Saturday, January 01, 2005

2004 notable mergers by sector Banking Japan's Mitsubishi Bank (#2) acquires UFJ (#4). US's J.P. Morgan Chase (#3) acquires BankOne (#5). US's Wachovia Bank acquires SouthTrust. Spain's Banco Santander buys UK's Abbey National. A large number of smaller, regional US bank mergers, such as this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. Also some smaller international bank mergers. Finance Canada's Toronto Dominion bank buys US e-Trade, an online US broker. US Merrill Lynch buys Professional Brokerage, the US brokerage business of Dutch bank ABN AMRO. US insurer John Hancock completed its takeover of Canada's Manulife. Real estate General Growth, a US commercial real estate giant, buys Rouse Corporation. Services US law firms Hale and Dorr and Wilmer Cutler Pickering merge. International ad agency powerhouse WPP Group acquires Grey Global. Telephony Cingular Wireless buys AT&T Wireless. Sprint buys Nextel Wireless (USA). Mexico's Telmex buys Brazil's Embratel, the leading long distance company in that country. Canada's Rogers Wireless (#1 in country) buys out rival Microcell. Agribusiness US Cargill adds IMC Global's fertilizer business, making it the #2 fertilizer company in the world. Swiss-based Syngenta (#1 worldwide in seeds) buys US-based buys US seed company Golden Harvest. Tobacco Cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds (#2 in US) merges with British American Tobacco (#3 in US). Tobacco processing company Dimon (#2) buys #3 Standard Commercial. Beverages Japan's Asahi brewing and a partner acquire 50% of Tingyi, a leading Chine bottle tea and juice company. Danish Carlsberg buys Germany's Holsten brewery. Belgium's Interbrew (#3) buys Brazil's AmBev brewery. Bacardi buys Grey Goose liquor company. Coors buys Canada's Molson beer company. Constellation Brands buys US winemaker Robert Mondavi. Food US Wrigley acquires Spain's Joyco, a confectionary company. France's Danone took over Stonyfield Farms, a US maker of organic yogurt. UK's United Biscuits (#1 in the British market) buys the UK biscuit assets of France's Danone (#3). Spain's Ebro Puleva buys the US's Riviana Foods. US fish canner BumbleBee and Canadian fish canner Connors Bros. merge. US jam maker JM Smucker buys American Multifoods, which owns a set of grocery brands. US milk giant Dean Foods buys Horizon Organics, an organic dairy company. Defense and security General Electrics buys a number of small security-related firms including bomb detection equipment manufacturer, InVision. Media US Comcast (#1 in cable TV) buys cable channel TechTV. US media giant Viacom buys Germany's Viva Media, a TV production company. Sony Music buys BMG Music. Sony buys MGM Studios. NewsCorp buys Pegasus Satellite. Travel US hotel and casino company MGM Mirage acquires Mandalay Bay. US hotel and casino company Harrah's merges with rival Caesars Entertainment. Cendant buys US online travel booker Orbitz and UK's eBookers. Health US Abbot Labs buys US TheraSense, a maker of diabetes monitoring systems. Managed healthcare provider UnitedHealth buys out Oxford Health plan (edging out rival WellPoint). Major French drug manufacturers Sanofi and Aventis merge. Belgian UCB, a biotech firm, buys UK's Celltech. US generic drugmaker Mylan Laboratories buys US's King Pharamceuticals. Other, smaller drug and biotech mergers here, here, and here. A number of medical equipment acquisitions, here and here. Energy UK's International Power buys electric generating stations in Britain from the US's American Electric Power. US utility Exelon buys PSEG. US oil companies Kerr-McGee and Westport merge. Petroleum equipment maker National Oilwell buys Varco International. Singapore Power acquires Australian utility TXU Australia. Computers and electronics Oracle takes over rival PeopleSoft. US PC maker Gateway merges with US PC maker eMachines. China's Lenovo buys IBM's PC division. Software giant Symantec to buy Veritas Software. Cisco buys a number of smaller hardware and software firms. US Juniper Networks buys US NetScreen Technolgies, another maker of routers and switches. Taiwanese computer chip tester STATS (#4) acquires US ChipPac (#5), to make up the #2 company in its industry.. Retailing Kmart buys Sears. Italian optical company Luxottica (LensCrafters) buys the US's Cole National, owner of Pearle Vision. Wal-Mart buys Brazilian supermarket chain Bompreco. Albertson's supermarket chain (#3 in US) buys US assets of UK's Sainsbury, namely Shaw and Star markets. US Eckerd Drug chain split up, sold to CVS and Canada's Jean Coutu. US electronics chain Circuit City buys Canada's InterTAN home electronics chain. Industry and manufacturing International Paper acquires Box USA, a packaging manufacturer. Mexico's Cemex buys out the UK's RMC Group, both cement makers. Luxemburg-based Arcelor (a leading steel company) buys Brazilian steelmaker CST. Mittal Group, new #1 world steel firm over Arcelor, from a merger of Dutch companies LMN and ISpat companies, and an acquisition of US-based ISG. US Cyrtec buys chemical unit from Belgium's UCB. 6:15:30 PM

comment []