FT : TP ICAP to buy trading venue Liquidnet for up to $700m

TP ICAP to buy trading venue Liquidnet for up to $700m
Deal thrusts UK interdealer broker firmly into market for buying and selling shares

TP ICAP has agreed to buy US equities trading venue Liquidnet for an initial $575m, in a deal that thrusts the interdealer broker firmly into the market for buying and selling shares.

The London-based broker will launch a rights issue to raise about $425m and will only pay half the £94m dividend it expects to pay for the rest of the year. The purchase price could rise up to $700m, depending on other payouts and performance targets, it said on Friday.

TP ICAP said the acquisition would allow it to benefit from a fast-changing market, in which complex deals are increasingly negotiated electronically rather than over the phone, and take place between dealers and fund managers, rather than between banks.

TP ICAP’s 2,700 brokers act as middlemen for trading hard-to-shift swaps, commodities and bond deals. Liquidnet runs a private marketplace where fund managers with large slices of equity can buy and sell without moving the price on the open market.

Nicolas Breteau, chief executive of TP ICAP, described the deal as “a unique opportunity to transform TP ICAP’s growth prospects”.

The acquisition will boost TP ICAP’s growth targets from low single digit to mid-single digit over the medium term, the broker said. Trading in its core markets of interest rate swaps and commodities has slowed over the summer.

Gizmodo : These Expensive Ass Devialet Earbuds Better Give Me an Eargasm

These Expensive Ass Devialet Earbuds Better Give Me an Eargasm
If you’ve never heard the name Devialet, that’s pretty normal. It’s a French audio company known for making futuristic-looking wireless speakers with massive sound and equally massive price tags. Think Sonos, but more expensive. This year, instead of launching another $3,000 speaker, the company is releasing some expensive truly wireless earbuds.

The Devialet Gemini look like your average wireless earbuds, and impressively, the company has managed to include a nod to its Phantom speakers’ weird oblong shape in the design. But it’s not so much the lewks as it is the sound engineering that makes the Gemini earbuds intriguing.
For starters, these buds will feature active noise cancellation. That itself isn’t worth popping champagne over. After all, the AirPods Pro have ANC, and so do Sony’s WF-100XM3 buds and their slightly cheaper cousin, the WF-SP800N. Hell, Bose just announced two new ANC buds. But one thing about Devialet is that this company is extra. The Gemini will feature not one, not two, but three types of patented features that will supposedly kick the noise-cancelling quality up a notch.
The first is something Devialet’s calling “Pressure Balance Architecture.” Basically, there’ll be “cascading decompression chambers” inside the buds to “ensure the ideal inner pressure at all times.” The buds will be coated in a “custom acoustic mesh” to block out external noise. Each bud will also have two separate mics to enhance ANC, as well as a dedicated mic to “enhance voice transmission.”

The buds will also utilize an “Internal Delay Compensation” algorithm that’s supposed to help compensate for delays in internal noise cancellation loops. If that sounds like mumbo jumbo, it’ll supposedly help boost noise cancellation at higher frequencies. Speaking of noise cancellation modes, the Gemini will have three ANC levels and two types of transparency modes, which will give you the option of hearing some ambient noise.
And finally, Devialet’s also introducing “Ear Active Matching” tech, which automatically adjusts audio signal frequencies based on whatever you’re doing. So if you turn your head suddenly or while running, the buds will purportedly adjust for that. The buds will also scan your ears to determine your fit via the companion app. You know, to optimize sound and minimize leakage.
Rounding things out, the Gemini buds also include equalizer options, an all-in-one touch button to control playback and switch modes, and will also support Google Assistant and Siri. As for battery life, the Gemini will supposedly deliver eight hours on a single charge, or six hours with ANC. Devialet also says the case itself will hold 3.5 charges and support Qi wireless charging. It also runs off the Qualcomm aptX codec. That said, it’s only rated IPX4 so while it’s probably okay for getting caught in the rain, it’s likely not the best idea for exercise. An interesting tidbit: Devialet says you’ll be able to buy spare parts for each earbud separately.
This all sounds like a lot. And it better be, because holy crap these buds will cost £279, or roughly $360, when preorders start on Oct. 10. That’s more than Sony’s new WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones!!! It’s more than the AirPods Pro! It’s more than the Bose SoundSport! It’s more than Sony’s ANC wireless earbuds! It’s more than both the GPS and cellular versions of the Apple Watch SE! It’s more than all of these budget laptops! Hell, it’s more expensive than the HomePod, the Sonos One, and the new Nest Audio. Actually, you could buy three Nest Audios for the less than one pair of Devialet Gemini earbuds.
For $360, these earbuds better sound like the voice of God whispering sweet nothings in my ears. I should hit play and then immediately collapse onto the floor, sobbing in ecstasy, because I am hearing music in a way my puny human brain has never experienced before. When I flip the noise cancellation on, I should hear a quiet, peaceful stillness that you likely only experience in the seconds before your mortal body expires and your soul ascends to a higher plane of existence.
To be fair, I wouldn’t put it past Devialet. The one time I was in the same room as one of their Phantom speakers, my brain melted out of my ears. In a good way. People aren’t exaggerating when they say their speakers, though criminally expensive, sound incredibly good. We won’t know until we test these bad boys out for ourselves, but there’s a heck of a lot you can do with $360. These buds better deliver.

WSJ : How Citadel CEO Ken Griffin Built a $1 Billion Private Property Portfolio

How Citadel CEO Ken Griffin Built a $1 Billion Private Property Portfolio
The billionaire hedge-funder has paid more than $1 billion on a cache of ultraluxury homes from London to New York. What’s behind the ‘unprecedented’ spending?

In the early 1900s, the country’s wealthiest businessmen including William Randolph Hearst and John D. Rockefeller built sprawling, gilded estates. Living at that kind of boundless scale fell out of favor with subsequent generations, however, and these kinds of estates were either subdivided or turned over to the state or to preservationists.
Now, hedge-fund multibillionaire Ken Griffin appears to be mounting a single-handed campaign to bring that level of extravagance back into vogue. Over the past five years or so, Mr. Griffin, an ambitious 51-year-old businessman who started his initial trading business from his Harvard University dorm room as a freshman, has developed a reputation among real-estate insiders as the luxury market’s whale, racking up a string of purchases that tally up to over $1 billion.
The deals often have a few things in common: Mr. Griffin typically buys the most expensive properties in the most expensive buildings and neighborhoods around the world. He often assembles numerous apartments or sites to expand his footprint, and typically breaks a price record in the process.
In August, Mr. Griffin bought several adjacent sites on Miami’s Star Island, a tiny enclave.
PHOTO: ANTONY KEANE ALVAREZ FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Some of his buys include a $238 million apartment at 220 Central Park South, the ultraexpensive tower on New York’s Billionaires’ Row, which set a record last year for the most expensive home ever sold in the United States. Mr. Griffin has also spent roughly $350 million assembling a massive waterfront site in Palm Beach, Fla., $84 million on a Hamptons compound, and he has set records for the most expensive apartments ever sold in Miami and Chicago.
Ken Griffin's Buying BlitzThe Citadel CEO bested the second priciestpurchases at these New York, Miami andChicago buildings by a longshot.Closing price
.millionWhat Griffin PaidNext Biggest Buy220 CPSFaenaHouseNo. 9Walton050100150200$250
In London, he purchased a $122 million mansion near Buckingham Palace last year. He has also had talks about purchasing an apartment at the Peninsula London, an under-construction condo project widely considered to be one of the city’s most luxurious, according to people familiar with the market.
In Los Angeles, luxury real-estate agents said Mr. Griffin has eyed several properties, including a $125 million Bel-Air mansion owned by plastic surgeon and rhinoplasty specialist Dr. Raj Kanodia and Owlwood, a historic Holmby Hills estate once owned by Sonny and Cher and listed for $115 million.
The coronavirus didn’t slow him down. In August, Mr. Griffin spent a combined $69.5 million to purchase three sites on Miami’s Star Island, a tiny enclave of roughly 30 homes and whose residents have included Rosie O’Donnell and Gloria Estefan, according to a person familiar with the deal. The sites included one that had been in contract to be sold to entertainer Jennifer Lopez and former New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, that person said.

Mr. Griffin bought a home on Star Island that had been in contract to sell to Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez.
PHOTO: ANTONY KEANE ALVAREZ FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mr. Griffin also owns an oceanfront home at the Four Seasons Hualalai resort in Hawaii, which he bought for just under $17 million in 2011. The property includes a roughly 5,600-square-foot Balinese style home with four bedrooms. He also owns an additional 4-acre site on the resort, which he bought for $11.38 million in 2009.
During the early months of the pandemic, Mr. Griffin remained mostly at his home in Chicago, while some of his traders holed up at the Four Seasons hotel in Palm Beach, where they were guarded by off-duty police officers from the Palm Beach Police Department hired by one of Mr. Griffin’s companies, Citadel Securities. No one other than employees of the company or the hotel were allowed inside the entire hotel, and the traders worked and slept there.
Real-estate industry veterans view the spate of deals—which dwarfs purchases by even prolific spenders like tech titans Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg—with a combination of wonder and bafflement. Why pay record-breaking sums for all these homes at a time when many speculate that the market was at its peak? Some said his individual spending has been so extreme that it may have actually served as a wide-ranging boon to the luxury market across the country, setting a new benchmark for values.

“When you add it up, for one person in this era it seems somewhat unprecedented,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel. “I think many people are scratching their heads, like we’re not sure what the plan is here.”
Mr. Griffin, who lives primarily in Chicago and is divorced with three children, declined an interview request. A person familiar with Mr. Griffin’s search said he often buys properties near his companies’ offices or family, and said his recent purchase on Star Island came in advance of Citadel opening an office in Miami in the next year or two. He isn’t investing for the short term or looking for quick returns, that person said.
Mr. Griffin’s spending has occurred amid a backdrop of success for his company. In recent years, his hedge fund Citadel has grown its assets under management to roughly $35 billion. Last year, its primary fund posted returns of 19.4%, beating industry rivals.
A spokesman for Mr. Griffin pointed to his philanthropy, noting that he recently donated $40 million to Covid-19 relief, specifically for personal protective equipment, humanitarian aid and funding for scientific initiatives. Mr. Griffin’s net worth is pegged at about $15.4 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“I don’t manufacture cars,” Mr. Griffin told The Wall Street Journal in 2015, “but we do manufacture money.”
Read on for a closer look at Mr. Griffin’s most impressive homes around the country and how their value has likely fluctuated.
In 2019, Mr. Griffin spent $122 million on this landmark Georgian mansion in London.
PHOTO: VANESSA BERBERIAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

London
Mr. Griffin made a major splash in London when he bought one of the city’s most expensive homes during the heat of Britain’s Brexit negotiations in January 2019, according to people familiar with the transaction.
At the time, the $122 million deal for the property, a landmark Georgian mansion overlooking St. James’s Park and the Mall, the ceremonial route leading to Buckingham Palace, was the most expensive sale to have closed in Britain since 2011. Mr. Griffin negotiated the price down from the original asking price of roughly $160 million.
The property is on Carlton Place, which has three mansions, the other two of which are home to the U.K. foreign secretary and to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Mr. Griffin’s was formerly used by MI6, the U.K.’s intelligence service, to interview recruits and had been recently revamped by British luxury real-estate developer Mike Spink.
“It was an extraordinary deal for the times,” said Jeremy Gee, managing director of London-based real-estate firm Beauchamp Estates, who wasn’t involved in the deal. “We were in the middle of Brexit, and there was so much uncertainty.”
Mr. Griffin has also eyed an apartment at the Peninsula London, an under-construction development less than 2 miles away. Designed by the leather-clad bad-boy architect Peter Marino, the 25-unit project has a private porte cochère, a 25-meter swimming pool, a screening room and a gym and spa. Mr. Gee called it one of the most important new buildings in the city.
He could “choose depending on the mood he’s in which one he wants to stay in,” he joked of Mr. Griffin.
Mr. Gee said the London luxury market has since been hobbled by Covid-19, since the high-rolling foreign buyers who power that segment of the market aren’t traveling to the U.K. to shop for real estate.
Last year, Mr. Griffin paid about $238 million for a New York apartment in 220 Central Park South. It is the priciest residential sale ever closed in the U.S.
PHOTO: KAT MALOTT/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
New York
Last year, Mr. Griffin grabbed headlines by closing on a deal he initially made in 2015 to pay about $238 million for an apartment in 220 Central Park South. It is still the priciest residential sale ever closed in the U.S., and is more than twice the record for a New York home.
Roughly 24,000 square feet across three floors, the apartment is the best in the city, many real-estate agents said, with unobstructed views of Central Park. It was delivered as a white box so Mr. Griffin could customize it to his tastes, according to people familiar with the deal.
The building, developed by Vornado Realty Trust, has interiors by Thierry W. Despont. The building has also drawn celebrities like the performer Sting and financial titans such as hedge funder Dan Och , The Wall Street Journal reported.
Real-estate experts said Mr. Griffin’s purchase helped fuel legislation that ultimately increased taxes on buyers of luxury homes in New York, and came to personify the issue of wealth inequality in the city.
“I consider that sale a watershed moment where politics and real estate intersected,” said luxury real-estate agent Donna Olshan. “It was significant not just for the price, but for the sentiment that was stirred up around it. It triggered a series of political events.”
Despite the building’s prestige, real-estate insiders believe the value of Mr. Griffin’s condo likely has suffered the effects of an oversupply of residential inventory along Billionaires’ Row, tax changes in New York that target buyers of luxury properties and the recent onslaught of Covid-19.
He decided to buy the units “at the height of the market in 2015,” Mr. Miller said. But the market “isn’t what it was.”
Mr. Griffin’s new penthouse is still under construction. Meanwhile, Mr. Griffin also still owns a full-floor apartment at 820 Fifth Avenue, a storied co-op building off Central Park, which he bought from philanthropist Lily Safra for $40 million in 2009, records show.
In 2015, Mr. Griffin paid $60 million for a penthouse apartment at Faena House in Miami Beach.
PHOTO: ALEXIA FODERE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Miami
Also in 2015, Mr. Griffin purchased a pair of apartments at the top of Faena House, a then under-construction condominium in Miami Beach, for $60 million. Though they have not yet been combined, the resulting penthouse is often cited as the most expensive unit ever sold in Miami.
He was one of a string of financial titans to buy in the building, including Apollo Global Management’s Leon Black and former Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein . They earned the building the moniker “Billionaires’ Bunker.”
The building was designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning firm Foster + Partners. Mr. Griffin’s roughly 12,500-square-foot apartment has nearly 10,000 square feet of terraces and a 70-foot-long rooftop pool.
Since then, the Miami condo market has taken a nosedive amid a flood of new inventory, and prices at the building have suffered. Some of the big names who have tried to sell their units have taken significant losses. Art dealer Larry Gagosian sold his apartment at the building for $12 million in 2017, a loss of nearly $1 million, and Mr. Black sold his unit at the building for $12.5 million, far less than the $16.5 million he paid, records show.
Mr. Griffin tried his own luck selling his unit in 2016, listing it for $73 million, but didn’t attract a buyer. The property has since been taken off the market.
“They thought they could get in early and get out early, but these out-of-towners got snookered,” said Peter Zalewski , a principal with real-estate consulting firm Condo Vultures. He added that Mr. Griffin’s unit has likely lost further value since then. While neighboring areas like Palm Beach have seen an enormous uptick in deal flow since the pandemic began, high-rise buildings in Miami Beach are still suffering, he said.
“This is like a worst-case scenario,” he said. “Not only did people overpay to be in that building, now you have this movement away from high-rise living.”
For roughly a decade, Mr. Griffin has spent roughly $350 million assembling parcels of land in Palm Beach into one of the largest private waterfront sites in the county.
PHOTO: PICTOMETRY
Palm Beach
For roughly a decade, Mr. Griffin has been buying parcels of land in Palm Beach to assemble one of the largest private waterfront sites in the county, with plans to build a grand estate. The total price tag: $350 million before construction.
Mr. Griffin has slowly pieced the land together, most recently paying $99.1 million for a mansion on 3.6 acres owned by former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt . The land is about a quarter of a mile south of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private club.
The land is about a quarter of a mile south of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private club.
PHOTO: ALEXIA FODERE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Local agents said Mr. Griffin’s activities in Palm Beach have lifted up the market and cemented Palm Beach as a place that can command nine-figure sums for luxury homes. That lift has been more recently compounded by the pandemic, which sent well-heeled New Yorkers fleeing to Florida in search of oceanfront homes.
“He has managed to bring more attention to Palm Beach than all the other billionaires combined,” said Gary Pohrer of Douglas Elliman, who has no connection to Mr. Griffin’s deals.
In 2017, Mr. Griffin broke the record for a Chicago home sale when he paid $58.75 million for a penthouse apartment atop No. 9 Walton.
PHOTO: GOOGLE MAPS
Chicago
Mr. Griffin broke the record for a Chicago home sale in 2017 when he paid $58.75 million for a penthouse apartment atop the No. 9 Walton, the city’s then under-construction luxury condo tower. Residents have access to an in-house car and driver, a gym, a sauna and a wine cellar.
Mr. Griffin made a deal with the building’s developer Jim Letchinger, to design a penthouse for him, increasing its size to four full floors from two, said Nancy Tassone of Jameson Sotheby’s Realty, who headed sales at the building. It would again be delivered as a shell so that Mr. Griffin could customize.
Meanwhile, Mr. Griffin maintains his former Chicago home, a massive full floor penthouse at the Waldorf Astoria private residences across the street, which he bought for $6.884 million in 2010, records show.
Local agent Ken Dooley of Compass, who wasn’t involved in the sale, said Mr. Griffin’s new penthouse is so unusual in its scale that it is hard to know what the resale value would be.
He noted that the downtown Chicago area where the building is located has been the center of unrest in the city following the killing of George Floyd, and many of the stores and restaurants closed because of the pandemic.
“At this point in time, you would not be in a good spot,” he said. “The situation downtown is taking the air out of the market a bit.”
In February, Mr. Griffin bought a 7-acre estate in the Hamptons for $84.45 million.
PHOTO: ALEXIA FODERE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Hamptons
In February, Mr. Griffin bought a 7-acre estate on Meadow Lane, an exclusive oceanfront enclave, for $84.45 million. The seller was fashion designer Calvin Klein.
The modern oceanfront compound comprises three buildings that are connected underground: a main building, a studio wing and a guest wing.
The property is on the site of an old mansion known as Dragon Head, which had been owned by the wealthy du Pont family and later by Jane Holzer, better known as “Baby Jane” or Andy Warhol’s muse.
Since Mr. Griffin’s purchase, the Hamptons market, which had been sluggish for about two years, has picked up dramatically because of the pandemic, as New Yorkers flee to less dense locales.
In Aspen, Colo., Mr. Griffin owns a pair of adjacent homes on Tiehack Mountain in the Maroon Creek Club, a golf-course community.
PHOTO: GOOGLE EARTH PRO
Aspen
In Aspen, Colo., records show Mr. Griffin owns a pair of adjacent homes with a combined 12 bedrooms on Tiehack Mountain in the Maroon Creek Club, a high-end golf course community. He pieced together the compound over several years, buying the first house for $10 million in 2013 and the second for $12.8 million in 2015, records show.
The estate has several wine rooms, two home theaters, fire pits and an outdoor pop-up screen for watching movies, according to a listing video for the property.
Values in Aspen have soared since the coronavirus pandemic, as wealthy buyers flee to the area for its vast open spaces.
In September, new signed contracts for homes priced $10 million to $19.99 million were up 800% from the previous year, while two homes sold for more than $20 million, according to a recent report by Douglas Elliman.

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Dowgrades - 9th of October 2020 V2(+)

>>> Up
* Amundi Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse; PT 70 euros (+)
* Axfood Raised to Hold at Handelsbanken; PT 205 kronor
* Campari Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; PT 8.50 euros
* DSM Raised to Outperform at Davy
* DWS Raised to Buy at Pareto Securities; PT 35 euros (+)
* Elisa Raised to Hold at Handelsbanken; PT 53 euros
* Enav Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse; PT 3.29 euros (+)
* IMI PT Raised to 1,270 pence from 1,055 pence at Jefferies (+)
* SEB Raised to Buy at Oddo BHF; PT 177 euros
* Standard Life Aberdeen Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
* Talgo Raised to Neutral at JB Capital Markets; PT 3.40 euros (+)
* Vidrala Raised to Buy at JB Capital Markets; PT 113.30 euros (+)
* Wihlborgs Raised to Buy at DNB Markets; PT 195 kronor

>>> Down
* Ahold Delhaize Cut to Hold at Jefferies; PT 25.50 euros
* Amadeus Cut to Underweight at JB Capital Markets (+)
* Close Brothers Cut to Sell at Investec; PT 970 pence (+)
* Learning Tech Cut to Sell at Goldman; PT 111 pence
* Renishaw Cut to Sell at Panmure Gordon; PT 4,481 pence
* Suedzucker Cut to Hold at M.M. Warburg; PT 15.30 euros (+)

>>> Initiation
* Aker Carbon Capture Rated New Buy at Pareto Securities (+)
* Carmila Rated New Hold at SocGen; PT 7.70 euros
* Deutsche Beteiligungs AG Rated New Buy at Hauck & Aufhaeuser (+)
* Hammerson Rated New Buy at SocGen; PT 43.90 pence
* Klepierre Rated New Buy at SocGen; PT 18 euros
* Naked Wines PLC Rated New Buy at Jefferies; PT 600 pence
* Vistry Group Rated New Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT 655 pence

>>> Call
* Ahold Cut at Jefferies as Run of Guidance Upgrades May Be Ending
* British Land Dividend Reinstatement a Positive Signal, MS Says (+)
* Cucinelli 3Q Positive, More Resilient Than Expected: Jefferies (+)
* DSM Upgraded; Animal Nutrition Unit to Drive Growth, Davy Says (+)
* Nordea, Swedbank Top Picks at Handelsbanken Ahead of 3Q (+)
* Novo Nordisk 3Q Pre-Release Is ‘Just Above’ Consensus: Jefferies (+)
* Pandora 3Q Pre-Release Beats Expectations, Citi Sees More Upside (+)
* SCA Downgraded at Jefferies, Risk/Reward Skewed to Downside (+)

>>> Stoxx 600 Pre-Market Indications

  • Zalando (ZAL TH) +6%
    • Zalando Lifts Outlook After Covid-Fueled Online Fashion Boom (2)
  • GN Store Nord (GNN TH) +3.7%
    • GN Raises 2020 Guidance for Audio Unit; Unchanged for Hearing
  • Carnival Plc (POH1 TH) +3.2%
  • BP (BPE5 TH) +2.1%
    • Oil Set for Weekly Surge With Hurricane Paralyzing Gulf Output
  • United Internet (UTDI TH) +2%
  • Kinnevik (IV6F TH) +1.4%
  • Rolls-Royce (RRU TH) +1.2%
    • Rolls-Royce Set for Record Weekly Gain on Bargain-Hunting Spree
  • Novo Nordisk (NOVC TH) +1.1%
    • Novo Nordisk Boosts FY Sales At Constant Exchange Rates View
  • Adyen (1N8 TH) +1%
  • Delivery Hero (DHER TH) +1%
  • Saint-Gobain (GOB TH) -0.5%
  • Lufthansa (LHA TH) -0.5%
  • Rheinmetall (RHM TH) -0.5%
  • Thyssenkrupp (TKA TH) -0.5%
  • ING (INN1 TH) -0.5
  • Continental AG (CON TH) -0.6%
  • Merck KGaA (MRK TH) -0.6%
  • Cancom (COK TH) -0.7%
  • Prysmian (AEU TH) -0.8%
  • DSV Panalpina (DS81 TH) -0.9%

>>> TradeGate Pre-Market Indications

DAX:
  • Bayer (BAYN TH) +0.7%
  • Deutsche Bank (DBK TH) +0.7%
  • Deutsche Post (DPW TH) +0.4%
    • Deutsche Post PT Raised to 54 euros at Deutsche Bank
  • Infineon (IFX TH) +0.3%
    • Watch Chip Stocks Again on NXP Beat, AMD-Xilinx Takeover Report
  • BASF (BAS TH) -0.3%
  • RWE (RWE TH) -0.3%
  • HeidelbergCement (HEI TH) -0.4%
MDAX:
  • Zalando (ZAL TH) +6%
    • Zalando Lifts Outlook After Covid-Fueled Online Fashion Boom
  • United Internet (UTDI TH) +2.4%
  • Hochtief (HOT TH) +1.5%
  • Shop Apotheke (SAE TH) +1.4%
  • Varta (VAR1 TH) +1.2%
  • Telefonica Deutschland (O2D TH) -0.4%
    • Telefonica Nears Deal to Spend $5.9 Billion on German Fiber
  • Freenet (FNTN TH) -0.4%
  • Aroundtown (AT1 TH) -0.6%
  • Fraport (FRA TH) -0.9%
  • Aixtron (AIXA TH) -1.1%
SDAX:
  • Global Fashion Group (GFG TH) +8.6%
    • DGAP-Adhoc: GLOBAL FASHION GROUP UPGRADES FULL YEAR 2020 OUTLOOK
  • 1&1 Drillisch (DRI TH) +5.4%
    • Expert Amends Draft on Telefónica Deutschland-1&1 Drillisch Case
  • LPKF (LPK TH) +2.2%
  • DWS (DWS TH) +1.2%
    • DWS Raised to Buy at Pareto Securities; PT 35 euros
  • Nordex (NDX1 TH) +0.8%
  • Deutz (DEZ TH) -0.3%
  • RTL (RRTL TH) -0.5%
  • Bilfinger (GBF TH) -1%

WSJ : AMD Is in Advanced Talks to Buy Xilinx

AMD Is in Advanced Talks to Buy Xilinx
Deal that could be worth more than $30 billion would mark the latest big tie-up in the rapidly consolidating ind

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD -0.21% is in advanced talks to buy rival chip maker Xilinx Inc., XLNX 0.15% according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that could be valued at more than $30 billion and mark the latest big tie-up in the rapidly consolidating semiconductor industry.

The companies are discussing a deal that could come together as soon as next week, the people said. There is no guarantee they will get there, especially given that the talks had stalled before recently restarting, according to some of the people.

AMD’s market value now tops $100 billion after its shares soared 89% this year as the coronavirus pandemic stokes demands for PCs, gaming consoles and other devices that use the company’s chips. Second-quarter revenue rose 26% to $1.93 billion, while net income jumped more than fourfold to $157 million on the back of record notebook and server-processor sales, AMD said.

The surge in AMD shares could embolden the company to make an acquisition using its stock as currency. Xilinx has a market value of about $26 billion, with its shares up about 9% so far this year, just ahead of the S&P 500’s 7% rise.

With a typical takeover premium, a deal would value the company at more than $30 billion.

AMD, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is led by Chief Executive Lisa Su. In addition to desktop and notebook computers, it makes components used in gaming systems such as Xbox and PlayStation that have been in high demand as the pandemic forces people to stay at home. It also has a growing data-center-processor business that increasingly rivals that of Intel Corp. INTC 1.33% , long the dominant player in that segment.

The addition of Xilinx, led by CEO Victor Peng, would put AMD on a more even competitive footing with Intel and give it a bigger position in fast-growing telecommunications and defense markets.

San Jose, Calif.-based Xilinx’s chips are used in wireless communications, data centers and industries such as automotive and aerospace. Its shares have been hurt by trade tensions between the U.S. and China, and namely the Trump administration’s limitations on shipments to China’s Huawei Technologies Co. because of security concerns. Analysts estimated Huawei accounted for roughly 6% to 8% of Xilinx’s revenue.

Xilinx makes microchips called field-programmable gate arrays, or FPGAs. Unlike standard chips, they can be reprogrammed after they are produced. That makes them valuable in rapid prototyping and in fast-emerging technologies where there isn’t enough time to go through a yearslong development process necessary for other chips.

FPGAs are commonly used in new superfast 5G telecommunications infrastructure, although they may be replaced later by standard chips once the technology is more mature. They are also often used in military communications and radar systems.

Intel is the other main player in the FPGA market, having built its business by acquiring Altera Corp. in 2015.

AMD, which specializes in central processing units that serve as computers’ digital brains, has been gaining share on Intel in recent years, releasing new generations of processors that match or beat its larger rival’s on many performance benchmarks. AMD had around a 20% share in personal computer CPUs as of the second quarter, according to Mercury Research, up from around 8% three years ago.

Consolidation has swept through the semiconductor industry as chip makers seek scale and expand their product portfolios to support the increasing number of everyday items that are connected to the internet. Xilinx, for one, has considered a number of potential tie-ups in recent years that didn’t come to fruition.

Should AMD and Xilinx reach an agreement, three of the year’s largest deals so far would be in the semiconductor industry, according to Dealogic data. Analog Devices Inc. in July agreed to pay more than $20 billion for Maxim Integrated Products Inc. and Nvidia Corp. in September agreed to pay $40 billion for Arm Holdings, the British chip designer backed by SoftBank Group Corp.

Mergers-and-acquisitions activity generally has been sluggish in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, with announced global and U.S. volume down 18% and 40%, respectively, according to Dealogic. Lately, however, it has shown signs of life as companies gain confidence to make big strategic moves. NextEra Energy Inc. recently approached Duke Energy Corp. with a takeover proposal that would likely value the North Carolina utility at well over $60 billion and count as the year’s largest deal.

That activity has confounded predictions that the looming election would cause deal makers to sit on their hands awaiting clarity on what kind of administration is likely to be calling the shots for the next four years.