Costa, Waterstones, Mirror, Sky, TSB: your commercial news round-up
updated on 26 April 2018
It’s a tale of many takeovers this week, as you’ll see from below. Read on to discover more about the machinations related to buying and selling companies – as well as news that TSB is in an IT-related pickle:
- Costa is to be separated off from owner Whitbread to become its own entity, in a demerger prompted by investor pressure. Costa is the biggest coffee shop chain in the UK and second largest in the world.
- Interestingly, the investors in Whitbread pressing for change, Elliot Advisors, are the same group that have just bought Waterstones bookshop chain for an undisclosed sum.
- The government has signalled its intention to investigate the proposed £200 million takeover by Mirror of the Express and the Star. The deal has already been agreed by shareholders, but concerns around freedom of expression and “plurality of views” in the newspaper sector are of a sufficient level to prompt investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority.
- The proposed takeover of Sky by Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is under threat, with a rival £22 billion bid from US broadcaster Comcast now in the mix. As part of tis proposal, Comcast vowed to keep Sky’s HQ in London and guarantee the editorial independence of Sky News.
- On another theme altogether, TSB is continuing to have a terrible week; it has had to bring in IBM to sort out its online banking crisis, which has seen nearly 2 million customers unable to access their accounts online or via the mobile app. To appease the angry hordes, the bank has agreed to waive overdraft fees and interest charges for its retail and small business customers this month.
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