Fwd:>>> Publicis takeover by Capgemini rumours resurface (last week)

*DJ Accenture Announces Intention To Acquire French Digital Commerce Agency Altima 
--> it looks like that kind of news could be a trigger for CAP to move and do smthg

Omnicom higher in NY on numbers
Wecould see PUB outperform on that


Publicis takeover by Capgemini rumours resurface – report (translated)
04 OCT 2017
Rumours of a possible acquisition of French advertising group Publicis [EPA:PUB] by French IT consulting giant Capgemini [EPA:CAP] have resurfaced, French daily Le Figaro reported without citing any source.
The report cited Paul Hermelin, head of Capgemini, as saying that in order to improve and supplement the group’s offering in the marketing and digital sectors, he would rather build alliances with advertising companies
than acquire them.
Hermelin however added that because of the digital transformation of businesses and the digitalisation of the customer experience, companies like Accenture have become a competitor to advertising groups.
And if Accenture [NYSE:ACN] decides to acquire a major advertising company, then the shareholders and the markets would likely put strong pressure on Capgemini. Meaning that the company could have to think about how to “go into” advertising, Hermelin went on to say.
Capgemini has 200,000 employees and reported sales of EUR 12.5bn in 2016.

CNBC : Apple explored buying a medical-clinic start-up as part of a bigger push

Apple explored buying a medical-clinic start-up as part of a bigger push into health care
* Apple's health team was until recently deep in talks to buy Crossover Health, the venture-backed start-up that runs its on-site medical clinic.
* It's not clear if Apple wanted to own and operate a network of health clinics, like its retail stores, or simply partner to sell products with a health-related angle, like the Apple Watch

has considered an expansion into health care clinics, and had talks to buy a start-up called Crossover Health, which works with big employers to build and run on-site medical clinics, according to three sources familiar.

Crossover Health is one of a small number of companies that specialize in working with self-insured employers to provide medical and wellness services on or near to campus. Among its clients are Apple and Facebook.

Crossover also has clinics in New York and the Bay Area, and touts its digital features like same-day appointments via a mobile app.

The Apple-Crossover talks went on for months but didn't materialize into a deal, one of the sources said. Apple also approached nationwide primary care group One Medical, said two other sources.

Apple's 'connected health' moves will help the industry, says medical device CEO Apple's 'connected health' moves will help the industry, says medical device CEO

Crossover Health did not respond to a request for comment. Apple declined to comment.

The discussions about expanding into primary care have been happening inside Apple's health team for more than a year, one of the people said. It is not yet clear whether Apple would build out its own network of primary care clinics, in a similar manner to its highly successful retail stores, or simply partner with existing players.

It's also possible Apple will just decide not to make this move.

Some experts see a move into primary care as a way to build out its retail footprint. Apple's worldwide network of more than 300 stores has been one of its most important sales channels.

Canaan's Nina Kjellson, a prominent health tech investor who has no knowledge of Apple's plans, believes the move is plausible. "It would help build credibility with Apple Watch and other health apps," she explained.

"Apple has cracked a nut in terms of consumer delight, and in the health care setting a non-trivial proportion of satisfaction comes from the quality of interaction in the waiting room and physical space," she continued.

Richard Milani, chief clinical transformation officer at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, which was one of the first hospitals to use the Apple Watch as a patient health monitoring tool, agrees it might make sense.

"Such a move wouldn't surprise me as Apple has demonstrated that its interest in health care isn't superficial," said Milani. "Primary care is in great need of re-imagining and rethinking."

Apple has a lot of health-related projects going on

Apple is expected to make a big move into health care in the coming years. CEO Tim Cook has said recently that he sees health as a "business opportunity," rather than a philanthropic endeavor.

This guys says the Apple Watch saved his life after detecting an irregular heartbeat This guys says the Apple Watch saved his life after detecting an irregular heartbeat
19 Hours Ago | 00:59
"There's much more in the health area," he said in an interview with Fortune. "There's a lot of stuff I can't tell you about that we're working on, some of which it's clear there's a commercial business there."

In the U.S., the demand for primary care services is outstripping the supply of physicians. According to some estimates, there could be a shortage of up to 35,000 primary care doctors by 2025.

In recent years, Apple has hired dozens of doctors, health consultants and other medical experts, working on campus. As CNBC recently reported, it scooped up Stanford's rising star in digital health Sumbul Desai for a senior leadership role.

Apple is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on finding better ways to fast-track digital health software through the regulatory approval process. It is also partnered up with researchers at Stanford to determine whether the Apple Watch is accurate and sensitive enough to be used as a tool to screen for a heart rhythm disorder known as atrial fibrillation.

It has other research and development projects, including a team working on a sensor to non-invasively and continuously track blood sugar levels.

The companyis also working to make the iPhone the central repository for patient health information. Already, it has developed software tools for health developers to make it easier to recruit patients for clinical studies (ResearchKit) and share health information with third-party developers with consent (HealthKit).

FT : Airbus/Bombardier: more fear than love

Airbus/Bombardier: more fear than love
Boeing’s bleating has attracted the wolves of the aerospace world


Born today, Shakespeare would be in Hollywood, Bach on Broadway and Machiavelli would run an aerospace company. The Airbus deal to take over production of Bombardier’s C-Series aircraft, cash-free, is a transaction of such artful commercial malevolence it deserves applause.

Airbus controls more than half the global market for single-aisle jets, but only about a quarter of the US market. The C-Series is smaller than the jets that Airbus and Boeing make, but its cutting-edge efficiency made it a potential threat to both. Hence an antitrust complaint from Boeing that might have killed the plane, and Bombardier, with punitive tariffs.

A so-called screwdriver plant in Mobile, Alabama, is key to the deal with Airbus. American workers assemble parts that arrive from Toulouse into US-made planes in the A320 family. Final assembly of the C-Series at the same plant will result in a tariff-free product for US airlines. The prospect of manufacturing jobs in a Republican state is also a valuable investment in political capital.

Bombardier gets to survive, a position reflected in the terms. It and Investissement Québec hand over 50.01 per cent of the venture making the planes, retaining 31 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. Airbus also gets five-year warrants over 5 per cent of Bombardier stock. The Canadian manufacturer gets non-voting shares in the venture, paying a cumulative 2 per cent annual dividend — but guarantees to fund the first $350m of cash needs in each of the first three years.

Confronted by a duopoly with deep pockets, a good product is not enough. Bombardier’s weak balance sheet precluded loss-leading initial sales, or the sort of vendor finance that Boeing extended to the now failed Monarch Airlines. And airlines need to be confident that a supplier will thrive.

Airbus, which rejected a similar deal in 2015, could afford to wait. The company says it sees a market for 6,000 C-Series planes. A sign of commitment would be to kill off the A319 Neo, a small jet that has not attracted orders in years. Failure to do so will raise suspicions Airbus is a fox using a dying rival to damage the true enemy rather than a lion championing the Bombardier brand. Meanwhile, expect Boeing to raise competition concerns. Its own protectionist roaring appears to have led it into a trap.

FT : It’s all about the money

It’s all about the money

Everyone in the EU wants the British to pay up for Brexit

“Money makes the world go around,” goes the song in the 1972 film Cabaret.

Money, in the form of Britain’s Brexit “divorce bill”, is the chief obstacle blocking the start of UK-EU talks on transitional arrangements supposed to pave the way for a new, long-term partnership.

“This is all about money,” confirms one person briefed on the conversation that Theresa May held in Brussels on Monday over dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president.

This conversation was less of a fiasco than a Downing Street dinner in April. But it clearly failed to reconcile the two sides’ differences over the UK’s exit bill.

For the UK’s embattled prime minister, it is highly frustrating. As a German foreign ministry document obtained by Bloomberg indicates, Berlin is keen on a close UK-EU partnership after Brexit. It would cover foreign and security policy, counter-terrorism, criminal justice, energy, air transport, agriculture and much else. First things first, however: the money question needs an answer.

Mrs May thinks she made a constructive offer in a speech last month in Florence. There she implied that Britain would pay about €20bn, representing roughly two years of net contributions to the EU’s budget in 2019 and 2020, and would honour other unspecified financial commitments.

However, there is a snag, or rather two snags. EU leaders want the UK to set out its proposals in more concrete terms. At a minimum, they expect London to double its offer to €40bn before opening talks on the future EU-UK relationship.

On the British side, meanwhile, Mrs May is under pressure from hardline Brexiters in her government and Conservative party not to make more concessions to the EU27 — and even to walk away from the Brexit talks without a deal.

This willingness to embrace a “no deal” outcome strikes Sir Martin Donnelly, the former top civil servant at the UK’s international trade department, and many British business executives as reckless bravado.

Yet the EU will not lower its financial demands lightly. It is not just Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, the German and French leaders, who are playing hard ball.

As Henry Newman, director of the Open Europe think-tank, observes, everyone wants the British to pay up. “One of the things that I was told by the Polish foreign minister [Witold Waszczykowski] is that the EU27 may disagree on all kinds of things, but there’s one thing that they agree on, and that’s that the UK should pay as much as possible for as long as possible,” says Mr Newman.

This should surprise no one in the UK. Along with Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, Britain is one of the EU’s largest net budget contributors on a per capita basis. Some 18 of the bloc’s 28 states are net recipients (although the data are skewed for Belgium and Luxembourg, where the EU spends billions of euros on administrative costs).

Still, money is not the only issue holding up the Brexit talks. In EU eyes, internal UK political disputes make it mystifyingly unclear what sort of long-term relationship the British actually want.

Mervyn King, a former Bank of England governor, says the UK’s desire for a transition deal shows that Mrs May’s government scarcely knows its own mind. “It’s more of a kick-the-can-down-the-road plan to put things off for a period,” he says.

FT : Cohen-backed Quantopian starts fund for outside investors

Cohen-backed Quantopian starts fund for outside investors

The fund is an attempt to ‘crowd source’ engineers who devise trading algorithms

Quantopian, a “crowdsourced” hedge fund backed by Point72’s Steven Cohen and Andreessen Horowitz, has launched its first fund for outside investors that want to tap into its community of data scientists and programmers.

The Boston-based company provides a platform for computer scientists to try their hand at coding trading algorithms, awarding prizes to and licensing the best strategies.

In 2016 Quantopian started trading with modest amounts of its own money to test out the real-life performance and resilience of some of the algorithms, and this spring it began allocating some of the $250m promised by Mr Cohen, one of the hedge fund industry’s best-known figures.

But according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Quantopian has launched its first fund for external investors, which a person familiar with the matter said started taking in money this summer.

The company declined to comment on the fund launch, citing regulatory restrictions, but John Fawcett, its chief executive and founder, told the FT that the work that had gone into allocating Mr Cohen’s money to disparate but complementary strategies “has been like launching a nuclear submarine”, but that there was “a lot of excitement that we’re now up and running”.

Quantopian said it has more than 160,000 members — up by more than a third since the start of the year — from 190 countries, and had allocated more than $150m to over a dozen trading strategies on its platform. It declined to give a breakdown between Mr Cohen’s money and that managed by the nascent new fund, named 1337 after a popular alternative alphabet on the internet.

Several platforms that have all sprung up in recent years that hope to shake up the mainstream world of “quantitative” investing.

The war for talent is ferocious, given the competition for programmers and data scientists in Silicon Valley and other parts of the finance industry, where many institutions are pouring money into areas like artificial intelligence and data management

Quantopian and the likes of Numerai, Quantiacs and QuantConnect hope that by giving thousands of people with the right background around the world the tools to do so on the side of their jobs — or full-time from their basements — they can eventually compete with even the biggest quant hedge funds.

Many established quants are sceptical that a disparate community of individual freelancers can compete with the industry’s boldfaced names, but several prominent hedge funds — such as WorldQuant, Two Sigma and Man AHL — have dabbled with similar crowdsourced solutions to finding lucrative trading signals and promising talent.

Mr Fawcett said that the main focus in the coming months would be to use recent slugs of investment from prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Mr Cohen’s Point 72 to bring more data on to the platform for its members to parse. Work will also be done on an “emerging managers programme” to bring existing, but small, quant fund managers on to Quantopian.

“There’s high start-up costs in setting up new quant funds, especially on the data and execution side, and that is something we can help with,” he said.

>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance:
  • BMI -16.3%, SONC -4.6%, RWLK -3.6%, BRO -1.3%, HOG -1.2%
M&A news:
  • IPXL -7.3% (confirms deal to merge with Amneal Pharmaceuticals, reaffirms FY17 guidance)
Other news:
  • VICL -7% (files for $23 mln common stock offering)
  • VERI -1.7% (CEO tells Reuters the company may tap equity markets next year to fuel growth strategy)
  • FCAU -1.4% (reports Sep European sales)
  • RIO -0.7% (Rio Tinto reports Q3 production results with updated guidance)
  • ABEO -0.6% (prices 5 mln shares of common stock at $16.00 per share)
Analyst comments:
  • UNFI -2.4% (downgraded to Underperform at RBC Capital Mkts)
  • ERJ -2.1% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank)
  • ETN -1.6% (downgraded to Underperform from Buy at BofA/Merrill)
  • SEP -1.5% (downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman)
  • KALU -1.4% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank)
  • FCX -1.3% (downgraded to Sell from Hold at Deutsche Bank)

>>> US Gapping up

Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance:
  • DEST +21.3%, (Destination Maternity report Q3-to-date E-commerce sales +50%; operational initiatives are expected to deliver $10 to $11 million in run-rate savings beginning in fiscal year 2018), PSO +6.3%,TTS +3.6%, KMG +3%, (also commenced public offering of 2,600,000 shares of its common stock), UNH +1.6%, BCLI +1.5%, GWW +1.5%, MS+1.3%, GS +1.2%, JNJ +1.1%, NFLX +1%, OMC +0.6%, CSX +0.5%
M&A news:
  • SNCR +18.1% (Concludes strategic alternatives process; to Divest non-core assets through agreement to sell Intralinks Business to Siris)
  • MNGA +14.9% (announces the sale of an additional gasification unit for $1.58 mln)
  • SRAX +1% (has engaged financial advisors to explore strategic alternatives for the SRAXmd busines)
Other news:
  • DFFN +41% (receives final protocol guidance from FDA for a Phase 3 clinical trial with TSC)
  • EYES +20.4% (received approval from Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte)
  • IMDZ +7.9% (plans to initiate a pivotal Phase 3 trial to support a BLA for CMB305, a novel cancer vaccine, in patients with synovial sarcoma following 'productive discussions' w/ the FDA)
  • TRXC +6.8% (discloses that the clearance from the FDA for its Senhance Surgical Robotic System triggers an acceleration of the expiration date of the Series A Warrants to Purchase Common Stock to October 31)
  • RXDX +6% (EMA has granted Priority Medicines designation for entrectinib)
  • SAVE +5.3% (Spirit Airlines reports September traffic, provides updated Q3 guidance -- Q3 revenue per available seat mile is estimated to be down approximately 6.5% y/y)
  • TNXP +4.3% (receipt of official minutes from a chemistry, manufacturing and controls guidance meeting with the FDA regarding the CMC data required to support the Tonmya)
  • KALV +4% (10% owner/Director RA Capital Management dislclosed the purchase of 850K shares)
  • MDXG +1.8% ( has been notified by the FDA that its IND Phase 2B clinical study for osteoarthritis of the knee may proceed)
  • ULTA +0.7% (Director discloses the purchase of additional shares)
  • TEVA +0.7% (submits BLA to the FDA for fremanezumab),
Analyst comments:
  • TKC +3.4% (positive Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank comments)
  • CENX +3.2% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank)
  • BIIB +1.9% (upgraded to Buy at Mizuho; upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel)
  • EMR +1.5% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill)
  • NAVI +1.4% (initiated with Buy at Citigroup)
  • LRCX +1.4% (added to focus list at BofA/Merrill)
  • SFM +1.3% (initiated with Positive rating/$23 tgt at Susquehanna)
  • PSXP +0.8% (upgraded to Neutral at Goldman)
  • WEX +0.8% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at SunTrust)
  • CELG +0.5% (initiated with a Outperform at Bernstein)

Digitimes : Yield rates for iPhone X components improving

Yield rates for iPhone X components improving
Cage Chao, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 17 October 2017]
Yield rates for certain iPhone X components have improved and become more stable, and shipments of the smartphone are set to grow substantially after October, according to sources from Apple's supply chain.
The first batch of iPhone X devices has already been shipped out from Foxconn Electronics' site in Zhengzhou (Henan, China), said the sources. With production yield rates for certain key components such as 3D sensing modules improving, shipments of the device have increased gradually and will meet Apple's demand ahead of the Christmas and New Year's holidays, the sources indicated.
Chip deliveries for the iPhone X have been on schedule up to now, according to sources at analog IC vendors, which claimed they started to fulfill their orders for the device as scheduled in the third quarter. They were not aware of any production delays or shipment cutbacks as alleged in media reports, accordig to the sources.
On the whole, chip orders for new iPhone devices will grow through the fourth quarter of 2017, and will begin to slow down in the first quarter of the following year, the sources continued.
Nevertheless, the late availability of the iPhone X may not follow the same pattern if pre-orders for the device exceed expectations, other industry sources have remarked. There is still uncertainty about actual demand for the new Apple product, according to the sources.
As the schedule for the iPhone X deliveries is more than one month later than that for the iPhone 8/8 Plus, the former's shipments are unlikely to satisfy all demand until the first quarter of 2018, the sources noted.
According to Apple, it will begin to take pre-sale orders for iPhone X on October 27 and start delivering the devices on November 3.

>>> Prologis beats by $0.01, misses on revs; guides FY17 FFO in-line (64.92)

Prologis beats by $0.01, misses on revs; guides FY17 FFO in-line (64.92)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) core FFO of $0.67 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.66; rental revenues fell 5.2% year/year to $531.2 mln vs the $573.7 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
  • Co issues in-line guidance for FY17, sees core FFO of $2.79-2.81, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $2.81 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate and vs prior guidance of $2.78-2.82.
  • "Our third quarter results reflect strong market conditions and our customers' intensifying need for well-located logistics facilities...Taken together, the lack of available labor and land scarcity are becoming additional governors on new construction. These favorable conditions have elevated our mark-to-market. Our in-place rents are now below market by 14% globally and 18% in the U.S., extending our organic growth into the foreseeable future."

>>>Synchronoss Tech concludes review of strategic alternatives, will divest its

Synchronoss Tech concludes review of strategic alternatives, will divest its Intralinks Holdings subsidiary for approximately $1 bln (13.72)
The co announced that its Board has concluded its review of strategic alternatives and determined that the best approach for the Company to achieve its goal of maximizing shareholder value is to focus on its core Communications & Media business, divest non-core assets and improve the Company's balance sheet strength, cash position and potential profitability.
  • Under the terms of the definitive agreements, investment funds affiliated with Siris Capital Group, LLC will acquire all of the stock of the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Intralinks Holdings, Inc., for approximately $1 billion in consideration and make an investment in convertible preferred equity of Synchronoss in an amount of $185 million. Siris' investment would initially be convertible into approximately 19.8% of Synchronoss' common stock.
  • The acquisition of the Company's Intralinks business will be made pursuant to a share purchase agreement between Synchronoss and Siris, under which Synchronoss has agreed to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary, Intralinks Holdings, Inc., to Siris for consideration consisting of cash in the amount of approximately $977 million and an additional contingent payment of up to $25 million in cash. Synchronoss previously acquired Intralinks on January 19, 2017 for a purchase price of approximately $821 million.
  • The Siris convertible preferred equity investment in Synchronoss in the amount of $185 million is comprised of cash and stock. The stock portion consists of 5,994,667 shares of Synchronoss common stock that Siris previously purchased. The preferred stock will be convertible into shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $18.00 per share, provided that the number of shares of common stock issuable upon conversion shall initially be capped at 19.9% of Synchronoss's issued and outstanding common stock.