>>> Infineon does not consider itself a takeover target

Infineon does not consider itself a takeover target

Infineon [IFX:GR], a German semiconductor group, does not consider itself to be a takeover target, Boersen Zeitung reported. In a wide-ranging interview Infineon Chief Executive Reinhard Ploss told the German daily Infineon is not a primary takeover target. Ploss said the groups price/earnings ratio is considered respectable by analysts and it is strong enough and well positioned in its core businesses.
Asked if he is prepared for a hostile bid from China, Ploss said he has communicated very clearly that Infineon intends to remain independent, and that this is very well understood in the market. Chinese investors, who do not normally have a hostile takeover strategy with high-tech companies, understand this, Ploss told the paper. Ploss also noted that the group is active in the security technology segment in Germany, and due to its US activities, the US authorities would also have a say in any takeover.
Infineon has a market cap of EUR 26.20bn.

WSJ : Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Makes Monster Bet on Bitcoin

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Makes Monster Bet on Bitcoin
Few mainstream investors have bought large sums of bitcoin, scared off by concerns about cybersecurity and liquidity

One of the biggest names in Silicon Valley is placing a moonshot bet on bitcoin.

Founders Fund, the venture-capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars of the volatile cryptocurrency, people familiar with the matter said. The bet has been spread across several of the firm’s most recent funds, the people said, including one that began investing in mid-2017 and made bitcoin one of its first investments.

Founders and Mr. Thiel are well-known for early investments in companies like Facebook Inc. that sometimes take years to come to fruition. The bitcoin bet is quickly showing promise. Founders bought around $15 million to $20 million in bitcoin, and it has told investors the firm’s haul is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars after the digital currency’s ripping rise in the past year.

It isn’t clear if Founders has sold any of its holdings yet. The bet hasn’t been previously reported.

Bitcoin vaulted last year from a fringe area of Wall Street interest to the most talked-about asset in the financial world. The digital currency started 2017 trading around $1,000, then shot to near $20,000 as individual and institutional investors alike ramped up speculating on its rise. From its all-time high reached in November, the price chopped almost in half over the next month. The cryptocurrency traded at $14,292 on Friday, according to CoinDesk, up 1,375% on the year.

Relatively few mainstream investors have bought large sums of bitcoin, scared off by concerns about cybersecurity and liquidity, as well as more mundane fears of investment losses. Even some of those who do own it are cautious about speaking too publicly, lest they draw the attention of hackers.

The recent price plunge has also spooked some. On Dec. 22, the prominent investor Michael Novogratz said he was delaying launching a crypto-focused hedge fund for outside investors, stating “we didn’t like market conditions for new investors.” South Korea announced last week it would crack down on cryptocurrency trading, an ominous sign given that the country at one point accounted for as much as one-fourth of global bitcoin trading activity.

Founders began buying in for its investors before the recent volatility, the people familiar with the matter said.

The billionaire Mr. Thiel is an outspoken libertarian who co-founded digital payments service PayPal Holdings Inc. and made headlines as a prominent booster of President Donald Trump. He previously ran a multibillion-dollar hedge fund focused on global macroeconomic trends, and had some success navigating the financial crisis before racking up investment losses by investing in safe havens and missing out on the subsequent rebound.

As a venture capitalist, Mr. Thiel and Founders fund are among the most successful in Silicon Valley. Founders has more than $3 billion under management and has taken stakes in more-than 100 companies, including Facebook, Airbnb Inc., SpaceX and Lyft. More recent investments include the crypto-focused hedge funds Metastable Capital and Polychain Capital, which puts money into blockchain companies.

Mr. Thiel made the decision to buy up bitcoin together with Founders’ other investment partners, a person familiar with the matter said.

By buying bitcoin outright, as opposed to backing other companies doing business in the space, Founders would seem to be breaking with its investing tradition, an investor said. But in communications with investors, Founders representatives have sought to cast the investment as a high-risk, high-reward wager similar to its other venture bets, the people familiar with the matter said.


The representatives have told firm backers that a cascade of cash into technology companies has stretched their valuations to historic highs, making stakes in startups as dangerous a risk as ever. Bitcoin, on the other hand, could multiply several times over in the coming years.

Thanks to its rise, the bitcoin investment is already estimated as the most valuable in the Founders’ most recent, $1.3 billion venture fund. People close to the firm said that the fund hasn’t made many investments yet.

Founders has also warned investors that bitcoin does share one potentially perilous similarity with more traditional venture capital investments: The digital currency could be worth nothing, or close to it, in the end.

>>> Siemens to gauge interest of relevant anchor investors, sovereign wealth fun

Siemens to gauge interest of relevant anchor investors, sovereign wealth funds ahead of Healthineers IPO (translated)
02 JAN 2018

Siemens [ETR:SIE] is to gauge the interest of sovereign wealth funds ahead of the planned IPO of its Healthineers unit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported. Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser told the German weekly in a wide-ranging interview that the listing will go ahead, market conditions permitting, in the first half of 2018, in Frankfurt.

Kaeser said that the size of the placement is the next decision to be made, and noted he intends to gauge the interest of relevant anchor investors, including sovereign wealth funds.

Asked whether sovereign wealth funds in Norway and China would be included, Kaeser said most important state funds would be covered as this would could bring anchor investors, though the free-float would be lower.

Kaeser confirmed Siemens would retain a majority share.

>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
Other news:
  • EGLT -15% (disclosed annual meeting on February 14; will vote on reverse stock split not less than 1-to-2 and not greater than 1-to-20),
  • WFT -9.8% (continued momentum following Friday's close of U.S. Hydraulic Fracturing business).
Analyst comments:
  • WIN -2.7% (downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan),
  • MRUS -2.3% (downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Mkts),
  • PCG -1.9% (downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Guggenheim),
  • IPG -1.9% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Macquarie),
  • COG -1.7% (downgraded to Underperform from Outperform at Raymond James),
  • SIRI -1.5% (downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan),
  • LULU -1.3% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup),
  • SLGN -1.3% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill),
  • CBS -1.2% (downgraded to Neutral at Macquarie),
  • PEN -1.2% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan),
  • JACK -1% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BTIG Research),
  • BMS -0.8% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill).

>>> Syros Pharmaceuticals enters into a clinical supply agreement with Janssen (

Syros Pharmaceuticals enters into a clinical supply agreement with Janssen (JNJ)
Janssen will supply daratumumab for a recently added combination dosing cohort in Syros' ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial of SY-1425, a first-in-class selective retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARa) agonist, in genomically defined subsets of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).
  • In exchange for providing daratumumab, Janssen will receive access to data from the cohort evaluating the safety and efficacy of SY-1425 in combination with daratumumab for its research and development programs related to daratumumab.
  • The study will continue to be sponsored solely by Syros. Enrollment in the combination cohort with azacitidine began last year and is ongoing.
  • Syros expects to begin enrolling patients in the combination cohort with daratumumab in early 2018.
  • Syros expects to present initial clinical data on both combinations in 2018.

>>> US Gapping up

Gapping up
Other news:
  • SNGX +11.7% (announces USPTO granted the patent entitled "Novel Peptides and Analogs for Use in the Treatment of Oral Mucositis")
  • DPW +10.6% (subsidiary CooliSys enters agreement to acquire Enertec Systems, a subsidiary of Micronet Enertec Technologies),
  • WATT +10.3% (Continued momentum from last week; Positive mention in WSJ; CEO sells 75K shares),
  • PLX +10% (announces interim data from the first 14 patients that completed, to date, the Company's phase II clinical trial of OPRX-106 (oral anti-TNF) in patients with ulcerative colitis),
  • EROS +8.1% (Continued momentum from last week's announcement that it is available on AMZN),
  • RENN +5.2% (Continued momentum from last week's acquisition announcement),
  • JMEI +4.4% (Continued momentum from Friday's earnings news),
  • BGNE +2.3% (initiates global phase 3 Trial of Anti-PD-1 antibody tislelizumab in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma).
Analyst comments:
  • BCRX +3.9% (upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Mkts),
  • TITN +3.7% (upgraded to Mkt Perform at William Blair),
  • ABT +2.5% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley),
  • INCY +2.4% (upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Mkts),
  • BT +2.2% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill),
  • STO +2.1% (upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Mkts),
  • JWN +1.8% (upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan),
  • NFLX +1.7% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie),
  • SYK +1.4% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan),
  • TER +1.1% (upgraded to Outperform from In-line at Evercore ISI),
  • MDT +1.1% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill ),
  • LB +1.1% (upgraded to Outperform at Robert W. Baird; tgt raised to $70).

>>> Early premarket gappers

Early premarket gappers
Gapping up:
  • SNGX +11.7%, DPW +10.6%, WATT +10.3%, PLX +10%, EROS +8.1%, WTW +6.1%, FRO +5.8%, RENN +5.2%, JMEI +4.4%, BGNE +2.3%.
Gapping down:
  • SLS -39.1%, EGLT -15%, WFT -9.8%

FT : Sky still game for Premier League matches despite Disney’s Fox bid

Sky still game for Premier League matches despite Disney’s Fox bid
Questions raised over broadcaster’s strategy with auction for TV rights set to kick off

For more than two decades, the English Premier League has relied on the financial might of Sky, with the company paying billions each time the league sold its much sought-after media rights.

But Walt Disney’s $66bn offer for the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox, including its 39 per cent stake in Sky, has raised questions about the broadcaster’s strategy when the next round of bidding for the UK rights kicks off in February.

The Disney-Fox deal will take at least a year to win approval from US regulators, so it will not have been cleared in time to sway what is expected to be a multibillion-pound auction. Sky and BT, the telecoms group, paid £5.1bn for the current three-year deal, representing a 70 per cent increase on the previous deal.

Both Sky and BT are expected to submit bids in the latest tender for football matches to run for three seasons between 2019 and 2022, though the league’s executives were playing down the prospect of a similarly large surge in value this time round even before news broke about the Disney-Fox deal.



This likelihood increased with the recent signing of a content-sharing arrangement between BT and Sky which will start in 2019. The agreement between the one-time rivals will allow Sky to offer the BT Sports channel to its satellite subscriber base and make Now TV, its lower cost streaming service, available to BT customers via the telecoms group’s set-top box.

“With this reciprocal content deal, we think there is limited incentive for either Sky or BT to bid aggressively in the auction,” UBS analysts wrote in a recent research note.

While this may affect the price Sky is prepared to pay for the Premier League, Mathew Horsman, analyst with Mediatique, says the company cannot afford to lose its grip on the rights. “It is too unsafe for Sky, whether it is owned by Disney or Fox, to rely on a wholesale arrangement with BT to deliver sport to its customers,” he says.

“Sky can’t afford to not have direct ownership of the rights. The margins are nowhere near as good and the risks are huge. What would happen if BT decided it didn’t want to renew [with the Premier League]?”

This round is also being affected by the prospect of a big technology company such as Amazon or Facebook gatecrashing the party — and driving up the price.

A significant clause in the Premier League’s tender for bids suggests it is already thinking of new media in its future. The league said its new rights packages would be available on a “technology neutral basis”, meaning it is open to showing matches exclusively online and widely seen as an invitation to digital giants to enter the fray.

The move is an indicator of future rights deals, with the league’s executives banking on revenue growth being powered by overseas rights deals, currently worth about £3bn. This could prove attractive to digital groups looking to build international streaming services.

“We would expect a bid for international content distribution rights to appeal more to these ‘over the top’ [digital] players, given the Premier League’s popularity around the world and the ubiquity of these platforms,” says Dhananjay Mirchandani, an analyst with Bernstein. “Owning domestic rights cannot be a strategic priority for them in the way that it is for Sky and BT.”


Executives at Sky have privately suggested that they would not be able to match the financial might of Silicon Valley giants should they compete for live sport. Amazon outbid the company this year to win exclusive UK rights to ATP men’s tennis world tour matches, while in the past few months, Facebook and Twitter have competed for global sports rights, from NFL games to Indian Premier League cricket.

But it is unclear how keen the technology players will be to acquire a set of rights exclusively for the UK. “They want global rights, not local ones,” says one senior media executive.

Still, with technology players flexing their muscles in sport — and with audiences increasingly watching television via streaming services — media companies know they need to act if they are to maintain their dominance of live sports broadcasting.

A Disney-owned Sky should give the media company more firepower to compete for media rights while the combination of Disney with Fox’s other entertainment assets, such as the US regional sports networks that it is buying, could create a world leader in sports broadcasting.

Disney already owns ESPN, the sports cable network, and has the right to screen marquee US sports such as the NFL and NBA basketball.

“Sky adds the next layer for Disney,” says Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis. “It is the biggest pay-TV operator in Europe. Sky and Fox had an arm’s length relationship . . . but if Disney owns 100 per cent there is no barrier to building a dominant position in rights . . . it’s a huge start on a global adventure.”