaceutical companies have led to a substantial reduction in R&D activity, which we are concerned could be replicated in this instance,” said the letter, seen by the Financial Times. Wellcome’s £16bn charitable endowment is a bedrock of UK science, pouring more than £750m a year into biomedical research. It works closely with industry, including a new genetic research partnership with GlaxoSmithKline, the UK’s biggest drug company. Sir William’s intervention comes as Pfizer mulls whether to return with a higher offer after AstraZeneca last week refused to enter takeover talks. Ian Read, the US company’s chairman and chief executive, is due in London on Tuesday to face questions over the proposed deal from MPs. The value of Pfizer’s latest cash and share offer has slipped since it reported disappointing first-quarter results on Monday, pushing down the value of its stock by as much as 6 per cent before it recovered slightly on Thursday. Pfizer proposed that AstraZeneca shareholders would receive 1.845 shares in the combined company and 1,598p in cash, valuing the deal at £50 per share before the recent dip in Pfizer’s stock, making the total offer now worth £60bn. Shares in AstraZeneca closed up 1.8 per cent at £46.80. In early afternoon trading, shares in Pfizer were slightly up at $29.13. Some big shareholders in the UK company have said they would want a higher price and a larger proportion of cash before backing a deal. Pfizer must ensure that at least 20 per cent of the shares of the combined group stay in UK hands if it is to redomicile itself in the country for tax purposes, meaning there is a limit to how much cash it can offer. Political headwinds have added to the challenges for Pfizer after a hardening in the government’s attitude to the proposed deal. The opposition Labour party is pressing prime minister David Cameron to extend the government’s takeover powers to intervene in what would be the biggest foreign takeover of a UK company. The government insist it is to “keep all options open” while pressing Pfizer for stronger assurances over jobs and investment. “We know the research communities have anxieties about Pfizer. The issue is what you do about it,” said one government official involved in the discussions. “Do you tear up the rulebook over takeovers and start all over again with a different regime, or do you negotiate in a hardheaded way with Pfizer?” Sir William said it was “critical” that the government holds Pfizer to commitments the US drugmaker made to keeping 20 per cent of the companies’ combined research and development workforce in the UK for at least five years following a takeover. “The company has not always honoured similar undertakings made following past acquisitions,” he wrote. The Wellcome Trust also urged the government to ensure that Pfizer does not transfer AstraZeneca’s oncology activities to its site on the US west coast.

(ZH) BofA Warns, Big Trouble In Small Caps If This Line Is Crossed

BofA Warns, Big Trouble In Small Caps If This Line Is Crossed

US equity price action warns of trouble, BofAML's Macneil Curry warns. Since the start of this year, Tuesdays have consistently resulted in positive returns for US equities; but this week's failure to follow through with that pattern, coupled with the Russell 2000’s first close below the 200-day moving-average since November 2012, warns of trouble ahead.

Indeed, the Russell is dangerously close to completing a 4 month "Head-and-Shoulders Top". A close below 1099 is needed to complete the pattern, exposing significant downside to 1057 (5-year trendline), ahead of 988/975 (Head-and-Shoulders obj.).