CSR is to merge with the US semiconductor firm SiRF in a move that will see the Cambridge-based Bluetooth company strengthen its position in the fast-growing GPS technology market.

Polyformes has acquired the Bedfordshire-based packaging manufacturer Performance Solution Packaging. PSP is one of the few companies holding an accreditation that enables it to supply to the Ministry of Defence  and the aerospace industry.

Payslip stationery and pressure seal equipment specialist, Economailer, has been acquired by Prolog Print Media.

Allport Packaging has acquired the assets and business of Arkadian Packaging.

More than 500 jobs across the UK have been saved following the sale of the retailer Greenwoods Menswear out of administration to Harvest Fancy Hong Kong, a subsidiary of one of China’s largest clothing retailers. Greenwoods Menswear has 92 stores throughout the UK, selling suits, shirts, ties and accessories and offering a wedding wear hire service.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has acquired Sustainable Finance, an international advisory firm focused on environmental and social risk management in the financial sector.  In the UK Sustainable Finance will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mercury Packaging has acquired the food packaging specialist Certiforms. The acquisition will enhance Mercury’s print capabilities, production efficiencies and technical expertise, and significantly increase its presence in the food industry.

Transactis, the transactional data provider, has been acquired by the direct marketing firm, CDMS.

dotMailer, the digital marketing agency, has been acquired by West End Ventures in a reverse takeover.  The company will be renamed dotDigitalGroup and its shares will be traded on the PLUS market.

Austin Reed has bought Viyella out of administration, saving 230 jobs. The womenswear manufacturer and retailer collapsed in January, and the deal means that although many outlets have been shut down, 21 Viyella stores and 16 concessions will continue to trade.

Virgin Group has sold its party plan cosmetics and skincare company Virgin Vie At Home to its management team for an undisclosed sum. Ros Simmons, Vie at Home’s chief executive, says, “With retail high street sales set to continue to struggle over the next year, we will be moving away from high street sales to a comprehensive direct to consumer model, involving e-commerce and direct mail.” The company plans to recruit and train new consultants and managers, review its existing product range and expand internationally.

Henderson Group is to acquire the troubled New Star Asset Management for £115m. Henderson says that it envisages making cost efficiencies through headcount reduction and transferring New Star’s business onto Henderson’s operating platforms. Andrew Formica, chief executive of Henderson, said, “Very rarely will you find an opportunity to significantly enhance your strategic position at compelling financial terms. New Star presents such an opportunity for Henderson and enables us to expand our footprint in our key markets, notably the UK retail market”.

In a deal worth £9m, Global Traffic Network is to acquire the commercial division of UBC Media Group.  The division supplies traffic and travel information to UK commercial radio stations.

After 259 years on the high streets of Britain, the name of Dollond & Aitchison is to disappear when the company merges with Boots Opticians later this year. The combined business will trade as Boots Opticians and will be the second-biggest player in the UK opticians market behind Specsavers, with around 690 practices, including about 210 franchises, and will employ more than 5,000 people. Alliance Boots will hold a controlling stake in the new company which will be jointly owned with the Italian eyewear specialist, De Rigo.

Unilever is to acquire the global TIGI professional hair product business from Bruno, Guy and Anthony Mascolo, the creators of Toni & Guy. Following the $411.5m acquisition, TIGI will operate as a stand-alone global business unit within Unilever. TIGI has operations in the US, the UK, Italy, Germany and Australia and its brands include Bed Head, Catwalk and S-Factor. The deal does not include the Toni & Guy salon business.

Pfizer is to acquire Wyeth in a $68bn deal that will create the world’s biggest biopharmaceutical company.

Britannia Building Society and Co-operative Financial Services are to merge, creating what the two businesses call a “super-mutual as an ethical alternative to shareholder-owned banks”. The merged business will be a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group and will have £70bn of assets, nine million customers, more than 12,000 employees and over 300 branches. The existing Britannia, Co-operative, Smile and Platform brands will be kept but a single product range is planned once the integration of customer systems is complete. The process of integrating the two businesses is anticipated to take three years and significant synergy benefits are expected from procurement and supplier savings.

Autonomy Corporation is to buy the US content management software specialist Interwoven in a $775m deal. Autonomy expects the combination of the two companies to provide significant cross-selling opportunities as well as synergies, specifically in the removal of duplicate administrative, marketing and other costs.

The customer service software specialist Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories has acquired the Canadian enterprise software firm Conseros.

Associated Newspapers has sold a majority interest in the London newspaper the Evening Standard to Evening Press, a company formed by the Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev. A new company called Evening Standard Ltd will be set up to publish the newspaper. Associated Newspapers’ parent company DMGT will retain a 24.9% stake in the business.

HMV has bought 14 stores from its ailing rival Zavvi. Zavvi’s adminstrator says that 269 employees will transfer across to HMV immediately and the 14 stores will be rebranded as HMV in the coming weeks. In a separate move, HMV is to enter the fast-growing live music market through a 50:50 joint venture with MAMA Group. The new venture, Mean Fiddler Group, will own 11 leading mid-to-large size venues across the UK, including The Hammersmith Apollo, The Forum, The Garage, The Edinburgh Picture House, The Birmingham Institute, Heaven, The Borderline and Moshulu. The venues within the joint venture had total revenues of £20.25m for the latest financial year. As part of the deal, HMV is paying MAMA an initial £18.2m.

The Rugby-based ultra-light electric vehicle manufacturer Aixam Mega has acquired the assets of NICE Car Company, the electric vehicle dealer that went into administration in November 2008.

The web hosting organisation UK2 Group has acquired Virtual Internet, which it plans to operate as a separate brand.

Bloomsbury Publishing has acquired Arden Shakespeare from Cengage Learning. Arden will become part of Methuen Drama, a division of Bloomsbury’s A&C Black. Bloomsbury has also purchased John Wisden & Co, publisher of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

The property investment firm Telereal is to purchase Land Securities’ property management arm Trillium for £750m.

Mergers and acquisitions 2008
Aspect, a US communications and contact centre software and services provider, has acquired the assets of Applied Information Management (AIM Technology), the provider of performance management software.

The British Computer Society has acquired the Bedford-based international publisher of automated testing software and e-learning material, Activ Training. BCS says that the move will significantly enhance the development of BCS end user and vocational qualifications and their delivery across the world.

Thomas Cook Group has acquired a majority share of the independent travel company Gold Medal International for £24.9m. The company sells its Gold Medal brand through independent travel agencies and also owns Netflights.com, which sells directly to consumers, and a luxury tour operator, Pure Luxury. Thomas Cook is incorporating its Flight Savers scheduled flights brand into the Gold Medal business, which it plans to operate as a standalone entity. Thomas Cook expects cost efficiencies and better distribution generated by the transaction to save it £4m a year.

Aviva has sold the vehicle checking business HPI to Solera Holdings Inc. HPI uses its database of UK vehicles to offer its customers services such as vehicle identity and keeper checks, mileage verification, finance status and valuation. HPI’s assets stood at £112m in October 2008.

Royal Bank of Canada is to acquire Mourant Private Wealth, the Jersey-based  private client trust business of Mourant. The acquisition of Mourant Private Wealth adds more than £3.5bn to the £63bn assets RBC Wealth Management has under administration in the British Isles.

The asset manager GLG Partners is to acquire Societe Generale Asset Management UK. SGAMUK manages assets of approximately $8.2bn.

Timpson, the shoe repair and key cutting chain, is buying 187 Max Spielmann and Klick Photopoint photo-processing shops out of administration, saving 545 jobs. The businesses were formerly part of Bowie Castlebank Group, which also owned the Munro Cleaners brand. Max Spielmann and Klick Photopoint are to be rebranded under the fascia “Max” and trade as a division of Timpson group, which will be headed by David Edwards, a former chief executive of Max Spielmann.

Ascribe is to be taken private by its management in a £32.9m deal that will see the healthcare IT systems provider leaving AIM.

The soft drinks firm Nichols has acquired 50% of Dayla Liquid Packing with the option of buying the remaining 50% in 2011 or 2012. The deal gives Nichols the opportunity to use Dayla’s new product development and juice manufacturing capabilities to allow it direct access to the growing premium juice market in the UK and overseas. Nichols markets the Vimto brand worldwide and the brands Panda and Sunkist in the UK, as well operating the Cabana, Beacon and Cariel draught cold drinks dispense businesses.

In a deal worth £1.8m, Carpetright has bought Sleepright UK, the bed retailer that currently operates from 93 outlets within Carpetright stores.

Compass Group has acquired the North American staffing firm KIMCO Corporation for $75m.

Esterline Corporation, a US defence industry supplier, is to acquire Racal Acoustics, the provider of military communications equipment, for £115m.

The oil explorer Imperial Energy is to be bought by India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp for £1.4bn.

Aberdeen Asset Management is to acquire the fund management arm of Credit Suisse Group in a £250m all-share transaction.  Aberdeen Asset Management says that the deal will enable it to make substantial cost efficiencies and enhance financial performance.

Brulines Group, the provider of real time monitoring systems and data management services for the UK leisure sector, has bought Vianet out of administration for an undisclosed fee. Based in Dunfermline, Vianet provides telemetry and data capture services to the vending industry. Brulines believes that combining the businesses should provide considerable cost savings, the opportunity to exploit pan-European market opportunities, and synergies with regard to devices, applications and connectivity.  

Ultra Electronics is to acquire Siemens Radmon, the Poole-based provider of neutron and radioactive detection sensors and systems, for about £5m.

Whittard of Chelsea has been sold out of administration to EPIC Private Equity Partners. The specialist tea and coffee retailer has 130 outlets in the UK.

Wyndeham Press has been acquired from its Icelandic shareholders by Walstead Investments, a company backed by Bank Leumi. The deal provides Wyndeham with new working capital and significantly reduces its debt. The company plans to make 163 redundancies, change employee terms and conditions and reduce its capacity in response to the downturn in the magazine market.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has acquired the UK biotechnology company Thiakis for an initial $30m, which could rise to $120m if certain targets are reached. Thiakis was founded in 2004 to focus on developing medicines for the treatment of obesity based on original research conducted by Professor Steve Bloom and his colleagues at Imperial College London. 

The packaging group Benson has acquired the order book and various trading assets of Cameron Linn, a food packaging company based in Glasgow.

Communisis has acquired the data services firm Absolute Intuistic  (Ai Data Intelligence) for up to £12.6m.

The German firm Aurelius is taking over Britain’s biggest mail order bookseller, Book Club Associates (BCA). The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Blacks Leisure, the retailer and wholesaler of outdoor wear, has agreed to transfer the operation of the O'Neill wholesale business in the UK to O'Neill Europe. The UK wholesale operation will become a full subsidiary of O'Neill Europe with the complete current sales force for the O'Neill brand in the UK transferring with the business.  Blacks will then concentrate on its core retail activities.

Card Factory has bought 76 of the 280 stores of the collapsed greetings card retail group Celebrations, saving 500 jobs. Celebrations owned the Card Warehouse and Card Fair brands and went into administration in November 2008.

The supplier of land and property search information Landmark Information has acquired the London-based three dimensional floor planning service Metropix for an undisclosed sum. Metropix generates its 3D floor-plans and building walkthroughs from 2D drawings and is the UK and Ireland market leader.

Home Retail Group, the owner of Argos, is to acquire the exclusive rights to the Alba and Bush electronics brands from Alba plc for £15.25m.  As a result of the deal, Alba plc, which also owns the brands Harvard Maritime, Goodmans and Grundig, will change its name to Harvard International plc.

RDF Media has agreed to be bought by a consortium made up of its senior management and the founder of Endemol, John De Mol.  The deal values the maker of Wife Swap, Location, Location, Location, Scrapheap Challenge  and  Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife at £52m.

Extreme Group, the extreme sports specialist that owns Extremepie.com, has bought the supplier of snowboarding and surfing equipment, Urban Surfer.

Sunquest Information Systems is to acquire Anglia Healthcare Systems, a provider of software development and support for primary and secondary care trusts.

Bibby Line Group has acquired Garic, a specialist manufacturer and hirer of equipment for the construction industry.

SSL International is to buy the Crest condom brand from its Swiss owners for £3.8m.  Garry Watts, SSL’s chief executive, said: “Crest is a strong brand in Switzerland and allows SSL to assume market leadership in another European market”. SSL is the owner of the Durex brand.

Internacionale Retail has bought the bulk of the business of the discount fashion retailer Mark One. Internacionale, which has 60 women’s fashion shops across the UK, takes on 85 Mark One stores, saving 800 jobs. In November Mark One was placed in administration for the second time this year.  In May the company, which was known as MK One at the time, was bought out of administration by Jet Star Retail and relaunched but it struggled to compete with much bigger rivals such as Primark and the supermarkets.

Associated British Foods, the owner of British Sugar, has agreed in principle to buy Azucarera Ebro, the sugar business of the Spanish firm Ebro Puleva.  Azucarera Ebro supplies 50% of the sugar consumed in Iberia. British Sugar is the second-largest sugar producer in the world, producing four million tonnes of sugar each year.

The Japanese company Mitsubishi Rayon is to acquire Lucite International Group for $1.6bn. Lucite was formed in 1993 by the amalgamation of the acrylics businesses of ICI and DuPont. It owns the Perspex and Lucite brands and is the world's leading manufacturer of methyl methacrylate, which is used in the manufacture of acrylic plastics.

Coca-Cola GB is to acquire Waters & Robson Holdings, the owner of Abbey Well natural mineral water. Abbey Well water is sourced in Morpeth, Northumberland, and will be bottled and distributed by Coca-Cola Enterprises. The Abbey Well site and its employees will be transferred to Coca-Cola Enterprises on completion of the deal. Coca-Cola GB also owns the Malvern water brand.

Private equity firm Carlyle has acquired the manufacturer of equipment and parts for the aerospace industry, Gardner Group. The company, whose customers include Airbus, Rolls-Royce, GKN and BAe Systems, was acquired from Dunedin and Rolls-Royce for an undisclosed sum.

The speciality cheese producer Ilchester Cheese has been bought by Tine, the largest Norwegian milk co-operative and best known in the UK as the maker of Jarlsberg cheese. With the brands Applewood, Mexicana and Five Counties, Ilchester is the leading producer of blended cheese in the UK. It also exports its cheese to 25 countries.

MPG Books has acquired the assets of Biddles, to form MPG Biddles, which it says is the largest independent book manufacturer in the UK.

Jeffersons, which offers private jet holidays, has bought the luxury holiday brand Aspire Holidays. Aspire was formerly part of XL Leisure Group, which collapsed earlier this year.

Laing O’Rourke heads a consortium that has bought most of Bison Concrete Products out of administration. The operating facilities in Burton, Falkirk, Swadlincote and Uddingston have transferred to the new company, Bison Manufacturing.

In a deal worth £1.1m, Hire Station, a subsidiary of the equipment rental specialist VP plc, has acquired the Brighton-based tool hire and sales company,  Power Tool Supplies.

The 40-year-old civil engineering and construction firm Toft Johnson has been bought by Wrekin Group.

Mortgage Broking Services has been acquired from Manchester Building Society by a rival mortgage network Network Data for £2.2m.

GIL Investments has bought the specialist flexible plastic film supplier Camvac from Amcor Flexibles.

QinetiQ has acquired the Oxford-based provider of tender assessment and management software, Commerce Decisions, for £9.85m. Commerce Decisions can count most government departments, the NHS and local authorities among its clients. QinetiQ’s chief operating officer, Clive Richardson, said that the acquisition “strengthens QinetiQ's consulting offering and complements our portfolio in capability definition and acquisition support”.

Wincanton, the logistics firm, is to merge its UK chilled business activities with Culina Logistics. The combined business, which turned over around £205m in the year 2007/8, will be majority-owned, managed and operated by Culina, with Wincanton owning 20%.

NCC Group, the provider of IT assurance, security and consultancy services, has acquired Next Generation Security Software for up to £10m.

Aviva has sold Auto Windscreens, the UK’s second-largest vehicle glazing company, to the German restructuring firm, Arques Industries.

Coexis, a developer of technology and applications for the global securities industry, is to be acquired by GBST, an Australian provider of software for the financial services sector.

Dolphin Computer Access has acquired Software Express Distribution. Both companies supply tools for vision-impaired computer users.

Britain’s sixth-largest building society, the Skipton, is to merge with the 17th-largest, the Scarborough. The merged society will have around 860,000 members and over £16bn of assets and be known as Skipton Building Society. The Scarborough, which was formed in 1846, has seen its profits dwindle in the current difficult economic climate and approached the Skipton with a view to the merger.

npower renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy, has acquired 50% of Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds from Scottish and Southern Energy. The Greater Gabbard site is located 25 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk and will comprise 140 wind turbines when it is completed in 2011.

The stockbroker Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Capital Markets has been bought by its management from the administrators of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander and renamed Singer Capital Markets. Kaupthing was one of the Icelandic banks that collapsed in September.

In a deal that is thought to be worth approaching £1.5bn, a consortium made up of Antin Infrastructure Partners, Deutsche Bank and Lloyds TSB is to acquire Porterbrook Leasing Company. Porterbrook owns a fleet of more than 5,500 trains and freight wagons that it leases to 17 of the 24 UK passenger train operating companies as well as the major UK freight operators. The company bought about a third of the UK rolling stock when British Rail was privatised.

BG Group is to buy Australia’s leading coal seam gas producer, the Queensland Gas Company, for £2.2bn. The acquisition will strengthen the British gas producer’s position in the important Asia-Pacific liquefied natural gas market.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and LCH.Clearnet, respectively the biggest clearing houses in the US and Europe, are to merge to create the world’s leading clearing house. The firms anticipate that synergies will save the merged group approximately 7- 8% of their current combined operating costs. A clearing house is the intermediary between two parties who are trading shares or derivatives and acts as a guarantor to the trade.

The travel industry software specialist Comtec Group has acquired the CRM software developer Pro EQ.

The Leeds-based IHR Group has acquired the parts of the recruitment firm Ellis Fairbank that deal with the energy, transportation, FMCG, oil & gas, construction, print & packaging, business services, HR, legal and medical business sectors.

The US risk management and corporate governance firm RiskMetrics Group has acquired Applied4 Technology, a specialist provider of investment performance measurement technology.

NWF Group has sold its garden centres division to Notcutts for £14.5m.

Synergy Financial Systems has been acquired for £2.5m by BBP, a Swiss-based subsidiary of the US payment systems firm Fundtech.

The US firm Kohler Global Power Group has acquired the Hungerford-based uninterruptible power supply specialist, UPS Systems.

Yorkshire Building Society is to take over the Barnsley Building Society. The Barnsley had deposited around £10m in two failed Icelandic banks, and while its reserves could cover the losses, its board feared that the news would lead to customers withdrawing their funds, so it approached its bigger rival for help. The combined society will be called Yorkshire Building Society, but the Barnsley’s identity and name will be retained in the Barnsley area.

Red Bee Media has bought the Spanish subtitling and audio description company Mundovisió. Red Bee Media, which was sold off by the BBC in 2005, is the market leader in subtitling, signing and audio description in the UK, France, Germany and Australia. It produces over 70,000 hours of subtitling each year, of which 20,000 hours are subtitled live.

William Hill has acquired an affiliate marketing business, customer services operation and gaming brands and websites from the gaming software firm Playtech. The bookmaker says that the acquisition will make the newly created William Hill Online the “leading European online gaming and sports betting operation and the clear leader in online gaming and sports betting amongst UK land based gaming and betting operators”. Playtech will own 29% of William Hill Online, with William Hill owning 71%. William Hill anticipates the capital expenditure, transaction costs and integration costs of the deal to amount to £24m and expects the integration to take six to nine months.

The vehicle rental broker Nexus Vehicle Rental has acquired the vehicle rental management arm of FMG Support. Nexus says that the acquisition, which is backed by ISIS Equity Partners, provides it with a significant growth in its customer base and complements its services.

In a multi-million pound deal, Stuart Garner, the owner of Norton Racing, has bought the trademarks and development work relating to the Norton motorcycle brand. Norton Racing is already developing a race bike and now plans to introduce a new road bike in 2009. Norton has also invested in a new 15,000 sq foot factory and office complex at Donington Park and intends to launch a licensing programme that will cover a variety of products including spare parts and clothing. Norton, seen as the quintessential British motorbike brand, was sold to a US firm in the 1990s.

AMEC has sold its UK wind development business, AMEC Wind Energy, to the Swedish energy firm Vattenfall for £126.6m.

Alliance Boots is to acquire the French pharmaceutical products distributor Depolabo. The Marseilles-based company operates four warehouses across France and has about 600 employees. The acquisition will accelerate the expansion of Alliance Boots’ pre-wholesale and contract logistics services in Europe and add to its range of added-value services for pharmaceutical manufacturers. Separately Alliance Boots has acquired a 90% stake in megapharm GmbH, a German distributor of oncology products that had a revenue of £235m last year. 

Symantec, the world leader in security software, has bought MessageLabs, the Gloucester-based provider of online messaging security services, for $695m. MessageLabs is the number one provider of online messaging security worldwide with more than eight million users.

Next has acquired Lipsy for an initial £17.4m. Lipsy distributes its young women's fashion products through various high street retailers, in catalogues and online.

After months of resistance, the research group TNS has reluctantly given in to a £1.1bn takeover by WPP. Earlier in 2008 TNS agreed a merger with its German counterpart GfK, but the deal was gatecrashed by WPP, which launched a hostile takeover bid for TNS.

The plastic and fibre products supplier Filtrona is to buy the Michigan-based foam products firm Lendell Manufacturing for $35m. Following the acquisition, Filtrona’s Bonded Fibre Components division is being renamed the Porous Technologies division and will include Lendell and Filtrona’s existing Fibertec business.

Springer Science+Business Media is to acquire the science, technology, and medicine publishing house BioMed Central Group.

Zenith Hygiene Group has agreed to be bought for £2.58m by a vehicle led by Zenith’s founder and former chief executive, Ringo Francis, who set up the supplier of detergents, hygiene papers and ancillary products in 1996. The company operates out of five distribution centres in Droitwich, Elland, Leicester, Swanley, and Welham Green and floated on the stockmarket in 2005.

The women’s fashion brand Ghost has been bought out of administration by Touker Suleyman, the managing director of the shirt maker Hawes & Curtis. There are more than 30 Ghost outlets and the brand will be relaunched in 2009.

The foodservice wholesaler and distributor Brakes has taken a majority stake in the Lisburn-based O'Kane Foodservice. Chief executive of Brakes, Frank McKay, says, ”We are committed to on-going investment in O'Kane Foodservice to ensure many more new Irish business opportunities are secured."

The advertising agency Doner Cardwell Hawkins has merged with the direct digital firm Squeeze Digital. The new company will be known as DCH and has clients that include Shell, The Economist and Nikon.

British Gas New Energy has acquired the low carbon solutions company Semplice Energy for £1.5m. Semplice Energy offers consulting, design and systems integration to help businesses reduce their energy usage and invest in the generation of clean energy. Gearoid Lane, managing director of British Gas New Energy, said: “This is another step forward in our development of a broad range of energy efficiency and low-carbon capabilities we can offer business and domestic customers”. 

The US electronic components distributor Avnet is to buy its British counterpart Abacus for £42.2m.

Bradford & Bingley has become the latest victim of the global financial crisis. The bank’s branches and its savings customers have been sold to Abbey for £600m and the rest of the business has been taken into temporary public ownership. Bradford & Bingley was one of the lenders most exposed to the UK buy-to-let market, which has all but collapsed. It was the last remaining independent bank among the former building societies that demutualised as a result of the Thatcher government’s Building Societies Act of 1986.

The publisher of the Harry Potter books, Bloomsbury Publishing, is to strengthen its position in the academic publishing market with the acquisition of Oxford International Publishers for £2m. Oxford International trades as Berg Publishers and produces books for students on the subjects of fashion, design and culture studies. Bloomsbury recently launched Bloomsbury Academic, which will focus on the humanities and social sciences.

Domiciliary Care Glasgow has been bought by the Baird Private Equity backed company Choices Holdings for an undisclosed sum. Choices provides supported living and residential care for people with learning disabilities. Clydebank-based DCG employs about 350 staff and provides services in five Local Authority areas in Scotland. Choices describes the acquisition as a “complementary strategic fit” that will extend both its services and its geographical footprint.

The Invensys subsidiary Invensys Rail Group has acquired the Florida-based Quantum Engineering, a signalling and train controls company, for $38m. As well as increasing the profile of IRG in the US, the acquisition will allow the British company to market Quantum’s technology globally.

The low-carbon energy company Eclipse Energy UK is to be bought by Vattenfall AB of Sweden for £51.5m.

Centrica is to buy Caythorpe Gas Storage from Warwick Energy for £70m. CGS owns the largely depleted Caythorpe gas producing field near Bridlington, which it has planning permission to convert to a gas storage facility with a capacity of up to 7.5bn cubic feet. Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, said: "With the UK rapidly becoming more dependent on imported gas, increasing the country's gas storage capacity is an essential element in giving our customers security of supply".

Global performance improvement company Grass Roots has bought the venue-sourcing company HBI, formerly Hotel Brokers International.

British Energy is to be bought by EDF in a deal that values the UK’s largest electricity generator at £12.5bn. The British government has put nuclear power at the heart of its energy policy and the purchase of British Energy will make EDF responsible for building four new nuclear power stations in the UK, as well extending the operational life of British Energy’s eight existing nuclear power stations. EDF is majority-owned by the French government. Centrica is in negotiations with EDF to become a 25% partner in British Energy.

Nomura, the Japanese investment bank, is to acquire the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of the collapsed Lehman Brothers. The deal will save 2,500 jobs and includes the Lehman Brothers offices in The UK, Netherlands, Qatar, Dubai, Kuwait, Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden. The deal does not include any trading assets or trading liabilities and Nomura will pay an undisclosed sum for the businesses. Kenichi Watanabe, Nomura's CEO, said: "Our immediate priority is to get the equity and investment banking divisions back in business operating under the Nomura name."

Lloyds TSB is to take over the ailing Halifax Bank of Scotland in an all share deal that values HBOS at £12.2bn. The merger will create the UK’s largest financial services group – Lloyds TSB also owns Scottish Widows and Cheltenham & Gloucester – and in other times would have been blocked by the Competition Commission, but the usual rules have been waived due to the unprecedented nature of the global financial crisis. The enlarged group will close hundreds of bank branches and tens of thousands of jobs are likely to go where there are role duplications, such as at head offices, call centres and in back office operations.

Beazley Group is to acquire Momentum Underwriting Management, a specialist personal accident and life underwriting management agency, for £20.6m. Beazley manages two Lloyd's syndicates and has an underwriting capacity of £814m.

NBTY Europe, the parent company of Holland & Barrett, has bought rival health food stores chain Julian Graves from the Icelandic investment firm Baugur. Holland & Barrett has 544 stores in the UK and Ireland and the group owns an additional 31 GNC-branded outlets. The purchase of the 345 Julian Graves stores takes the number of outlets in the group to nearly 1000.

In a move that will create one of the UK’s biggest biopharmaceutical companies, BTG is to buy Protherics in a deal that values Protherics at £218.1m. The companies anticipate that the merger will give the enlarged entity annual cost synergies of around £20m by 2010/11.

Barclays Bank has agreed to acquire the collapsed Lehman Brothers’ North American investment banking and capital markets operations and supporting infrastructure for £140m, and will be merging them into Barclays Capital. The deal includes approximately 10,000 employees, trading assets of £40bn and liabilities of £38bn. Barclays’ president, Bob Diamond described the deal as “a once in a lifetime opportunity for Barclays”.

Standard Life is to acquire Vebnet for £24.2m. Vebnet provides technology and managed services related to employee benefit programmes, including reward consultancy, benefit scheme design, communications, brokering, technology, helpdesk and outsourced administration. Sandy Crombie, group chief executive of Standard Life, said, "The combination of Vebnet and Standard Life will provide significant opportunities in the corporate market.  This is a rapidly evolving market and an increasingly important part of our business.”

GKN has agreed to acquire the UK wing component manufacturing and assemblies operation of Airbus, which is located at Filton, near Bristol. The £136m acquisition is described as having a “compelling” strategic logic by GKN’s chief executive, Sir Kevin Smith, who adds, “Filton is already a centre of excellence in metallic structures for Airbus and we intend to invest in the operation so that it also becomes a centre of excellence in composite wing structures serving the global aerospace market.”

Nestor Healthcare Group is to sell its social care franchise business Carewatch to the private equity firm Lyceum Capital for £37m.

Celador Radio Broadcasting has acquired the south coast station Original106FM from the Canadian media firm Canwest.

In a $1bn deal, the Scottish engineering group Clyde Blowers is to acquire the Fluid and Power divisions of the US firm Textron. The divisions comprise four companies: The Huddersfield-based David Brown Gear Systems; David Brown Hydraulics, which is based in Poole; Maag Pumps Systems, which has its headquarters in Switzerland and operates at eight locations in seven countries; and Union Pumps which has 10 locations in six countries, including the US, Canada, France and the UK. Union Pumps will integrate with the Clyde Blowers subsidiary Clyde Pumps while the remaining three companies being acquired will operate as separate entities within the Clyde Blowers Group.

August Equity has funded a £37m buy-in management buy-out of Accura Support Services, a provider of components to the oil and gas and aerospace industries. Accura operates two separate divisions, offering supply chain services through Linvic Engineering and Concept Steels, while Accura Geometric and Accura Geneva provide manufacturing support services and precision machined components. A spokesman for the private equity firm said, “The deal presents us with an opportunity to back a proven management team in a growing sector, and we are looking forward to working with the management team in continuing its growth.”

In an £80m deal backed by private equity firm Lloyds Development Capital, the vehicle management group Leasedrive Velo has been bought by its management team.

Taylor Wimpey has sold the UK business of Taylor Woodrow Construction to Vinci plc, the parent company of Norwest Holst, for £74m. Taylor Woodrow Construction’s focus is on its rail and infrastructure and facilities management activities and the disposal allows Taylor Wimpey to concentrate on its core housebuilding business.

Nationwide Building Society is taking over two of its struggling competitors, The Derbyshire Building Society and The Cheshire Building Society. The two smaller societies made separate approaches to Nationwide when they found themselves in financial difficulty as a result of the global credit crisis and the collapse of the UK housing market; The Derbyshire’s exposure to the sub-prime mortgage and commercial loan market gave it a pre-tax loss of £17m for the first half of 2008 while The Cheshire is to report a £10.5m loss for the same period, largely due to a single commercial loan. The merger creates an organisation with almost 15 million members, around 1,000 retail outlets, £191bn of assets and £122bn of retail deposits. Nationwide plans to retain all three brands.

Grupo Ferrovial is to sell Belfast City Airport to ABN Amro Global Infrastructure Fund and Faros Infrastructure Partners for £132.5m. Ferrovial is the owner of BAA, the operator of Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton Airports. In August the Competition Commission recommended that BAA should sell two of its three London airports.

Manchester City Football Club is to be bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates state. The deal is thought to value the club at around £200m. The new owners signalled their intentions to invest heavily in the club by immediately buying the Brazilian player Robinho for a British record fee of £32.5m.

The lottery machine firm Gamingking is to buy the fruit machine operator Orb Holdings through a reverse takeover. Orb supplies 17,000 amusement machines to pubs across the UK and is the second-largest operator in the sector. Following the takeover, the enlarged company will be known as Sceptre Leisure plc.

The security and transactional print services firm BemroseBooth has been acquired by the US private equity firm American Industrial Acquisition Corporation. The company’s products include tickets, labels, tags, gift vouchers, pre-paid cards for the telecoms industry and calendars for the business market.

Impress Digital has merged with Eaton Press Print Solutions, creating Icon Print Group.

e2v technologies, the specialist developer and manufacturer of hi-tech components, is to buy the California-based semiconductor firm QP Semiconductor for $65m.

The telecoms company Thus, owner of the Demon Internet brand, has been taken over by Cable & Wireless for £329m.

Liverpool Victoria, the insurance company that is also known as LV=, is to buy the car insurer Highway Insurance Group in a £150m deal.

Serco is to acquire SI International, a provider of information services, technology and outsourcing to the US Department of Defense and government agencies, for $423m. Serco supplies services in a variety of areas, including transport, local government, home affairs, defence, science, health and education, with 90% of its business coming from the public sector.

Imperial Energy has agreed to be bought by ONGC Videsh in a deal that values the London-listed oil exploration company at £1.4bn. When Imperial Energy joined the FTSE in 2004 it had a market capitalisation of just £2m. ONGC Videsh is a wholly-owned subsidiary of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and is the biggest oil and gas exploration and production company in Asia.

Crash barrier manufacturer Hill & Smith is to buy Creative Pultrusions Inc, a US manufacturer of glass reinforced plastic, for up to $21m.

Netstore, the IT security and outsourcing firm, has agreed to be acquired by the IT services group 2e2 for £58.1m.

Synchronica, the provider of mobile email and synchronization software, is acquiring the consumer mobile email technology firm AxisMobile.

Endless, the UK-based investment fund, is to acquire Crown Paints from Akzo Nobel through the funding of a management buyout.  The company owns the paint brands Berger, Crown, Macpherson, Sadolin and Sandtex. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

First Artist Corporation, parent company of Dewynters, the marketing, design and advertising agency focused on the live entertainment industry, is to acquire the US-based entertainment advertising agency SpotCo.

NBGI Private Equity has backed the buyout by Mainpaint of 17 Henry J Beans and Jamies wine bars from the struggling Food & Drink Group. The acquisition also includes 15 international sites and saves 300 jobs. Mainpaint is headed by Nick Tamblyn, the developer of the Tiger Tiger bar brand during his time as chief executive of Chorion.

The software firm Axon has agreed to be bought by the Indian group Infosys Technologies for £407m.

Sportsman Gun Centre, the mail order and internet retailer of hunting and shooting merchandise, has acquired the name and assets of D J Litt, the firearms specialist which collapsed earlier this year.

Teledyne has acquired the defence electronics business of Filtronic for £13m.

Italy’s NoemaLife Group has acquired Ferrania LifeWeb, including the Bracknell-based medical imaging business Ferrania UK.

NBC Universal has bought the British television production company Carnival Film and Television, the company behind Harley Street, Hotel Babylon and Poirot. Carnival will be merged into NBC Universal’s London-based international TV production division.

Aon is to acquire the reinsurance broker Benfield in a deal that values the London-based firm at £935m. Aon intends to integrate the Benfield business with its existing reinsurance operation, Aon Re Global, and operate the division globally under the newly-created brand, Aon Benfield Re. 

Vitec Group is to acquire the Hollywood-based manufacturer of LED-based lights for the broadcast and film industries, Litepanels. The transaction is for an initial £7.8m which could rise to £26.7m, depending on future profits. Gareth Rhys Williams, chief executive of Vitec, says that Litepanels has developed products that are “much more comfortable for the newscasters and actors to work with, and which dramatically reduce the energy required, both to operate the lights and to subsequently air-condition the studios”.

Disney Interactive Media Group has acquired the parenting website raisingkids.co.uk.

Oddbins has been sold by its French owner Castel Freres to an investment consortium headed by Simon Baile, the son of Nick Baile, the wine merchant’s former managing director.
 
AG Barr, the soft drinks group responsible for Irn-Bru and Tizer, is to purchase Groupe Rubicon for £59.8m. Rubicon produces a range of branded passionfruit, mango, guava, lychee, pomegranate and papaya juice drinks.

Northgate Information Solutions has agreed to acquire Anite Public Sector Holdings, Anite’s local government and secure information systems businesses, for £54.3m.

QinetiQ has acquired Dominion Technology Resources Inc, a provider of products and services to the US intelligence community, for $104.5m.

Synova Capital has bought The Lunan Group, owner of the luxury handbag and accessories brands, Fiorelli and Modalu.

Phoenix Equity Partners and Sirius Equity have invested £80m in LK Bennett, the womenswear, shoes and accessories designer and retailer. The investment will allow LK Bennett to open new stores and concessions in the UK, establish a retail presence overseas, develop the product range and explore licensing opportunities.

SSP Holdings, the insurance software provider, has agreed to be taken over by the private equity firm, Hellman & Friedman, in a deal that values the company at £198m.

Baugur has sold Woodward Food Services to Brakes Group for around £20m.

Dunelm Group, the homewares retailer, is to acquire the Dorma bedlinen and soft furnishings brand for £5m. Dunelm has 89 stores, 76 of which are out-of-town superstores.

BT has acquired Ribbit Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based telephony and internet technology business, for £53m.

British Airways is to merge with its Spanish counterpart Iberia. British Airways' chief executive, Willie Walsh, said: "The aviation landscape is changing and airline consolidation is long overdue. The combined balance sheet, anticipated synergies and network fit between the airlines make a merger an attractive proposition, particularly in the current economic environment.” Following the merger, both brands will be retained.

Tesco is to buy Royal Bank of Scotland’s 50% shareholding in Tesco Personal Finance for £950m. The acquisition is part Tesco’s strategy to increase its share in fast growing services markets including financial services, telecoms and internet/home shopping. Britain’s biggest retailer plans to expand Tesco Personal Finance's offering to that of a full service retail bank and anticipates profits of £1bn per annum – more than double current levels of just under £400m.

Communisis is to sell its subsidiaries Bath Business Forms and Economailer to the business’ management team for £12.8m. Economailer manufactures and sells specialised payroll products while Bath Business Forms produces business stationery.
 
The US firm WiFiMed Holdings is to purchase iTelecare, the UK provider of telecare and telehealth monitoring devices.

Audio Visual Machines, an audio visual and video conferencing systems specialist that counts BP, BT, eBay, Sainsbury’s and Virgin among its clients, is to acquire Matrix Display Systems, a provider of audio visual services to the UK education sector. The combined entity will have a turnover of £45m and 250 employees.

The magazine printer Pepper Communications is to acquire the Bristol-based commercial printer TL Visuals.

Pindar has acquired a 15% stake in Wren Press and is to merge it with Barnard & Westwood.  Wren Press supplies stationery to the royal family and other high profile celebrities and has showrooms in Chelsea, New York, Hong Kong and Dublin, while Barnard and Westwood is an 80-year-old fine art printer and bookbinder. The combined company will keep both brands and, with Pindar’s contacts, hopes to grow its business in the Far East and the US.

LG Harris, the manufacturer of paint brushes and other decorating products, has acquired the Norfolk-based John Palmer Brush Company.

Advent International, the private equity firm, has acquired Craegmoor Healthcare Group, the UK’s largest independent provider of specialist care for adults and younger people. Advent has allocated an immediate £13m to improve Craegmoor’s existing care facilities and plans both organic and acquisitive growth.

Spice has acquired British Power International, the Colchester-based provider of specialist engineering and consultancy services to network operators, generators, regulators, governments and funding agencies.

The US firm Gardner Denver is to acquire the compressor manufacturer CompAir for £197.5m.

Fidelity Equity Partners has funded a £33m management buyout of Picsolve International, the outsourced photographic systems and services provider for leisure attraction operators. The investment will fund Picsolve’s ambitious expansion plans in Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East.

RM Group, the provider of educational products and services, has acquired the specialist education software provider, Orchard Partners for up to £2.8m. Orchard Partners trades as EasyTrace.

XSN has taken over the marine telematics company MarineTrack and changed its own name to MarineTrack Holdings plc.

Porvair is to acquire Seal Analytical, a manufacturer of wet chemistry analysers for use in environmental and industrial laboratories, in a deal that values Seal at £3.8m.

Gooch & Housego is to acquire the US-based optical equipment manufacturer General Optics from GSI Group for $21m. 

Cayman islands-based insurer Ironshore is to buy the Lloyds syndicate manager, Pembroke Managing Agency, for £17m.

Barclays Private Equity has taken a majority stake in the travel management company ATP International Group in a £73m deal.
Biocompatibles has acquired the Connecticut-based medical devices business BrachySciences.

BAE Systems is to acquire Detica Group, the national security intelligence specialist, in a transaction that values Detica at £538m. BAE Systems is the world’s third-largest defence company and was formed in 1999 following the merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems.

Clapham House has sold its chain of Bombay Bicycle Club restaurants and delivery kitchens to Gourmet Restaurants Group for £4.4m. Gourmet Restaurants owns the Tiffinbites brand and has recently purchased the Indian food and restaurant group Vama and claims to be the largest Indian restaurant firm in the UK.

Alterian, the marketing software firm, is to acquire the web content software company Mediasurface.

The London property developer Minerva is to be taken over by Limitless, part of the Dubai World group of companies, in a £260m deal.

Private equity firm Lion Capital is to acquire FoodVest Group, the owner of the food companies Young’s Seafoods, Findus and The Seafood Company. 

Sanofi-Aventis is to buy Acambis in a deal that values the British vaccine firm at £276m.

Co-operative Group is to acquire Somerfield for £1.56bn. The combined business will be the fifth-largest food retailer in the UK with a market share of about 8% and will operate more than 3,000 grocery stores.

Britain’s seventh-biggest bank, Alliance & Leicester, has agreed to be taken over by Santander, the Spanish owner of Abbey, in a £1.26bn deal. 

Anheuser-Busch and Inbev, two of the world’s biggest brewers, are to merge. The combined company will be named Anheuser-Busch InBev and will own many of the leading global beer brands including Budweiser, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Leffe and Hoegaarden.

Thales UK is to buy the data security specialist nCipher in a transaction that values the Cambridge-based company at £50.7m.

Search agency Neutralize and digital agency Guava are to merge to form Guava UK.

Financial Objects is to be bought by Temenos UK, a subsidiary of the Swiss banking software company, Temenos, in a deal that values Financial Objects at £27.2m. Financial Objects supplies software to banking, wealth management and energy companies.

Aldgate Capital is to acquire HJM Caterers and E&J Hall Investments for £25m. The acquisition gives the company 31 gaming centres in the UK and forms part of the firm’s ambition to become a diversified gaming group that will include bingo, gaming machines and sports betting operations. Aldgate is to rename itself Praesepe plc.

Comtec, the travel technology supplier, has made two acquisitions: Atolis, a content management and CRM specialist, and a web design agency, Jamber.

BT Directories has acquired the online business directory Ufindus from Iomart for £20m. Ufindus employs 300 people in Lancaster, Chorley, Blackpool, Barrow and Huddersfield and turned over £14m in 2006/7. The acquisition is part of BT Directories’ aim to become a leading provider of consumer enquiries to businesses, and David Benjamin, CEO of BT Directories said, “Through Ufindus’ considerable expertise and experience in online classified advertising, we access further local classified product offerings, significant search traffic and new customers for this fast-growing part of our business”.

Rolls-Royce is to acquire Scandinavian Electric Holding, a Norwegian supplier of parts for diesel-electric marine propulsion systems, for £43m. The purchase will add new electrical, automation and control capabilities for Rolls-Royce and continue the British engine maker’s growth strategy in the marine market.

Stobart Group has bought the chilled and ambient goods operations of Innovate Logistics out of administration. Around 1,300 Innovate employees will transfer to Stobart, bringing the number of people employed by the group to 5,300, while the enlarged company will now have more than 1,800 trucks and 3,200 trailers.  

LDG is to be bought by the investment firm Laxey Partners in a deal that values the logistics group at £203m. Employing 7,000 people, TDG counts Sainsbury’s, Argos and French Connection among its clients.

Torex Retail Holdings, the provider of software and services to the retail sector, is to acquire the hospitality division of Alphameric. The division specialises in providing services to the hospitality market, such as front-of-house sales, back-office administration, supply-chain management and head-office control. Its clients include some of the UK’s leading food and drink companies. Alphameric will now concentrate on its interests in the bookmaking industry.

British Airways is to buy French airline L'Avion for £54m. L'Avion will be integrated into OpenSkies, BA’s new Paris to New York subsidiary airline.

The prepared and packaged salads firm Vitacress is to be bought by the Portuguese firm, RAR Group. Vitacress is best known for its watercress, baby leaf spinach and rocket salads. RAR employs around 3,700 people in Portugal, Germany, Spain, Poland and the UK and its activities include food, packaging, real estate, services and tourism.  

Reed Business Information has bought the online lead generation service Approved Index.

Oakley Capital Investments has acquired the international derivatives, equities and fixed income broker, Monument Securities.

SCS Upholstery, which sells sofas from almost 100 outlets across the UK, has been sold out of administration for an undisclosed sum to an affiliate of the private equity company, Sun European Partners. Prior to the sale, the company told its shareholders that its financial position was so dire that their investment in the company was worth nothing. The prospect of a dividend to SCS's unsecured creditors is uncertain, but the company now has sufficient funds to continue trading as normal.

Alentus Corporation, the US web hosting firm, has acquired London-based Areti Internet.

GlassHouse, the IT infrastructure consulting and services firm, has acquired the IT consulting business, TPP Group.  GlassHouse says the move is part of its continued drive to expand its storage management capabilities across the UK.

UTEK Corporation has agreed to acquire the London-based innovation consulting and insight firm, Innovaro, in a $3.6m transaction. UTEK is a business development company with operations in the US and the UK.

In a £95.6m deal, Phoenix Equity Partners is to acquire Ashtead Technology Rentals, a company that rents electronic equipment to the offshore oil and gas sector and the environmental monitoring and testing industry. 

Spotless Group has acquired the fabric dye company, Dylon International. Dylon’s brands include the de-scaler and limescale remover Oust and Lord Sheraton wipes and sprays.

BT has agreed to acquire Stemmer and SND. The Munich-based companies provide a range of IT and network services to corporate customers in Germany.

Point-of-purchase packaging firm Pop Displays has acquired the printer Rapide.

The printers Alden Group and HenDi Systems have merged to form Alden HenDi.

Balfour Beatty has made two acquisitions: the San Diego building firm Douglas E Barnhart for $116m and the German rail engineering group Schreck-Mieves for €36 million.

The plastics engineering group, Thompson Plastics, has been acquired in a management buyout. The company is a supplier of exterior panels, washrooms and shower cubicles to the motor home and caravan industry.

In a £20m deal, the logistics firm Imperial Multipart has been bought by its management team.

ZigZag fitness solutions has acquired rival children’s activity company ActivKids. ZigZag is part of PTE plc.

Irish packaging group, Zeus, has acquired All Purpose Packaging in a deal that brings Zeus’ annual turnover to over €80m.

The magazine publisher IPC Media has acquired Mousebreaker.com, the UK-based free-to-play games site. IPC Ignite managing director, Eric Fuller, says that Mousebreaker’s content is “complementary to our existing young men's brands, Nuts and Loaded.”

The Brazilian group, Marfrig, has bought the European and Brazilian chicken processing businesses of OSI Group, including Moy Park in the UK, France and Netherlands. The acquisition makes Marfrig the ninth-largest chicken supplier in the world, processing more than 8.5 million birds per week.

Goodform, the specialist sports sales and marketing company, has acquired sports market research company, SportsWise. SportsWise counts the Premier League, The Football League and the Rugby Football League among its clients.

ISIS Equity Partners has backed the management buyout of Traveljigsaw, the car hire firm.

NBGI Private Equity has backed the £16m management buyout of the specialist roofing and structural waterproofing firm, Rock Asphalte.

SCA is to sell its UK and Ireland conventional corrugated packaging business to the Spanish paper and packaging firm SAICA for £100m. However, SCA will retain ownership of its specialised value-added packaging operations in the two countries.

The engineering and manufacturing group, Tomkins, has acquired Trion Inc, a manufacturer of air quality products. The North Carolina-headquartered $25m acquisition will become part of Tomkins’ Air Systems Components division.

Henley Management College is merging with the University of Reading with effect from 1 August 2008.

De La Rue is to sell its De La Rue Cash Systems business, which authenticates, counts and sorts banknotes, to the US private equity firm The Carlyle Group for £360m. Following the disposal, De La Rue will focus on its banknote printing and banknote paper manufacturing business and return £460m to its shareholders.

Ultra Electronics has acquired ProLogic for $50m. ProLogic provides specialised IT and communications products and consulting services to US government departments.

Capita, is to buy IBS, a provider of software systems and related services for the management of social housing to local government and housing associations, for £77.7m. Capita says that its strength in the UK outsourcing market will “add further credibility and scale to IBS, allowing it to service a wider range of potential customers and projects.”

Renold is to acquire a 75% interest in the industrial chain business of LG Balakrishnan & Bros, the leading producer and distributor of industrial chains in India. Renold says that the deal will enable it to promote its product range in India's rapidly growing market as well as exploit new product, market and export opportunities.

Private equity firm, Cinven, is to acquire Partnership Assurance, one of the UK’s leading specialist providers of annuities, long-term care plans and life cover, for around £100m. Cinven says that it “expects to make significant investment in the staff, brand, infrastructure and distribution channels in order to drive long term value from this high growth segment of the financial services market.”

An investment consortium led by Babcock & Brown, AMP Capital Investors and Deutsche Bank is to purchase Angel Trains for £3.6bn. Angel Trains is one of three rolling stock companies in the UK and provides around 4,100 passenger trains and 280 freight locomotives to train operating companies including South West Trains and Virgin West Coast.

The US supplier of equipment for the corrugated and folded carton industries, MarquipWardUnited, is to acquire Bedford-based Apollo Sheeters.

Staples, the US office supplies firm, is to buy its Dutch counterpart, Corporate Express, for €3.1bn.

Ark-H Handling has acquired the St Albans-based response and fulfilment firm, Handling Matters.

The marketing services and advertising agency, Adventis Group, has acquired Second2, a seven-year-old technology marketing agency, for up to £10.5m. 

Wal-Mart is to sell Gazeley, the property development subsidiary of ASDA, to Economic Zones World, a subsidiary of Dubai World. Gazeley specialises in the development of distribution warehousing in the UK, mainland Europe and China, with its customers including retailers, logistics firms and manufacturers.

The accountancy firms Hillier Hopkins and Badger Hakim are to merge.

Global property consultancy Knight Frank has acquired Markham Vaughan Gillingham, a leading retail and leisure leasing practice with offices in London, Bristol, and Manchester.

In the largest deal of its kind in the last decade, Willis, the insurance broker, is to buy its smaller US rival, Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, for $2.1bn. The purchase significantly increases the scale of Willis’ operations in North America and the company expects to make annual savings through synergies of $140 million by 2012. Hilb Rogal & Hobbs is the eighth-largest insurance and risk management intermediary in the US.

Chelsea Building Society, the country's fifth-largest building society, is to merge with the Catholic Building Society.

MobiVentures, the provider of mobile applications, content and services, is to acquire the email marketing company Purepromoter for around £3.8m.

The Jordans breakfast cereal and cereal bar business is to merge with Associated British Foods’ Ryvita crispbread and healthy snacks business. ABF says that the combination of Jordans and Ryvita will give it a leading position in the growing natural ingredients and healthy eating market and will generate cost savings and provide new product opportunities. Jordans was started by Bill and David Jordan in 1972 and now exports its products to 17 countries around the world. Formed in 1925, The Ryvita Company leads the UK crispbread market and has extended its brand into crackers, savoury bagged snacks and cereal bars.

In a £53.2m deal, SMG has sold Virgin Radio to TIML Golden Square, part of the Times of India Group, one of India’s largest media companies. However, the Virgin brand name is not part of the deal and TIML will invest more than £15m developing and rolling out a new brand. Following the sale, SMG is now fully-focused on its Scottish-based broadcasting businesses. Richard Branson says that the Virgin Group is considering options to re-launch a Virgin Radio station on FM in the UK, as well as globally on the internet.

Deloitte, the administrator of the failed fashion retailer MK One, has sold approximately 100 of the 172 stores to Jet Star Retail, a company connected to Mark Brafman, the original founder of MK One. The administrator is continuing to trade the remaining stores under the MK One banner “whilst exploring the available options”.

Logistics specialist, Wincanton, has acquired Product Support, a provider of supply chain logistics and support services primarily to the aerospace and energy industries.

Irish bookmaking firm Paddy Power has entered the Northern Ireland market with the £19m purchase of Belfast chain of bookmakers, McGranaghan Racing.

In a £20.2m deal, the British defence firm Chemring has agreed to acquire Scot, a US firm that manufactures devices used in aircraft emergency systems.

Stiller Group has acquired the Barnsley-based James Durrans Transport, the bulk powder transport division of James Durrans & Sons.

Communications specialist Vanco has been bought out of administration by Reliance Globalcom, a subsidiary of the Indian telecommunications service provider, Reliance Communications.

Berkmann Wine Cellars has bought Vinoceros Wines.

Chicago-based InnerWorkings has acquired UK print management and marketing services company etrinsic for an undisclosed sum.

JJB Sports has acquired the fashion footwear firm, Qube Footwear. The purchase of the 22 store business complements the company’s recent acquisition of the Original Shoe Company.

Heidelberg is to acquire the 25-year-old UK- and Netherlands-based high-performance coating manufacturer, Hi-Tech Coatings.

Cityspace has acquired Kizoom, a provider of real-time transport information to the internet and mobile devices that counts Transport for London and National Rail Enquiries among its clients. Since 1996 Cityspace has been delivering information to the public through screens and touch screen terminals.

Robert Horne Group has acquired Vink Plastics UK, a national distributor that focuses on the sign, graphics and construction sector.

Birmingham-based RSM Bentley Jennison has acquired the audit, accounting and tax compliance arm of the accountancy firm Wenham Major out of administration. 

The high street optician chain, Vision Express, has acquired the
G C Bateman Group for an undisclosed sum. Batemans Opticians is a 100-year-old family-owned business with over 70 stores in the South of England and the purchase takes the number of Vision Express outlets to over 300 across the UK.

Cheshire-based Promotion Space Group has bought rival shopping centre commercialisation specialist Brandspace. Both companies organise promotions and marketing campaigns in shopping centres.

Zenith Vehicle Contracts has acquired Provecta, the Reading-based employee car ownership specialist, for an undisclosed sum.

The bidding war for British catering equipment manufacturer Enodis continues with the latest £1.08bn approach from the US engineering group Manitowoc trumping a previously agreed offer from Illinois Tool Works.

Elaine McPherson, the former chief executive of MK One, has bought the clothing retailer Ethel Austin out of administration. McPherson says, “I shall be undertaking a thorough review of the business to produce a strategy to transform the business’s trading performance and safeguard jobs. I want to return it to its former glory and that may well involve a revamp of the stores and the product range.”

Alterian, the provider of enterprise management software is to buy web content management software provider, Mediasurface. The transaction values Mediasurface at approximately £18.1m.

Hewlett-Packard is to purchase the IT services firm EDS for $13.9bn. Following the acquisition, HP intends to establish a new business group, to be branded EDS - an HP company. The combined entity will have an annual turnover of more than $38bn, 210,000 employees and provide IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing, applications, consulting and technology services in over 80 countries.

Cobham has agreed to purchase the radio frequency components and subsystems business of M/A-COM from Tyco Electronics for $380m.

British catering equipment manufacturer, Enodis, has agreed to be bought by the US industrial and engineering firm, Illinois Tool Works, for £1.03bn. The agreement trumps an earlier £948m offer for Enodis from another US engineering group, Manitowoc. The deal will create a global industry leader in the manufacture and marketing of food service equipment.

Saint-Gobain Building Distribution is to acquire the builders’ merchant, Gibbs and Dandy, for £43m. Gibbs & Dandy can trace its roots back to the nineteenth century and now has 11 branches across Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

In a deal worth £1.1bn, Best Buy, the leading US consumer electronics retailer, is to acquire 50% of Carphone Warehouse's retail business. The deal includes 2,400 stores operating in nine European countries under the Carphone Warehouse and Phone House brands, as well as Carphone Warehouse's share of its existing relationships with Best Buy, the firm’s web and direct businesses, insurance operations, and airtime reselling business. Carphone Warehouse will retain 100% of its TalkTalk, AOL Broadband and Opal fixed-line telecoms businesses in the UK and will use the proceeds of the transaction to repay debt and invest in broadband customer growth and infrastructure.

Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company is to buy London International Exhibition Centre Holdings, the owner of ExCel London, for £178m. Situated alongside Canary Wharf and London City Airport, ExCel London is the host of the London Boat Show, the British International Motor Show, London Book Fair and the London International Wine & Spirits Fair.

Directorbank, the headhunting company that focuses on private equity firms, has acquired Hanson Green, the non-executive search & selection firm, for an undisclosed sum.

Hornby, the maker of model railways, is to buy Corgi International, best known for its model cars, for £8.3m. The purchase complements Hornby’s existing product range, which includes Scalextric racing cars, Airfix models and Humbrol paints.

PepsiCo has acquired the British vitamin water brand, V Water, for around £10m and has put in place an exclusive bottling agreement with Britvic who will manufacture, sell and distribute V Water products across the country.

Taylor Nelson Sofres plans to merge with its German counterpart GfK to form what would be the world’s second-largest market research group by revenue. The merged group would be renamed GfK-TNS with its global head office based in London and a German one in Nürnberg.

United Drug has acquired Universal Conference and Incentive Travel and Business Edge Solutions & Training for up to £14.15m.

Barclays Private Equity has funded a management buyout of A-Plan Insurance, the broker that operates from a network of high street branches.

Balfour Beatty’s specialist airport investment and development arm, Regional and City Airports, is to acquire 95% of Blackpool International Airport for £14m. Blackpool Council owns the remaining 5% of the airport, which is forecast to handle about half a million passengers in 2008. 

Private equity firm RJD Partners has led a management buyout of Comtec, the supplier of software to the travel industry. 

The television production company Tinopolis is to be taken private by the private equity consortium Vitruvian in a deal that values the company at approximately £44.7m. Tinopolis’ brands include Mentorn, Sunset + Vine and Video Arts and its productions include BBC TV’s Question Time and coverage of the Grand National meeting from Aintree.

Biotechnology firm Antisoma is to acquire Boston-based Xanthus Pharmaceuticals for £26.8m.

Private equity firm, Gresham, has backed the £82.5m management buy-out of the East Midlands-based corporatewear provider, Johnson Clothing. The company is to be renamed Dimensions Clothing.

The private equity group, ECI, has acquired a £45m 60% stake in iLG Digital, the holding company for i-level, Generator Consulting and Premier Affiliate Network.

Healthspan has acquired rival vitamin supplements supplier, Healthy Direct, for an undisclosed “eight figure” sum.

Hillfoot Steel has been acquired by Edinburgh-based Murray Steels.

Travis Perkins, the builders' merchant, has acquired 30% of Toolstation, a direct retailer of tools and building materials. The £5m deal includes an option for Travis Perkins to buy the remainder of the company’s shares in due course. Toolstation was set up by Mark Goddard-Watts, a founder of Screwfix, and had a £21.4m turnover last year.

In a £362m deal, GlaxoSmithKline is to acquire Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, the US-based biopharmaceutical company which focuses on discovering and developing drugs with the potential to treat diseases associated with ageing.

Elementis has agreed to purchase Deuchem Co, a 30-year-old Taiwan-based supplier of additives and resins, for £40.4m.

ITE Group, the exhibitions specialist, has acquired Siberian Fair, an exhibitions business based in Siberia, for around £6m.

Henry Schein, an American provider of healthcare products, has acquired Minerva Dental, the Cardiff-based supplier of dental consumables and equipment.

Sarian Systems has been acquired by the US company, Digi International.

Dutch baking products giant, CSM, has acquired Harden Fine Foods, a supplier of mini-bite flapjacks, brownies, and cakes to in-store bakeries in supermarkets, for £6.4m.

Avesco, the media services group, has acquired Telecast Communications, including its Charter Broadcast Group subsidiaries, for an initial £2.1m. Charter Broadcast provides television broadcast equipment systems and digital radio camera systems to production companies and broadcasters and will be combined with Avesco's existing Presteigne business. The enlarged division will be renamed Presteigne Charter.

Beswick Paper has acquired Premier Paper for £19.1m.

Fenwick has bought the Colchester department store, Williams & Griffin.

Munro Group has sold its retail pharmacy division to Admenta Holdings, the owner of Lloyds Pharmacy.

Phoenix Healthcare Distribution has bought Munro Wholesale Medical Supplies.

CareTech, the provider of learning disability care services, is to acquire Beacon Care for up to £22.5m. Beacon Care provides specialist services for adults with learning difficulties at 16 homes in South East England.

The privately-owned confectionery and pet food manufacturer, Mars, is to buy the Wrigley chewing gum company in a $23bn deal.  Under the terms of the agreement, Wrigley will become a separate, stand-alone subsidiary of Mars and will take over the production of Mars’ global non-chocolate confectionery sugar brands, including Starburst and Skittles. Founded in 1911 and still owned by the Mars family, Mars manufactures and markets some of the world’s most famous brands, including Milky Way, Snickers, Uncle Ben’s, Pedigree, Seeds of Change and Whiskas.

Essentially Group, the sports marketing agency, has acquired the stadium perimeter advertising company, Sportseen, for £9m. Sportseen sells advertising space on fixed, scrolling and LED perimeter boards for Rugby matches at Twickenham, Murrayfield and the Millennium Stadium, as well as at seven Premier League football grounds. Essentially already owns Frontiers, the leading perimeter advertising company in cricket.

Melrose, the specialist manufacturing investor, is to acquire FKI in a deal that values the engineering group at approximately £478m.

The brewer Marston's has acquired Ryland Thompson and its subsidiaries, including Refresh UK. Refresh brews 50,000 barrels of beer a year, among them the brands Hobgoblin, Brakspear and Duchy Originals Organic Ale.

WNS Assistance has acquired Call 24/7, the Stockport-based vehicle insurance claims processing services provider, for £8m.

Cardif Pinnacle has acquired a majority shareholding in Warranty Direct, a provider of extended warranties for vehicles and electrical appliances.

The oil exploration company, Expro, has agreed to be bought for around £1.6bn by a private equity consortium led by Candover. Expro provides products to measure, improve, control and process flow from oil and gas wells and operates in over 50 countries.

o2o, the business supplies company, is to buy print management firm, TripleArc, for £12.4m. o2o is also known as office2office and Banner Business Supplies.

Icera, the Bristol-based wireless microchip firm, is to merge with Sirific Wireless, a Texas-based semiconductor firm that designs integrated circuits for mobile devices.

German biotechnology firm, Paion, is to acquire its Cambridge-based counterpart, CeNeS, for £10.9m.

Fox International Channels, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, has acquired a majority stake in the Windsor-based online advertising network, utarget.

Thomas Cook Group has acquired the luxury travel company Elegant Resorts from its founders. In 2007, Elegant Resorts carried more than 20,000 passengers and Thomas Cook intends to operate it as a standalone business.

Cake maker, Finsbury Food Group, has acquired Yorkshire Farm Bakery and A & P Foods for up to £8.9m. Both newly-acquired businesses are based in Hull and have been purchased from the Arnett family.

Colliers CRE has acquired the London-based property firm, Godfrey Vaughan, for £7m. 
 
Indian financial services firm, Religare Capital Markets, has agreed to purchase the 205-year-old London stockbroker Hichens, Harrison & Co for £55.5m.

Zetex, the Oldham-based provider of semiconductor products, has agreed to be bought by its US rival, Diodes, for £91.6m. Zetex was formerly known as Telemetrix.

ICAP, the interdealer broker, has agreed to acquire Link Asset and Securities, the specialist global equity derivatives broker, for an initial £135m.

JA Magson, the distributor of toys, stationery and seasonal products, has acquired the buying group Youngsters and the retailer Toyzone out of administration, saving 200 jobs.

Rok has acquired the Yorkshire-based building and regeneration specialist, Richardson Projects.

AAC Capital Partners has bought Lancashire-based textile manufacturer, James Dewhurst. AAC predicts ‘significant future growth’ for the 75-year-old business, which had a £42m turnover last year.

Exponent Private Equity and the company’s management have acquired Lowell Holdings, the specialist debt purchasing company.

Private equity firm, Bowmark Capital, has backed the management buyout of Datix, the provider of risk management and patient software to the NHS.

Xafinity, the employee benefits and pensions software firm, has acquired the specialist business process outsourcer, Hazell Carr. The combined group will turn over in excess of £125m and employ around 1,500 people throughout the UK.

Intertek, the quality and safety services specialist, has acquired 4-Front Research, a provider of analytical support services for consumer healthcare products.

Tyco International is to sell its Sheffield-based Ancon Building Products business to CRH for approximately £88m. CRH is an Irish building materials group.

In a £151m deal, Centrica is to acquire Strategic Energy, one of America’s largest suppliers of electricity to the commercial market.
AMEC, the engineering and project management group, is to acquire the Godalming-based project services company, Rider Hunt International, for £25m.

GCap Media, the owner of Capital Radio, Classic FM and Xfm, has agreed to be taken over by Global Radio for £375m. In June 2007, Global Radio acquired Chrysalis Radio for approximately £170m and owns the radio stations Heart, Galaxy and LBC. As a result of the takeover, GCap Media will be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange.

Satellite Information Services, the company best known for providing live coverage of horseracing events to betting shops, has acquired the BBC’s Outside Broadcast division as part of the privatisation of BBC Resources. The purchase includes a fleet of television production units, as well as sound, support and communications vehicles and cameras. The move means that SIS will be covering major sporting events for BBC television, including the Beijing Olympics.

Conchango, the AIM-listed consultancy and systems integrator that specialises in innovative technologies, has agreed to be bought by the UK division of EMC for £42m.

Carpetright has acquired Melford Commercial Properties, the parent company of Carpetworld Manchester, for £7.2m in cash plus £7.8m of net debt. The company plans to re-brand the 13 Carpetworld stores as either Carpetright or Storeys. Separately, Carpetright is also buying Ben de Graaff Tapijt, a Dutch retailer of floor coverings, curtains and blinds, for around €8m.

Call centre operator, The Listening Company, has bought The Essentiagroup, which employs 450 people in its Glasgow, Newcastle and Brora advice line contact centres.

Marketing services group, Loewy, has acquired the branding consultancy, Branded.

Private equity firm, Langholm Capital, has funded the management buyout of Tyrrells Potato Chips.  

In a £126m deal, Boosey & Hawkes, the classical music publishing group that controls the rights to more than 116,000 works by composers including Benjamin Britten, Prokofieff Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, has been bought by Imagem Music, the music publishing fund of All Pensions Group and CP Masters, the music publisher.

France's national postal operator, La Poste Group, has bought a majority interest in the mailing house and fulfilment business, BTB Mailflight.

Felix Group has acquired the butcher shop chain, Crawshaw Group, and changed its name to Crawshaw Group plc. 

EADS Astrium, Europe’s leading space company, is to acquire the designer and manufacturer of small satellites, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). The deal is thought to be worth around £45m and will provide the financial and industrial resources required for SSTL’s expansion and future development. SSTL was formed in 1985 by the University of Surrey to commercialise the results of its small satellite engineering research.

In a £2.5m transaction, Spice, the utility infrastructure support services company, has acquired Melton Power Services, a Melton Mowbray-based business that installs and maintains power networks for commercial clients.

Havas Media has acquired Cake, the independent branded entertainment agency.

Trinity Mirror has acquired the specialist sport web design and development agency, Rippleffect Studio, for an initial £3.2m

Man Group is to acquire a 50 per cent interest in Ore Hill, a New York-based hedge fund manager, for $195m.

John Menzies subsidiary, Menzies Aviation, is to acquire Novia Sverige, a ground handling business operating at Stockholm and Gothenburg airports. Menzies is paying €8.75m for the business.

The majority of Carter & Carter, the training group, has been bought out of administration by Newcastle College, a public sector educational college. The death of Carter & Carter’s founder and chief executive in a helicopter crash in May 2007 was followed by a series of profits warnings and the suspension of the company’s shares. The business was put into administration in March 2008.

G4S is to take over ArmorGroup in a deal that values the private security firm at £43.6m. Armor, whose chairman is the former British Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, provides protective security services to national governments, and is particularly active in Iraq.

Holiday camp operator, Pontin’s, has been bought by Ocean Parcs for £46m.

CME Group, the US derivatives exchange, has acquired the London-based provider of credit derivatives market data, Credit Market Analysis.

Legal & General is to take over Suffolk Life in a £62m deal.

Balfour Beatty has acquired the regional civil engineering and building contractor, Dean & Dyball, for £45m.

Smiths Specialty Engineering, a division of the listed technology firm, Smiths Group, has made two acquisitions: Fiberod, a Texas-based specialist in oil and gas lifting equipment and Indufil BV, a Netherlands-based specialist in filters for the petrochemical and process industries. 

AIM-listed Premier Research Group has agreed to be taken private in a transaction that values the pharmaceutical business at £60.1m. The new owners will be private equity firm, ECI, and the company's management.

SectorGuard has acquired the education, NHS, rail and shopping centre security firm, ManGuard.

Indian conglomerate Tata is to purchase the British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford for approximately £1.14bn.

WH Smith has acquired hospital retail outlet operator, UNS Hospitals, for £19m. UNS Hospitals trades as United News and has 72 retail units and 8 Caffe Nuovo coffee shops in 62 UK hospitals. Prior to the acquisition, WH Smith had a presence in 7 hospitals.

NetPlay TV, the interactive gaming company, has acquired Bingos.com, a pan-European online bingo operator with over one million registered players. As well as the bingo business, the £6.25m purchase includes a variety of online casino-style games, including slots, table poker, keno and blackjack.

Misys is to merge its Misys Healthcare business with the US firm Allscripts to form Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions. Misys will pay £165m and hold a controlling stake in the clinical software and services provider.

GCap Media has acquired a majority stake in the local social networking website company, welovelocal.com, for an initial £450,000.

Wellness Foods has bought the muesli and porridge maker, Dorset Cereals, for £50m.

Misys is to merge its Misys Healthcare business with the US firm Allscripts to form Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions. Misys will pay £165m and hold a controlling stake in the clinical software and services provider.

AIM-listed independent financial advisers, Lighthouse and Sumus, have agreed to merge to form a group with a turnover in excess of £80m and net assets of £22m.

Capita Group is to acquire IT services provider, ComputerLand, for £28.9m.

In a £50m deal, Hedra, the technology consultant to public services organisations, has been acquired by business process provider, Mouchel.

Formation, the provider of professional services to high net worth individuals and organisations, has acquired the talent management agency, James Grant Media Group, which counts Ant & Dec and Piers Morgan among its clients.

BSS Group, the specialist distributor of heating, ventilation and industrial supplies, has acquired Birchwood Group Holdings for an initial £18.4m. Birchwood is a distributor of construction-related products.

BAA has agreed to sell its airport duty free shop subsidiary World Duty Free Europe to the Italian caterer and retailer Autogrill for £546.6m. The sale raises some much needed cash for BAA’s Spanish parent, Ferrovial, which took on £9bn of debt to buy the airport operator in 2006.

The Stobart Group, the transport and logistics provider, is to acquire the Cheshire-based road transport firm, James Irlam & Sons, for £59.9m. In a separate £10m deal, Stobart is to acquire transport infrastructure engineering specialist, WA Developments. Stobart also has an option to buy Carlisle Airport for £15m, where, subject to planning permission, it plans to build a new logistics centre.

G4S plc, the international security group formed following the 2004 merger between Securicor and Group 4 Falck, has acquired the Rock Steady Group. Rock Steady specialises in stewarding and crowd management for stadium events, with a client base that includes Glasgow Rangers Football Club and Sheffield Arena.

Fine art storage firm, Momart, has been acquired by Falkland Islands Holdings for £10.27m. Falkland Island Holdings is a transport and logistics group. Momart stores and transports art works for institutions that include The National Gallery and The British Museum and artists such as Damien Hirst and Antony Gormley.

Private equity firm, Charterhouse Capital Partners, has taken a majority stake in Tunstall Group, the provider of telecare and telehealth services that support vulnerable people in their homes.

Barclays Bank is to buy Expobank for £373m. Expobank focuses largely on Western Russia and the acquisition is part of Barclays’ strategy of increasing its exposure to emerging markets with good growth characteristics.  

Flexible packaging company, InterFlex Group, has bought Sunderland-based EBR, a supplier of flexible packaging to the food industry.

Jelf Group has made three acquisitions: the Manchester-based Manson Insurance Group and two Devon-based insurance brokerages, Bartlett Davies Bicks of Paignton and Carter & Co Risk Management of Newton Abbot.

Palmer and Harvey, the UK’s largest wholesale distributor, has acquired WH & HM Young, a Leeds-based distributor.

Graphite Capital has backed a £95m management buy-out of Kurt Geiger, the luxury footwear retailer, from Barclays Private Equity.

Rapid Racking, the Gloucestershire-based shelving and storage specialist, has been bought by Manutan Group, the French industrial and office equipment supplier.

The Engine Group has acquired the direct marketing agency, Partners Andrews Aldridge, and its associate data planning company, Fuel.

British American Tobacco is to acquire the cigarette business of Denmark’s Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni in a £2bn deal.  ST has a 60% share of the Scandinavian cigarette market, and its premium brand, Prince, sells 7 billion cigarettes in 25 markets. The transaction includes the Swedish tobacco products firm, Fiedler & Lundgren.

Clarion Events, the exhibition, event and conference organiser, has been acquired by private equity firm, Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Clarion was spun out of Earl’s Court and Olympia in a management buyout in 2004 and operates 65 events and conferences across six sectors.

Reed Elsevier is to acquire US risk information firm ChoicePoint for £2.1bn and plans to combine it with its LexisNexis Risk Information and Analytics Group, creating a £750m turnover risk management business with a leading position in the fast-growing sector.

Private equity firm Bridgepoint has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Pret A Manger. The sandwich shop chain has 200 outlets and aims to expand this by about 15% a year with a view to transforming itself from a domestic to an international business, largely through increasing its US presence. The deal values Pret A Manger at £345m.

Debts.co.uk, the personal insolvency specialist, is to acquire PB Recovery for £1m.
 
The Jim Pattison Group, the owner of the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not attractions, has acquired Guinness World Records from HIT Entertainment.  First published in 1955, and formerly known as the Guinness Book of Records, Guinness World Records is published in more than 100 countries and 37 languages. Ripley’s is to open a 25,000 square foot museum in London’s Trocadero in August 2008.

In a deal worth £21.8m, Thomas Cook Group has agreed to acquire Hotels4U.com. Hotels4U has access to over 30,000 hotels and apartments world-wide, providing accommodation and resort transfers to over 500,000 customers a year.

Medical Solutions, the distributor of specialist products for applications in life sciences, diagnostic pathology and clinical research, has agreed to acquire Autogen Bioclear for up to £6m. Medical Solutions says that the acquisition will benefit the company through an expanded product offering, enhanced customer base, cross-selling opportunities and access to products and reagents at distributor prices.

Australian marketing services group, Photon, has acquired the communications strategy consultancy, Naked Communications.

Logicalis has acquired Iconium, a supplier of compliance, security and business intelligence tools.

Stylo has agreed to purchase the trading stock, brand name and some outlets of the collapsed Dolcis footwear chain from administrators, saving 300 jobs. Stylo owns the brands Barratts, Shellys and PriceLess.

James Galt & Company, the Cheshire-based toy firm, has been bought by US adhesives company, Elmer’s.

Fund manager, iimia MitonOptimal, is to merge with Midas Capital Partners, based in Liverpool.

City PR firm M:Communications has been bought by Sage Holdings, a company backed by US private equity firm The Riverside Company.  

Yule Catto has agreed to sell its speciality chemicals and hair dyes subsidiary, James Robinson, to Vivimed Labs of India for £10m.

Waste management company Biffa has agreed to be taken over for about £1.2bn by a private equity consortium headed by Montagu Funds and GIP.

Spire Healthcare, the private hospital group owned by private equity firm Cinven, is to acquire Classic Hospitals Group for £145m. The deal makes Spire, which was formerly known as BUPA Hospitals, the second-largest private hospital operator in the country.

Barclays Bank has agreed to acquire Discover’s UK credit card business for approximately £35m. Barclays intends to integrate the business, which includes the Goldfish brand and 1.7 million credit card accounts, into Barclaycard.

Ladbrokes has acquired Eastwood Bookmakers, Northern Ireland's largest bookmaker, for £117.5m.  The acquisition also includes Eastwood’s telephone betting business.

Whatman, the global supplier of filtration products, is to be taken over by GE Healthcare Life Sciences in a £363m deal.

Amazon is to become the largest shareholder in online dvd rental firm, Lovefilm. Consequently Amazon will exit the dvd rental market in the UK, and transfer its customer base to Lovefilm. The deal, believed to be worth in the region of £60m, will bring Lovefilm’s subscriber numbers to over 900,000, most of whom are in the UK and Germany.

Grainger, the UK's largest quoted residential property company, is to acquire a 54% shareholding in FranconoRheinMain, a residential property company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The purchase price is approximately £33m.

BT Expedite, the retail solutions division of BT, has acquired Fresca, a High Wycombe-based provider of e-commerce services to retailers.

In a £68.5m deal, private equity firm, Duke Street Capital, has acquired The Original Factory Shop, the Burnley-based value clothing and housewares retailer that has 84 outlets across the UK.

Cope Allman has bought Jaycare out of administration. Both businesses produce rigid plastic packaging for the healthcare and pharmaceutical markets. 

Tropus and Spicer Partnership have merged to form a new project management practice.

LBi UK, the digital agency, has acquired search engine optimisation firm, Netrank.

Harte-Hanks, the international direct marketing company, has acquired digital marketing agency, Mason Zimbler, for an undisclosed sum.

UK drinks firm Diageo is to acquire Rosenblum Cellars, a Californian producer of Zinfandel and Rhone wines, for £52m.

Direct marketing group, dsicmm, has acquired Manchester-based multimedia communications company, K2 Group.

Get Me In!, the reseller of tickets to arts and sporting events, has been purchased by Ticketmaster. The purchase comes in the wake of the recent All Party Select Committee's recommendation not to outlaw ticket touts but to look for a "middle way" in which the live entertainment industry works with resellers to ensure consumer protection. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Footwear retailer Stead and Simpson has been bought out of administration by a newly formed company which is backed by Shoe Zone. The sale saves 2,700 jobs and enables 309 stores to continue trading, but 37 loss-making outlets have been closed and are not included in the sale.

PZ Cussons, the personal care and household products firm whose brands include Carex and Imperial Leather, has acquired The Sanctuary Spa Holdings for £75m.  Sanctuary Spa comprises a range of beauty and body care products sold under The Sanctuary brand and the women-only Sanctuary Spa in London’s Covent Garden.

Derby County has become the latest Premiership football club to be taken over by foreign owners following its purchase by United States-based General Sports and Entertainment (GSE) for around £50m. GSE hopes to establish the Derby County brand worldwide through alliances with sporting teams in the USA, Far East and other territories. However, the initial aim must be to attempt to keep the team in the Premiership, where it currently languishes in bottom place with just seven points from 23 games.

Cadbury Schweppes is to sell its Monkhill Confectionery subsidiary, a manufacturer of sugar confectionery and popcorn for the UK market, to Tangerine Confectionery for £58m. 

Metalrax Group, the supplier of specialist engineering products, has acquired PGL for £3m. PGL is a Kentucky-based manufacturer of isolated electrical power systems.

A management buy-in funded by Icelandic investment firm Baugur is to purchase the women’s fashion chain Whistles from Mosaic Fashions.

Scottish & Newcastle, the British brewer that owns the brands John Smith’s, Strongbow, Kronenbourg 1664, Foster’s and Newcastle Brown Ale, has agreed to be taken over Carlsberg and Heineken for £7.8bn.

NCC Group, the Manchester-based provider of independent IT assurance, security and consultancy services, has acquired Escrow Europe Holdings of Amsterdam, for up to £7.8m.

The German rail operator Deutsche Bahn has entered the UK passenger rail market with the purchase of Laing Rail, the owner of the Chiltern Railways franchise.

Interactive mobile entertainment and information specialist, WIN, has acquired Pocket Group, a provider of entertainment content and marketing services to more than 50 mobile operators across the world.

Logistics firm Wincanton has acquired Hanbury Davies, a UK market leader in container operations with 21 locations across the country and a workforce of 780.

Tenon Group, the AIM-listed business turnaround, recovery, restructuring and insolvency specialist, has acquired Haines Watts Business Recovery.

British aerospace and defence firm Cobham continues its US expansion with the £212m purchase of Sparta, a company that offers a range of scientific, systems engineering and technical assistance services to the US military and intelligence community. 

Trinity Mirror has acquired The Career Engineer, an online job board specialising in the engineering profession. It was acquired for an initial £1.9m. 
 
Media planning and buying agency, BLM (Booth Lockett Makin), has been acquired by Havas and becomes Arena BLM.

John David Group, the sports and leisurewear retailer also known as JD Sports, has acquired branded fashion retailer Bank Stores Holdings from Phoenix Equity Partners for £18.5m. Bank owns 49 retail outlets across the UK.

Metavante Technologies, a US provider of banking and payments technology, has acquired Nomad Payments, a London-based prepaid and debit card processing and software firm. Nomad will be renamed Metavante Technologies Limited. The purchase price was £29m.

Investment company, Insite Service Management, has purchased Orbis Property Protection for £49m. Based in Uxbridge, Orbis is an empty property and neighbourhood improvement group.

Aerospace group, Meggitt, has acquired Danish ceramic sensor materials manufacturer, Ferroperm, for £10m. 
 
Bonar Floors, a subsidiary of Low & Bonar, has purchased Westbond, a producer of carpet tiles, for up to £10.9m. Bonar Floors expects to benefit from cross-selling of products between the two businesses, as well as making cost savings through synergies.

Scottish & Southern Energy is to acquire Dublin-based renewable energy company Airtricity for £1.08bn, including debt. Airtricity develops and operates wind farms in the UK, Ireland, continental Europe and China and supplies electricity to mainly commercial customers in Ireland. The acquisition makes Scottish & Southern Energy the largest wind farm operator in the UK and Ireland.

The Financial Times has bought Money-Media, a New York-based online financial news provider and conference organiser. The FT said that the acquisition would strengthen its position with one of its core audiences, fund managers, and with advertisers seeking access to them.

QinetiQ, the defence and security technology company that was formerly part of the Ministry of Defence, is to purchase two Australian defence consulting businesses, Ball Solutions Group and Novare Services. The two acquisitions are being made for a total of £8.8m and are part of QinetiQ’s strategy to grow its capabilities in Europe, Middle East and Australasia.

Online direct marketing group TMN has agreed to acquire Dutch digital direct marketing firm TAPPS for up to £7.94m.
 
BUPA, the private healthcare company, has bought US health information and disease management firm Health Dialog. BUPA says the £310m deal will enhance its existing capabilities in the areas of health information and chronic disease management.

News International has sold its marketing services and database specialist, Broadsystem, to Skipton Information Group, the owner of EuroDirect, Callcredit and GMAP Consulting.

The Mission Marketing Group, the AIM-listed marketing communications and advertising group, has acquired marketing communications firm RLA Group for an initial £9.5m.

Luxury handbag brand Radley has sold a majority shareholding to Exponent Private Equity, in a secondary buy-out from Phoenix Equity Partners that values the business at £130m. 

Towry Law, the private and corporate wealth adviser, has acquired Hazlems Financial, a London-based employee benefits and financial planning consultancy.

MF Global, the American futures and options broker, has acquired ChoiceOdds, an independent UK-based financial binary trading firm.

Kansas-headquartered mobile media distributor Handmark has acquired smartphone games development studio Astraware.

Premier Group has acquired Interactive Technologies, a specialist UK manufacturer and worldwide exporter of whiteboards and plasma/LCD overlays for the corporate and education markets. Premier will run Interactive Technologies alongside its Sapphire brand of projection screens and accessories.

Mergers and acquisitions 2007
Emap is to be bought by Guardian Media Group and private equity firm Apax Partners for £1bn. Following the recent sale of its consumer division, Emap’s activities include events, information products and professional publications, such as Retail Week and Fleet News.

BT is to acquire Singapore’s Frontline Technologies Corporation for £70m. Frontline provides IT consulting, infrastructure services, systems integration and IT outsourcing to customers in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.

HR software group Northgate Information Solutions is to be taken over by US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in a £593m deal.

Willmott Dixon is to buy Inspace in a deal that values the social housing specialist at £148.2m. Founded in 1852, Willmott Dixon is one of the UK’s largest privately-owned construction companies.

Carillion is to buy Alfred McAlpine for £572m. The move creates one of the UK's largest support services and construction companies with revenues of approximately £4.7bn. As a result of the deal, Carillion expects to achieve cost savings of £30m by the end of 2009.

Darwin Private Equity has acquired sports nutrition company Maximuscle for £75m.

Sisu Capital has taken over Coventry City Football Club, with a promise to make available £20m for the development of the club.

TMN has agreed to take over rival online direct marketing firm Internet Business Group.

Tradus, the internet auction site that was until recently known as QXL Ricardo, has agreed to be bought by MIH Internet, a wholly-owned subsidiary of South African TV and internet group Naspers. The acquisition values Tradus at approximately £946m.

Microsoft has acquired UK online mapping service Multimap. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Multimap will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft, as part of the Virtual Earth and Search teams in its Online Services Group.

In a deal worth £225m, BAE Systems is to acquire MTC Technologies, an Ohio-based provider of services to the US military and intelligence agencies that employs around 3,000 people.

PacificNet is to acquire Guildford-based supplier of gaming technology and systems, Octavian International.  PacificNet is a Nasdaq-listed provider of gaming and mobile game technology, e-commerce and CRM solutions.

Benson Group, the independent manufacturer of printed folded carton packaging, has acquired Gateshead-based Integrated Packaging, creating an £85m turnover business with over 700 employees.

Trinity Mirror has bought property publisher Globespan Media for up to £5.9m, dependent on profits.

Australian marketing services group Photon has acquired London-based brand experience agency Sledge.

Aqualux, the UK-based manufacturer and distributor of bath screens and shower enclosures, has been bought by AFG Arbonia-Forster of Switzerland. AFG also owns the brands Miele and Kermi.

Synergy Healthcare, a provider of outsourced healthcare support services, has acquired Vernon-Carus for £24.4m including debt. Vernon-Carus supplies infection control and decontamination services to the NHS.

Hydrogen is to take over rival recruitment firm Imprint in a £47.5m deal.

Senior has acquired Absolute Manufacturing, a manufacturer of precision machined parts, based in Arlington, Washington State, for £7.1m.

Halma, the safety, health and sensor technology group, has
acquired German manufacturer of medical devices PP Medizintechnik and its subsidiary Riester for £39.3m.

Cobham is to purchase the Pennsylvania-based Surveillance and Attack business unit of BAE Systems for £120m.

Sports goods retailer JJB Sports has acquired the Original Shoe
Company from Sports Direct International for £5m. The company sells a range of branded clothing and footwear through 60 stores based mainly in the north of England and Scotland. JJB plans to convert some of its smaller JJB outlets into Original Shoe Company stores.

In a deal that values the company at £906m, oil rig operator Abbot Group has agreed to be acquired by Turbo Alpha, a company controlled by US private equity outfit, First Reserve Corporation.

HSBC is to acquire The Chinese Bank of Taiwan. The Chinese Bank has 36 branches and over one million customers in Taiwan.

Cardiff-based British Biocell International has agreed to be taken over by Inverness Medical Innovations in an £83.7m deal.

Spice Holdings is to acquire Saturn Energy, a Liverpool-based commercial energy broker, for up to £9m. Separately, Spice also enters the Scottish gas services market with the purchase of Gas Heating UK and its subsidiary, Gas Call Services.

BTWShiells and The Eric Cairns Partnership have merged to form the largest property consultancy firm in Northern Ireland.

As part of its strategy of expansion in the consumer healthcare market, Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to buy US-based cough mixture firm, Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, for £1.1bn. Slough-based Reckitt Benckiser has a market capitalisation of around £10bn and counts Gaviscon, Lemsip, Nurofen and Strepsils among its leading brands.

Pace Micro Technology is to acquire the set-top box and connectivity solutions business of Royal Philips Electronics. The transaction values the business, which employs approximately 335 staff mostly based in France, at up to £68m, and makes Pace one of the world’s leading set-top box manufacturers.

Emap has sold its Emap Consumer Media and Emap Radio operations to German magazine publisher H Bauer for £1.14bn. Brands being sold include Closer, FHM, Grazia and Zoo. 

In a £79.5m deal, Viridor Waste Management, a subsidiary of Pennon Group, has acquired Kent-based materials recycling company, Grosvenor Waste Management.

Weir Group has agreed to acquire CH Warman Pump Group, a specialist African pump business, for £113m.

ITV has acquired the independent production company 12 Yard for an initial £26m, with a further £9m to be paid in 2011, depending on profits. 12 Yard is a creator and producer of entertainment, quiz, game and factual formats and owns the intellectual property rights for shows such as Eggheads and In It To Win It.

Cannons Health & Fitness has been acquired by independent health care firm, Nuffield Hospitals. Founded in 1980, Cannons was one of the first health and fitness companies to operate in the UK and today has 170,000 members across its 65 sites. Nuffield Hospitals reasons that “the potential benefits of bringing health and fitness services and more traditional healthcare services closer together are enormous”.

Aeroplan, a Canadian loyalty marketing firm, is to acquire Loyalty Management Group, the company responsible for the Nectar loyalty card scheme, for £368m.

Private Swiss bank, EFG International, has agreed to acquire Marble Bar Asset Management, a UK-based hedge fund, for an initial $517m.

Computer 2000 has acquired Maverick Presentation Products and associated businesses, Hotlamps, Screen Expert, and Vision. The purchase increases Computer 2000’s presence in the audiovisual market and its audiovisual division will be renamed Maverick.

Audio Visual Machines has acquired AVE Co Holdings, a provider of audio visual and videoconferencing systems. AVM’s business is the supply, integration, programming, and servicing of complex audio visual solutions to major corporations and it counts BP, GSK, Ebay, Network Rail and Sainsbury’s among its clients.

Essential Lighting, the Surrey-based supplier of lighting fixtures, control equipment and scenic LED, has been bought by Staging Connections Group, of Sydney, Australia.

R K Harrison Insurance Brokers has acquired Indemnity & Risk Management, the parent company of International Risk Consultants (Europe).

Northumberland-based restaurant business Shire Group has bought London restaurant chain Smollensky’s in a £10m deal. Shire owns the Pastiche and Le Frog restaurant chains and the acquisition of Smollensky’s will increase turnover to around  £14m.

US-based multi-channel behavioural targeting ad network, Adknowledge, has acquired the UK and Australian divisions of Media Run, an online advertising network focused on banner advertising.

Synergy Medical Education and healthcare PR specialist Workhouse have merged to form Synergy Medical Communications.

Mergers and acquisitions November 2007
Cutlery firm Amefa has bought kitchen knife maker Richardson Sheffield out of administration.

Business communications consultancy College Hill has made two acquisitions: life science specialist Northbank Communications and Edinburgh-based corporate communications agency Great Circle.

Claimar Care Group, a provider of residential care services, is to acquire Telford-based Complete Care Holdings for £33.1m.

Wine retailer Berry Bros & Rudd has acquired Mistral Wines, a specialist in the wines of the Loire, Rhône and Midi. Mistral Wines will be integrated into BB&R's agency arm, Fields, Morris & Verdin, which supplies hotels and restaurants in Greater London as well as merchants throughout the UK.

Accountancy firm Baker Tilly has merged with Slater Maidment, a London-based specialist accountancy practice.

Keller Group, the international ground engineering specialist, has bought H J Foundation, a Florida-based specialist piling contractor, for an initial £24.5m.

In a £22m deal, Carillion has sold Pall Mall Holdings and Sovereign Soft Services to Resource (NI), a subsidiary of Resource Services Group. Carillion acquired the two firms as part of its takeover of Mowlem in 2006.

In a deal worth approximately £95m, Towergate, the UK’s largest independently-owned insurance intermediary, has agreed to buy Broker Network, the AIM-listed insurance broking network business. Broker Network operates a network of 169 independent commercial insurance brokers in the UK.

National Express has acquired 40-year-old Kent-based commuter coach operator, Kings Ferry Travel, for about £8m.

Veolia Transport UK has bought Worcester-based coach operator Astons of Kempsey.

US software firm MicroEdge has acquired London-based Vivid Orange. Vivid Orange owns SmartChange, a web-based solution that helps companies and charities manage employee giving initiatives.

The Italian industrial group Finmeccanica has agreed to buy VEGA in a £61.6m deal. Based in Welwyn Garden City, VEGA supplies specialist professional services to the aerospace, defence and government sectors.

Burren Energy has agreed to be bought for £1.7bn by Italian oil and gas company Eni.

Petrol Express, a subsidiary of GNE, has acquired fellow petrol retailer Bond Hamill for £8.3m.

Property services firm Veris is to acquire Hampshire-based facilities management companies, Orange Environmental Building Services and Orange Support Services, for a total of £10.1m. The firms will be merged into Veris' facilities management division, Vector.

Low & Bonar, the specialist materials group, is to acquire MTX Group, a German producer of coated fabrics, for £119m.

Zamano, a provider of digital entertainment to mobile phones, has agreed to acquire its Dublin-based counterpart, Red Circle, for £17.4m.

Shed Media has bought rival TV production company Wall to Wall for £25m. Wall to Wall is responsible for the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? and New Tricks.

Kelda, the owner of Yorkshire Water, has agreed to be purchased by Saltaire Water for £3bn. Saltaire Water is a newly incorporated company formed for the purpose of the takeover by a consortium of investment firms, including Citigroup Alternative Investments, GIC Special Investments, Infracapital Partners and HSBC Bank.

Northern Foods has acquired Ethnic Cuisine, a Swansea-based supplier of chilled ready meals and snacks to Sainsbury’s and Brake Bros.

Irish building products manufacturer Kingspan has acquired Thermomax, a Bangor-based solar heating firm.

Graphite Enterprise Trust has sold white collar recruitment specialist, Huntress Group, to a Nomura-backed management buy-out team.

GlaxoSmithKline is to acquire US cardiovascular drug firm, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, for £800m.

Defence firm VT Group has acquired US military aviation support specialist, Advanced Engineering and Planning, for £37m.

Aerospace firm Cobham is to purchase S-TEC Corporation, a Texas-based manufacturer of autopilots for aircraft, for £18.45m.

SABMiller, the South African brewer that is listed on the London stock market, is buying the 400 year old Dutch beer firm Grolsch in a deal worth £584m.

Olympus, the Japanese camera and optical instruments company, has agreed to buy the medical devices specialist Gyrus in a £935m deal.

The takeover battle for Resolution has been won by Pearl Group. The £4.98bn acquisition will be made by Impala, a subsidiary of Pearl, following a bidding war with Standard Life for ownership of the life insurance fund firm. The takeover battle was sparked by Friends Provident’s failed attempt to merge with Resolution back in July.

Private equity firm 3i is to acquire a majority share of the luxury lingerie brand, Agent Provocateur, for £60m. Agent Provocateur was founded in London’s Soho in 1994 by Joseph Corré, the son of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, and his wife Serena Rees. It now operates in the USA, Europe and the Middle East.

Direct Energy Marketing, a subsidiary of Centrica, is to acquire Canadian oil and gas company, Rockyview Energy, for £56.9m.

In a deal worth £70m, Kaboose, a North American family-focused online media company, is to acquire Bounty Group. Established in 1956, Bounty is the UK’s mother and baby marketing specialist and operates the UK's largest parenting club and online community for new parents and expectant mothers.

Budelpack has acquired the Maesteg business of Creative Outsourcing Solutions international (COSi) from administrators, saving 560 jobs. The South Wales COSi plant manufactures and develops toiletries and cosmetics products and has a turnover of £70m. Budelpack is one of Europe’s largest contract manufacturers and packers for FMCG brand owners.

In a deal worth about £950m, private equity firm, Oak Hill Capital Partners, has acquired Sheffield-based provider of metal products, Firth Rixson.

Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group is to acquire TT Games, the UK-based game publisher behind the LEGO Star Wars video games, which have sold over 12 million copies worldwide.

Spalding-based meat products firm, George Adams, is to be bought by Tulip, the British subsidiary of Danish Crown. The deal creates one of the UK’s largest meat groups with a turnover in excess of £1bn and employing about 9,000 people.

Empresaria, the AIM-listed recruitment firm, is to move into the South American market with the acquisition of Chilean firm, Alternattiva, which specialises in the provision of outsourced sales and marketing staff.

John Wood Group is to pay about £70m to acquire IMV Corporation, a provider of engineering, procurement and construction management services to the Canadian oil and gas exploration and production sector. 

Scottish and Southern Energy has bought Slough Heat and Power for £49.25m.

Interior Services Group has acquired Pearce Group for up to £21.75m. Pearce comprises a food retailing division and a regional construction business focused on the West Country and South Wales.

Lavendon Group, the European leader in the rental of powered access equipment, has acquired Spanish-based rival, DK Rental Spain, for £16.9m. Lavendon has also agreed to acquire DK Rental Belgium and DK Rental France for £44.5m.

Chorion, the owner of the Noddy, Mr. Men and Famous Five brands, has acquired The Copyrights Group, an independent licensing business, for an undisclosed sum. Copyrights' clients’ brands include Beatrix Potter, Paddington Bear, Marie Claire, Rough Guides and The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

Builders’ merchant, Travis Perkins, is to acquire Tile Giant and its subsidiary companies for £12m. Tile Giant is a retailer of tiles and accessories with 29 outlets, mainly in the North of England and the Midlands.

Brewer and pub operator Greene King has acquired New Century Inns for £32.6m. New Century Inns owns 49 pubs in the North of England. Greene King says the purchase provides it with a base from which to acquire further freehold pub assets in the North, and gives it further distribution opportunities for its core ale brands: Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale and Old Speckled Hen.

DIFC Investments, the investment arm of the Dubai International Financial Centre, has agreed to acquire SmartStream Technologies, the UK-based software licensing and professional services business. The deal values the business at approximately £200m.

Phoenix Equity Partners has taken a majority stake in organic food delivery firm, Abel & Cole.

Supplier of physiotherapy, podiatry and sport products, Mobilis Healthcare, has acquired North London-based Premier Sport Medical.

Buyout specialist, ECI Partners, has acquired the supplier of naval navigation products and services, Kelvin Hughes, for £52m.

Sigma Acquisitions, a vehicle of private equity firm Lyceum Capital, is to acquire clinical trials specialist, Synexus, in a deal worth £18.1m.

The board of the recruitment consultancy Imprint has recommended a takeover by OPD that values the company at £42.78m. OPD comprises four separate executive search businesses: Hoggett Bowers, Odgers Ray & Berndtson, Portfolio and PSD. Rival recruitment firm Hydrogen has also made an approach to Imprint.

Coventry-based construction, procurement and engineering consultancy CEL International has been bought by design, engineering and management consultancy WSP Group. Separately, WSP has acquired SEi, a US-based provider of engineering services.

Dubai International Capital has acquired Alliance Medical for £600m from private equity firm, Bridgepoint Capital. Alliance Medical is the leading provider of diagnostic imaging services to the European healthcare sector.

Business publisher Vitesse Media has acquired Infoconomy, the publisher of Information Age.

Defence firm Chemring has acquired Norfolk-based bomb disposal equipment manufacturer, Richmond Electronics & Engineering, for £11m.

Energy efficiency consultant, eaga, has made three acquisitions: Horrocks Group, George Howe and A F Ring, for a total of up to £17.6m. Liverpool-based Horrocks and Durham-based George Howe supply external wall insulation products to the social housing and housebuilding markets, while A F Ring is a supplier of central heating services to local government. 

Mergers and acquisitions October 2007
Domino Printing Sciences is to acquire German software firm, Control Information Technology, for about £2m.

AAC Capital Partners has bought magazine publisher and exhibitions organiser Ocean Media.

HSBC has sold its UK credit card brands Marbles and Beneficial to SAV Credit for £385m.

Full service mobile agency New Visions has merged with its technology partner Cube80, to form New Visions Mobile.  

Peter’s Food Service has been acquired by its management and NBGI Private Equity in a £20m buy-out.  

Sage has acquired HR, payroll and time & attendance software firm, KCS Global Holdings, for £20m.
 
Xstrata, the Anglo-Swiss miner, is to acquire the leading Australian nickel producer, Jubilee Mines, for £1.4bn.

Private equity firm, TA Associates, has completed a majority investment in M and M Direct, the online and mail order retailer of discounted lifestyle, fashion and sports apparel and footwear. 

easyJet has agreed to acquire Gatwick to Southern Europe operator, GB Airways, for £103.5m. easyJet expects to fully integrate GB Airways by winter 2008/9 and will then operate 24% of Gatwick’s slots, flying 8 million passengers across 62 routes.

Langley Holdings, the UK-based engineering conglomerate, has acquired the business and assets of packaging firm Bradman Lake.

British football equipment manufacturer Umbro has agreed to be bought by Nike for £285m. Umbro makes the kit for the England football team, as well as that of the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Norway and six FA Premier League teams. The purchase will strengthen Nike’s position in the UK, which is the world's largest football market as well as being one of Nike's largest markets.

Insurance broking group, COBRA Holdings, has acquired UKI Holdings and its subsidiary, UK & Ireland Insurance Services, a Manchester-based general insurance brokerage, for £4.3m.

Motivcom, the AIM-listed incentive and motivation specialist, is to acquire venue finding, event management and motivation services firm Zibrant for £15m.

The Restaurant Group, owner of the Garfunkel’s and Blubeckers chains, has acquired North West-focused pub restaurant operator Brunning & Price for £32m. 

A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland has won the protracted takeover battle for Dutch bank ABN AMRO. The £49bn deal is the largest of its kind, and the task of splitting ABN AMRO’s divisions between them is likely to take the consortium partners, RBS, Fortis and Santander, several years.

IPC Media has acquired product review website, trustedreviews.com. The site carries reviews and price comparisons of consumer electronics products. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

LPM, a provider of contract cleaning, security and maintenance services, has acquired Dependable Services, a fifty-year-old Leeds-based supplier of contract cleaning services, which has 460 employees. LPM is owned by private equity firm, Sovereign Capital.

Bovis Homes Group has acquired northern England housebuilder Elite Homes Group for £25.7m plus £46.2m debt.

Aixtron AG is to acquire of Nanoinstruments, a Cambridge-based nanotechnology equipment supplier, for an undisclosed sum.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals is to acquire Arab Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, a Jordanian pharmaceutical manufacturer listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, for about £80m.

Cookson Group has agreed to buy Foseco, the supplier of consumable products for use in the foundry and steelmaking industries, for £497m. Cookson expects the acquisition to deliver cost savings of about £18m within two years, through the elimination of duplicate overhead costs and increased purchasing efficiencies.

Cohort, the defence services firm, is to acquire SEA, a specialist in electronic surveillance systems, for an initial £20.7m.

Hasgrove, the pan European marketing and communications group, has acquired Pavilion Communication Services for up to £9.9m. Separately, Hasgrove has also acquired intranet solutions firm, Odyssey Interactive.

Southern Water is to be bought for £4.2bn by a consortium that includes JP Morgan Asset Management and Challenger Infrastructure Fund.

Vodafone has agreed to acquire Italian and Spanish fixed-line telecommunications and broadband service providers, Tele2 Italia and Tele2 Spain, for £537m.

Internet Memory Mattress, an online retailer of memory foam mattresses, has acquired rival firm Memorymattress2go.

Lookers, the motor dealer, has acquired Dutton Forshaw
Group, the motor retail division of Lloyds TSB Asset
Finance Division, for up to £60m. Dutton Forshaw owns 31 outlets operating under the Dutton Forshaw and Dovercourt brands.

In a £17m deal, Rok, the building group, has bought Avonside Services Group, a provider of plumbing, heating and electrical services to the construction industry. Avonside employs around 450 people across the North of England and Scotland and had a turnover of £42m last year.

Finsbury Food Group has acquired fellow low-fat cake supplier Anthony Alan Foods for £3.75m.

The board of haulage firm Christian Salvesen has recommended to its shareholders a £254.4m takeover offer from French rival Groupe Norbert Dentressangle, better known as GND.

Plastic manufacturer RPC Group has acquired Netherlands-based injection moulding firm, Raytec BV, for £3m.

White Young Green, consultant to the built, natural and social environment, has acquired P H McCarthy & Partners, a 100-year-old engineering consultancy with offices in Dublin and Limerick.
 
Pallet and packaging firm Scott Group has acquired Marlaw Pallets in a “multimillion-pound deal” that sees the businesses’ combined turnover increase from £95m to £123m and joint staff numbers grow from 850 to 1150.

Balfour Beatty has acquired Covion, the facilities infrastructure services business, for £33m. Covion will become part of Balfour Beatty's facilities management arm, Haden Building Management.

Royal & Sun Alliance is to acquire Canadian Northern Shield Insurance of British Columbia for £37m.

In its third acquisition of 2007, Kinetics Group has bought gas installation and maintenance services provider Walmotts Holdings. The acquisition brings Kinetics’ annual sales to over £90m and increases its total number of employees to more than 1,100.

International parking, transport ticketing and payment systems firm, Parkeon SAS, has acquired the Poole-based Wayfarer Group. Wayfarer has an 80% share of the UK bus fare collection market.

NEC Philips Unified Solutions UK has acquired IT business services provider Telamon Systems for an undisclosed sum.

IT security firms Global Secure Systems and Peapod are to merge.  The Peapod name will be dropped and the new company will continue under the GSS brand.

Alkare has acquired specialist care provider Positive Lifestyles.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has acquired the travel information group, Lonely Planet, for an undisclosed sum. Lonely Planet currently publishes around 500 titles including specialist activity guides, shoestring guides and phrasebooks, and the BBC plans to build the franchise around the world.

Trinity Mirror has agreed to sell its sports division, including the Racing Post, for £170m. The business is being acquired by Stradbrook Acquisitions, a company owned by Irish investment firm FL Partners.

BT has acquired IT services supplier, Lynx Technology. The acquisition follows the purchase of Basilica Computing in August and strengthens BT Business’ hand in the SME market in the UK. Separately, BT has also acquired a majority stake in Paris-based Net2S, a provider of technology consulting and engineering services to large corporate customers.

East Midlands-based apprenticeship learning company STL has acquired Ilkeston-based training provider Orient Gold.

Activision has acquired Liverpool-based video game developer Bizarre Creations.

Mergers and acquisitions September 2007
ATM operator, Cardpoint, is to merge with Irish electronic payments business, Alphyra. The new entity will be known as Payzone plc and will have its headquarters in Ireland.

Aberdeen-based Dominion Gas has taken over Global Gas Supplies in a £22m deal.

UK-based debt advisory firm, Blenheim Advisors, has been bought by US investment bank, Houlihan Lokey.

Market research and consulting group, Cello, has acquired Magnetic Advertising Company, a specialist direct marketing support business, for an initial £1.25m.

Holidaybreak has acquired schools and colleges tour organiser NST Holdings for £47.2m. Earlier this year Holidaybreak bought another educational tour business, PGL Travel.

Whitbread has acquired Golden Tulip and Pilot Hotels for £44m. The six hotels that make up the deal are currently branded as Tulip Inn and Golden Tulip and will be converted to the Premier Inn brand at a cost of £9m.  

dmg world media, the exhibitions division of Daily Mail & General Trust, has acquired the US trade show management company, George Little Management. DMGT already owned 49% of the company and the acquisition of the remaining 51% stake cost £77m.

Social housing services firm Connaught is to acquire the specialist provider of health and safety compliance services, National Britannia, for £91m.
   
Luxury travel group, Western & Oriental, has acquired Villa Select, a mediterranean villa operator based in Alcester, Warwickshire, for £2.49m.

Communications support services supplier Telent has agreed to be bought by pension fund manager Co-Investment No. 5 LP for £398m. Telent was formerly the UK and German services business of Marconi.

Privately-owned insurance intermediary, Towergate, has acquired Open International, a supplier of IT services to insurance brokers for £276m.

Diploma, the specialised distribution group, has made three acquisitions: AMT Vantage, a Canadian distributor of speciality electrosurgery and endoscopy equipment, M Seals, a Danish distributor of industrial seals, and Cabletec Interconnect Components Systems, a supplier of wiring and connector products, which is based in Weston-super-Mare.

US bookshop chain, Borders, has sold its UK and Ireland business to private equity firm Risk Capital Partners for an initial £10m. The purchase includes 41 Borders and 28 Books etc outlets in the UK. Risk Capital Partners is headed by Luke Johnson, best known for expanding the Pizza Express chain in the 1990s and now chairman of Channel Four.

Standard Chartered is to acquire American Express Bank, a subsidiary of American Express Company. American Express Bank’s client base is made up of wealthy individuals and financial institutions in 47 countries. The deal is worth about £431m.

Virgin Group has sold its 36-year-old Virgin Megastore chain to its management for an undisclosed sum. The move marks Sir Richard Branson’s exit from the market in which he first made his name in the 1970s and comes at a time when high street CD and DVD retailers are struggling to compete with the supermarkets and the internet. All 125 Virgin Megastore outlets in the UK and Ireland are to be rebranded as Zavvi.

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has bought gas producer Newfield UK Holdings for £242m. The acquisition will increase Centrica’s UK gas reserves by a fifth.

Software firm Sanderson has acquired electronic point-of-sale systems specialist Retail Business Solutions Group.

Sage has acquired a 70% share of French payment software firm XRT for £30m. The Newcastle-based business management software group is expected to acquire the remainder of XRT in due course.

Shoe Zone has agreed to buy Co-operative Group’s footwear retail business Shoefayre for an undisclosed sum. Shoefayre has 240 stores throughout the UK.

Call centre firm Telecom Service Centres has merged with Indian company Hero ITES. The new, enlarged company will be known as TSC Hero. TSC employs over 3,000 people in the UK, mostly in Scotland and the North of England.

The UK’s largest insurance provider for household appliances, Domestic & General Group, has agreed to be bought by private equity firm Advent International for £523.9m.

Drug and alcohol testing firm Concateno has agreed to buy medical diagnostics company Cozart for £64.4m.

Standard Chartered is to acquire global oil and gas M&A advisory firm Harrison Lovegrove for an undisclosed sum.

Bath lift manufacturer Mountway has acquired Swedish assistive technology distributor, Nordic Care Services, in a deal that will see around 250 products added to the Mountway range. 

Queens Park Rangers Football Club is to be taken over by Formula One tycoons Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore for £14m including debt. Ecclestone, who runs the F1 competition, and Briatore, head of the Renault F1 team, have committed to investing more money in the football club.

GE Energy is to acquire Sondex, a UK-based supplier of services to the oil and gas industry, for £289m.

The Mission Marketing Group has acquired Edinburgh-based direct response and digital communications agency Story UK for an initial £7.1m.

Brand consultancy Corporate Edge has been acquired by Australia’s Photon Group for about £6.3m.

The owner of Wyevale Garden Centres, Sir Tom Hunter, has bought Somerset-based Sanders Garden World for £15m. Sir Tom, who is thought to be Scotland’s richest man, is likely to bring the businesses under the same management.

Manufacturer of digital and analogue radio communication equipment, Wood & Douglas, has purchased Saffron Walden-based Audix Broadcast, a supplier of ATM hardware and software to the broadcast industry.

Universal Music Group has announced that it intends to acquire V2 Music Group, including record company V2 Records that counts Stereophonics and Paul Weller among its artists.

NBC Universal is to acquire Sparrowhawk Media, the owner of the Hallmark television channel.


Mergers and acquisitions August 2007
Balfour Beatty has acquired South West building contractor Cowlin Group for £52m.

Independent publisher Piatkus Books has been acquired by The Little, Brown Group, part of Hachette Livre.

Affiliate marketing network buy.at has acquired online lead generation provider Lightstate, which will be renamed buy.at leads.

SMG is to sell its outdoor advertising subsidiary Primesight to private equity firm GMT Communications Partners for up to £62m.

Maternity and childrenswear retailer Blooming Marvellous has been bought by Arev. The Icelandic investment group plans to expand the firm’s operations which currently include a chain of 14 shops, a mail order operation and a website.

Specialist distributor of branded building products Heywood Williams has agreed to acquire Irish architectural hardware group Avenco for £15.6m.

Regatta Group has bought the Lake District-based outdoor clothing firm Hawkshead out of administration, saving 180 jobs.

OR Clothing Company has bought mail order clothing firms Travelling Light and Active Travel Apparel out of administration.

Berkeley Scott, a provider of HR services to the leisure sector, has taken over specialist professional services recruitment firm Quantica for £28.3m.

Crate rental company PHS Teacrate has acquired its rival Rentacrate in a “multimillion pound deal” which will almost double the size of the company.

Exponent Private Equity and Clive Kahn have acquired Cardsave, a supplier of credit card terminals and services to independent retailers that services more than £2bn worth of transactions annually.

Hong Kong-based Li & Fung is to acquire Peter Black International for £48.14m. Peter Black supplies footwear, skincare, cosmetics and toiletries products to the likes of Marks & Spencer, Next and The Body Shop.

May Gurney has acquired Manchester-based mobile telecommunications inspection and maintenance specialists FDT Holdings.

Norwest Holst has acquired Bromsgrove-based construction firm Weaver plc.

Engineering firm Whitbybird has merged with Nordic counterpart Ramboll, creating a consultancy with over 6,000 staff and 130 offices around the world.  The new business will trade under the name Ramboll Whitbybird in the UK.

Cape, a provider of support services to the energy sector, has agreed to acquire the Australian industrial painting and protective coatings firm Total Corrosion Control Group for £34.3m.

Ten-year-old rugby news website Scrum.com has been bought by ESPN, the owner of football and cricket sites soccernet.com and cricinfo.com.

Eddie Stobart is to join the London stock market following the merger of the haulage firm with listed commercial property and ports company The Westbury Property Fund. The enlarged company will be known as Stobart Group. As part of the deal, Westbury will dispose of much of its £142m property portfolio, while O’Connor, a freight handling business, will be acquired for £23m.

Media & Print Investments has acquired Somerset-based book printer Butler & Tanner.

CSM of the Netherlands has acquired Kate’s Cakes for £20.5m plus £12m debt. West Sussex-based Kate’s Cakes supplies premium cakes, muffins, cookies and desserts to the food service and out-of-home markets.

Emap has acquired Planet Retail for £23m. Planet Retail provides an online information service to the global retail industry.

All3Media Group has acquired television production company Objective Productions, the company behind programmes such as Peep Show, Derren Brown Trick or Treat and The Peter Serafinowicz Show.

ICI has agreed to be taken over by Dutch conglomerate Akzo Nobel for £8bn. 

Greene King has bought the seafood restaurant chain Loch Fyne for £68.1m.

Nord Anglia Education is to sell its nursery division Leapfrog Nurseries to Australia’s ABC Learning Centres for £31.2m. ABC plans to merge Leapfrog Nurseries with its UK subsidiary Busy Bees.

Guardian News & Media has acquired 17-year-old research, publishing and event services company Kable, which will become part of Guardian Professional.

Corporate and financial consultancy group Jelf, has acquired Bristol-based insurance broker John Lampier and Son for an initial £12.75m.

Asbestos contracting and consultancy services provider Silverdell has acquired Warrington-based industrial asbestos contracting business Kitsons for £14m.

MKM Group is to acquire Australian sales promotion firm Leapfrog Group for up to £6.95m.

Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings is to acquire Biocode Hycel, a Belgian-French group that develops, manufactures and distributes IVD instruments and reagents.

Alba is to sell its leisure division to private equity firm Rutland Partners for £51.5m. Alba will now focus on its consumer electronics business.

UK-based mining group Xstrata is to buy South Africa’s Eland Platinum Holdings for about £500m.

Digital media content firm Interactive World is to acquire Sports Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport. The company will be renamed Sport Media Group plc.

Civil engineering and professional services group Mouchel Parkman has entered the business process outsourcing market with the £46.24m acquisition of HBS, which specialises in long-term IT outsourcing contracts with local authorities.

200-year-old stockbroker Hichens Harrison & Co has agreed to buy financial services company ARM Corporate Finance for £4.3m.

Power company Carron Energy has acquired NEL Power Group, a provider of engineering, management and construction services to the energy industry. 

Property management firm HML Holdings has acquired WA Ellis Property Management for £1.3m.

Edinburgh-based IT services firm Glen Group has acquired software company inGroup in a £1.3m deal.

Balfour Beatty's professional and technical services arm, Balfour Beatty Management, has acquired the Middlesbrough-based NAP Partnership.  Meanwhile, Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services has acquired consulting engineering firm Chris Britton Consultancy.

Irish retailer Musgrave Group has acquired Belfast-based cash and carry business J&J Haslett. Operating since 1854, J&J Haslett supplies almost 200 Mace and 70 XL Stop and Shop stores and operates seven Holmes cash and carry outlets.

Mergers and acquisitions July 2007
Associated Newspapers has acquired JobsGroup.net, which operates several recruitment websites, including JustEngineers.net, JustConstruction.net and JustRail.net. The £10m acquisition will become part of Associated Northcliffe Digital.

Market research and consulting group Cello has acquired a majority holding of Hill Murray Group, the holding company of financial services marketing agency cchm:ping, for £5.3m. Cello has also acquired Market Research International for up to £4.5 million.

Digital Marketing Group has acquired two creative digital agencies: Graphico New Media for £8.6m and Hyperlaunch New Media for £3.5m.

German firm Emnos has acquired UK insight and marketing specialist Diametric.

Polling organization YouGov has increased its global presence with three acquisitions: Psychonomics in Germany, Zapera in the Nordic region and Polimetrix in the USA, in which already held a 32% stake.

Technology and outsourcing firm Xansa has agreed to be taken over by French IT services group Steria for £472m. The combined group will be one of the top ten IT service providers in Europe and the UK, with a particularly significant presence in the public services and financial services sectors.

Utility support services firm Spice has agreed to buy Revenue Assurance Services for £102.9m. Spice says the acquisition will strengthen its position in the utility billing market, enhance its services in the energy procurement market, and allow it to move into the value-added consultancy market.

Leisure group Georgica has agreed to sell its snooker halls subsidiary Rileys to private equity consortium Crucible Acquisitions for £34.1m.

British Sky Broadcasting Group has agreed to buy Sir Alan Sugar’s electronics group Amstrad for £125m. Amstrad derives much of its income from supplying BSkyB's set-top boxes.

HMV has bought the Fopp brand from the failed music retailer’s administrator. Fopp closed its 105 stores and its website with the loss of 700 jobs in July. In a separate move, HMV has sold its Japanese business for £70m.

Music company EMI has been taken over by Maltby Ltd, a vehicle of buyout group Terra Firma, for £2.4bn.

Trinity Mirror has agreed to sell its regional titles in London and South East to Tindle Newspapers £18.75m. Among the 27 titles sold are the South London Press, North London and Herts Newspapers and the Yellow Advertiser.

Trinity Mirror has sold Berkshire Regional Newspapers to Berkshire Media Group, a subsidiary of The Dunfermline Press, for £10m. The Reading Chronicle is among the 14 titles included in the deal.

Trinity Mirror has sold Kent Regional Newspapers, East Surrey and Sussex Newspapers and Blackmore Vale Publishing for £64.15m. The three businesses, comprising 25 titles, have been acquired by Northcliffe Media, the local media division of Daily Mail and General Trust plc.

Branding communication group Loewy has acquired Bristol-based retail packaging and brand specialist Epoch Design. The deal brings Loewy’s total number of employees to 350 and turnover to £47m.

Affiliate marketing and ad-serving technology specialist TradeDoubler has acquired The IMW Group, which includes search engine marketing agency, The Search Works and search engine technology firm, The Technology Works. The purchase price is £56m.

Insurance firms Friends Provident and Resolution Life are to merge. The combined company will be known as Friends Financial Group plc and is valued at £8.6bn. The two firms’ asset management divisions, Resolution Asset Management and F&C, will also merge.

Pet healthcare products supplier Beaphar has acquired aquatics and pet flea control products firm Sinclair Animal & Household Care.

Sanctuary Group has sold its 49% stake in record label Rough Trade Records to Beggars Group, owner of the Beggars Banquet label.

3i, the listed private equity firm, has acquired independent investment manager and financial adviser Bestinvest.

Cake maker Inter Link Foods has been bought out of administration by Irish firm McCambridge Group.

Australian marketing services company Photon Group has acquired Bracknell-based REL Field Marketing. REL’s field marketing activities include product placement consultancy, in-store demonstrations, promotional events, field sales teams and mystery shoppers.

Troubled IT group iSOFT has agreed to a takeover by German firm CompuGROUP. The £160m price tag is 19% higher than the offer made by Australian firm IBA Health in May.

Imperial Tobacco has agreed to buy Spanish cigarette, cigar and logistics business Altadis for £11bn. Imperial is the world’s fourth largest producer of cigarettes.

Rentokil Initial has acquired Lancaster Office Cleaning Company for £19m. Lancaster is a 30-year-old office cleaning business that focuses on blue-chip companies in the City of London.

Privately-owned housebuilder Gladedale has agreed to acquire Ben Bailey Homes for £83.7m.

International distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl is to acquire Dutch healthcare and cleaning products distributor King Benelux.

Public relations group Huntsworth has acquired US healthcare communications firm AXIS Healthcare Communications for an initial £9m.

Emap has acquired Torcello Publishing, owner of online information service Infrastructure Journal, for up to £20m.

Pipex Communications has agreed to sell its consumer broadband and voice division to Tiscali for £210m. The sale includes the brands Switch2 Telecoms, Pipex Homecall, Toucan Residential, Pipex Internet and Toucan Residential Ireland. Following the disposal of the consumer and voice business, Pipex will continue as a web hosting and business services provider.

Marston's has acquired Ringwood Brewery for £19.2m. Ringwood’s brands include Ringwood Best Bitter, Old Thumper and Fortyniner.

Mining group Rio Tinto is to take over aluminium foil and packaging materials manufacturer Alcan in a £19bn deal. The combined company will be known as Rio Tinto Alcan and will be a global leader in the aluminium industry. Alcan’s packaging division is to be sold off.

Pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond is to acquire jeweller and pawnbroking chain Herbert Brown for £30.75m.

Global property adviser DTZ has acquired privately-owned property consultancy Donaldsons for £39.8m.

Franchised home cleaning services provider Myhome has acquired ironing and dry cleaning business Ferrum in a deal worth up to £4.8m.

Royal Bank of Scotland is to acquire a majority shareholding in US commodities trading and marketing business Sempra Commodities for £675m.

BT is to acquire Brightview Group, the internet service provider owned by direct marketing firm Brightview, for £15.8m. Brightview operates the internet service provider brands Global Internet, Madasafish and Waitrose.

Packaging group Mondi has made two acquisitions, taking a majority interest in Turkish firm Tire Kutsan, and 100% of Unterland Flexible Packaging of Austria.

International advertising group M&C Saatchi has agreed to acquire Richmond-based brand consultancy Clear for £18.4m.

US private equity firm Blackstone Group is to buy Hilton Hotels for £13bn. The international hotel group recently announced plans to double its UK estate from 75 to 150 hotels in the next ten years.

Cambridge-headquarted meaning-based computer search firm Autonomy is to acquire US content archive specialist Zantaz for £187m.

The company that runs Germany’s national railway, Deutsche Bahn, is to take over Britain’s largest freight railway company, English Welsh & Scottish Railway.

Forth Ports has acquired the Chatham-based Nordic Group, comprising a port terminal operation, a materials recycling business and a data management and storage business, for £46m.

Mergers and acquisitions June 2007
Manufacturer of electric vehicles and aerial work platforms Tanfield Group, is to acquire US-based supplier of industrial aerial work platforms Snorkel for £50m.

2 Sisters Food Group has acquired food processing business Joseph Mitchell (Letham) and poultry business Challenger Foods of Sunderland.

Sports Direct is to acquire boxing kit brand Everlast in a £91m deal. The sports retailer which trades as Sports World, Sports Direct, Lillywhites and Original Shoe Company also owns the rights to the Dunlop Slazenger, Kangol and Donnay brands.

British food distributor Brakes has been acquired by US private equity firm Bain Capital £877m.

US datacentre firm Equinix is to buy business continuity, datacentre and infrastructure company IXEurope for £141m.
 
Saga, provider of financial services and holidays to the over-50s, is to merge with motoring organisation The AA. Both companies are owned by private equity firms and will keep their separate identities but are expected to benefit from the sharing of expertise, with each offering its services to the customers of the other.

Jersey-based hospitality, manufacturing, retail and property business CI Traders has accepted a £260m takeover offer from a consortium that includes private equity firms Duke Street Capital and Europa Capital.

Commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton has staged a management buy-out from parent company Atkins, taking the business private for £46.5m.

Personal insolvency firm Debt Free Direct is to acquire debt counselling and settlement services firm Clear Start for £10.9m.

Specialist insurer Hiscox is to acquire ALTOHA, a US insurance holding company and its subsidiaries, livestock insurer American Live Stock Insurance Company, and affiliated insurance agency Harding & Harding. The purchase price is £27.5m.

Ultimate Leisure Group is to acquire Living Ventures, owner of The Living Room restaurant and bar business, for £28m.

Chrysalis Group is to sell Chrysalis Radio, comprising all of Chrysalis’ radio operations including Heart, LBC and Galaxy, to Global Radio, a newly-formed investment vehicle, for £170m. Following the sale, Chrysalis’ sole business activity will be its independent music company, Chrysalis Music.

Media communications and marketing services group Aegis has acquired ad-serving business Bluestreak for £6.2m.

Online direct marketing company Interactive Prospect Targeting has agreed to acquire French email broadcasting firm NP6 for up to £6.73m.

The London Stock Exchange Group is to take over its Italian counterpart Borsa Italiana in a £1.1bn deal.

D&D London, formerly Conran Restaurants, is to acquire Image Restaurants, the owner of London restaurants The Avenue, Kensington Place and Launceston Place.

Weir Group has agreed to acquire Texas-based manufacturer of high-pressure service pumps and flow control equipment SPM Flow Control for £328m.

BBA Aviation has agreed to sell its airline pilot training business Oxford Aviation Training to GCAT Flight Academy for £32m.

BUPA is to separate its hospitals from its insurance business with the sale of its BUPA Hospitals division to private equity firm Cinven for £1.44bn. Cinven owns specialist mental health care provider Partnerships in Care which has 17 facilities around the UK. 

Debt-laden retailer Focus DIY has been bought by American private equity firm Cerberus.

Aegis Group is to acquire mobile marketing firm Marvellous Mobile.

British music group Sanctuary has accepted a £44.5m takeover offer from Centenary Music, a subsidiary of Universal.

Entertainment One, a distributor of home entertainment products in North America, has agreed to acquire London-based TV production and DVD distribution firm Contender for £49.4m.

Speedy Hire is to acquire Hewden Tools, the tool hire division of Hewden Stuart, for £115m.

In a deal worth in excess of £250m, private equity firm Vision Capital has bought electrical retailer BrightHouse as well as a majority stake in off-licence chain Threshers.

Oasis Healthcare has agreed to be taken over Duke Street Capital in a deal that values the dental practice operator at £76.9m. However, Oasis’ largest shareholder, Associated Dental Practices, has made an £85m counterbid.

3i has agreed to sell tool hire company HSS for £310m to Aurigo, an investment vehicle led by former Asda chairman Archie Norman.
Defence and aerospace publisher Jane's Information Group has been bought by American information firm HIS for £93m.

Software firms IRIS Software Group and Computer Software Group are to merge. The combined business will have revenues of over £100m and trade under the IRIS Software Group brand.

The Real Good Food company has sold its frozen fish business, Five Star Fish, to British Seafood for £35m.

Rexam has agreed to buy US manufacturer of rigid plastic healthcare packaging, OI Plastic Products, from Owens-Illinois for £927m. In a separate deal, Rexam will also acquire Russian beverage can maker Rostar from En+ Group for £149m.

The Direct Marketing Group, formerly known as Millennium Marketing and Communications Group, has acquired London-based charity fundraising agency Whitewater and Leeds-based full service agency JDA.

Britain’s largest supermarket chain Tesco has entered the gardening market with the £155.6m purchase of garden centre chain Dobbies.

Southern Cross Healthcare, the UK's largest care home provider, has acquired Avery Healthcare for £96.5m.

Newcastle United Football Club has agreed to a £134m takeover by Mike Ashley, founder of sports gear retailer Sports World.

Airport retailer and caterer Alpha Airports is to be taken over by Italian motorway and airport services group Autogrill in a £193m deal.

Whitbread has agreed to sell its David Lloyd Leisure fitness chain to property group London & Regional for £925m. 

Bedford-based pharmaceutical and healthcare packing firm Central Pharma has acquired Adpack Europe of Towcester for an undisclosed sum.

Mergers and acquisitions May 2007
Mid-market restaurant chain operator Tragus has acquired Italian restaurant chain Strada for £140m. Tragus operates the Café Rouge and Bella Italia formats and will acquire all of Strada’s 50 contemporary Strada Italian restaurants as well as the Belgo and Bierodrome brands.

The Royal Opera House has bought classical music and dance DVD production and distribution company Opus Arte UK from a Dutch holding company for £5.7m.

London-based music and social networking site Last.FM has been bought by US broadcaster CBS for £140m.

Investec has agreed to buy mortgage lender Kensington Group for £283m.

Permira-owned Principal Hotels has bought Hayley Conference Centres for £358m. The combined group has a total of 17 sites offering 3,000 bedrooms with the ability to cater for 20,000 daily conference delegates.

Rockwell Automation, a Wisconsin-based provider of industrial automation control and information solutions, has acquired British safety and control systems specialist ICS Triplex.

A consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis, and Santander has launched its long-awaited bid for ABN Amro. The £48bn hostile bid is £5.8bn higher than the offer made by Barclays for the Dutch bank in March.

Associated British Foods is to acquire the fifty-year-old Indian food business Patak’s for £40m.

Barclays Bank is to acquire independent fiduciary services company Walbrook Group and integrate it into its Wealth Advisory business.

Emap has agreed to acquire environmental risk information specialist GroundSure for up to £44m.

Music group EMI has agreed to be bought for £3.2bn by private equity group Terra Firma.

Foxtons, one of South East England’s biggest estate agents, has been bought by private equity firm BC Partners for an estimated £390m.

Dublin-based e-learning provider ThirdForce has acquired its US counterpart Mindleaders in a £9m deal.

Specialist holiday group Holidaybreak has agreed to acquire UK school trips organiser PGL for £100m.

Customer relationship and data company Acxiom is to be acquired by private equity firms Silver Lake and ValueAct Capital for £1.5bn.

WPP has agreed to acquire digital marketing company 24/7 Real Media for £325m.

Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya's United Spirits Group is to buy Scotch Whisky maker Whyte & Mackay for £595m.

UK stockbroker Bridgewell has agreed to be bought by Icelandic bank Landsbanki for £60.3m. Landsbanki plans to combine Bridgewell with its subsidiary Teather & Greenwood.

Reuters, the 156 year-old-news agency, has agreed to be taken over by Canadian business information company Thomson in an £8.7bn deal. The new company will be known as Thomson-Reuters and will hold a dominant position in the global financial news market.

Struggling UK healthcare software and systems provider iSoft has agreed to be acquired by Australian firm IBA Health. The deal creates one of the largest providers of information systems in the global healthcare IT market.

Friends Provident has agreed to acquire two UK financial intermediary businesses, Sesame Group and Pantheon Financial, for £75m and £16.8m respectively.

Alexander Dennis has acquired Plaxton to create Britain’s biggest bus and coach manufacturing operation.

Business management software firm Sage has acquired HR and  payroll software supplier Snowdrop Systems for £17m.

BAE Systems is to acquire US armoured vehicle firm Armor Holdings for £2.27bn. Armor will be integrated into BAE Systems’ Land and Armaments division.

UK software firm Micro Focus is to acquire San Diego-based technology firm Acucorp for £20m.

Germany’s HeidelbergCement is to buy UK building materials firm Hanson for £8bn.

Informa Group has agreed to buy market intelligence firm Datamonitor for £502m.

Pearson, the world’s leading educational publisher and owner of the Financial Times and Penguin Books, has agreed to acquire US online distance learning firm eCollege for £237m.

Compass Group has agreed to sell its European vending business, Selecta, to German private equity firm Allianz Capital Partners for £772.5m.

Babcock International has acquired Devonport Management, the owner of Devonport Royal Dockyard for £350m.

In a reverse takeover, grocery wholesaler Blueheath is to acquire Booker, the UK’s largest operator of cash and carry outlets. The merged company will be called Booker Group plc. Booker was bought by Icelandic investment firm Baugur two years ago.

Software Solutions Partners is to acquire rival insurance software provider Sirius for £43.4m.

HR software firm Northgate has acquired public sector change management consultancy Kendric Ash for an initial payment of £9.2m. In a separate deal, Northgate is to take a 60.43% interest in global provider of HR outsourcing and related services Arinso for £155.4m.

Building company Rok has acquired Nottingham-based SOL Construction for up to £21m.

IT solutions and managed services company Maxima Holdings is to acquire IT services firm 3net for £18m.

Carpetright has agreed to acquire Tyne and Wear-based Storeys Carpets for £19.5m.

The GAME Group has acquired rival PC and video games retailer Gamestation from Blockbuster for £74m.

MNH Vehicle Contracts has acquired Wakefield-based Platinum Fleet Management. The merged company will be called MNH Platinum. 

Software Solutions Partners is to acquire rival insurance software provider Sirius for £43.4m.

Mergers and acquisitions April 2007
UK business aviation services company PremiAir Aviation Group has been bought by the von Essen Group of companies.

Mothercare is to acquire Chelsea Stores Holdings, which owns and operates the Early Learning Centre, for £85m.

Accountancy firms Grant Thornton UK and RSM Robson Rhodes have agreed to merge to create the UK's fifth largest accounting and business advisory group with a turnover of £375m and 4,400 staff operating from 33 locations.

Online TV and webcasting specialist Twofour Digital is merging with digital rights management, webcasting and web development company Makeni.

Leicestershire-based audio-visual and staging provider Hawthorns has acquired Core Creative.

Barclays Bank has agreed to merge with Dutch bank ABN Amro in a £46bn deal. The combined group, which will have 47 million customers, will be known as Barclays plc and will have its headquarters in Amsterdam. However, a rival bid for the Dutch financial services company is expected from a consortium headed by Royal Bank of Scotland. 

National Express Group has agreed to acquire Spanish public transport operator Continental Auto for £449.7m.

Travel firm Albatross Group has bought 17-year-old wholesale tour operator Leisure Breaks.

Integrated communications agency Gyro International has acquired Manchester-based B2B marketing agency Cicero Marketing Communications for an undisclosed sum. Cicero has been operating since 1914.

Courier delivery network Parcelnet is acquiring the Redcats UK courier operation, creating a network of over 7,000 couriers.

Homeform Group, the company behind the brands Moben, Sharps Bedrooms, Kitchens Direct and Dolphin Bathrooms has been acquired by an affiliate of Sun European Partners, the European advisor to U.S.-based investment firm Sun Capital Partners.

Direct Solutions International and Corporate Mailing Matters are to merge to form the dsi CMM Group, a direct communications organisation with a turnover in excess of £80m and employing almost 1,000 people.

In Europe’s biggest ever private equity deal, the board of healthcare and beauty retailer Alliance Boots has accepted a £11.1bn takeover offer from venture capital firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It is the first time that a FTSE 100 company has ever been taken private.

Interactive agency Syzygy has bought London-based Unique Digital Marketing.

UK recruitment services firm Pricejamieson has been acquired by international rival Aquent. The merged London agency will have 80 staff and plans to increase that to 250.

AstraZeneca is to acquire American biotechnology company MedImmune for £7.1bn and combine it with its subsidiary Cambridge Antibody Technology, creating a fully-integrated biologics and vaccines business.

Northern Racing, owner of Newcastle, Brighton and Uttoxeter racecourses, has agreed to be taken over by NR Acquisitions, a company owned by billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben.

Italian firm Raco has bought Lincolnshire-based Specialist Heat Exchangers and its sister firm Tube Fins as part of a £9m deal.

Sandwich maker Brambles Foods has been bought for £22m by Duke Street Capital. The private equity firm will merge Brambles with its existing sandwich business, Food Partners.

UK agency Sponsorship Media has been acquired by Havas Sports.

Publishing group John Brown has acquired integrated creative communications agency Fingal.

Seven Publishing Group has acquired customer magazine publisher Square One, which it is combining with its own customer publishing arm to form Seven Squared.

Cabana Soft Drinks has bought Dunblane-based Cariel Soft Drinks. Cabana is a subsidiary of Nichols, the owner of the Vimto brand.

Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata is to acquire Australian mining firm Gloucester Coal for £163m.

United Business Media has acquired New York-based Vintage Filings for £19m. UBM will incorporate the financial disclosures business into its PR Newswire division.

Airwave has been sold for £1.9bn to Guardian Digital Communications, a new company set up for the purpose by Australian bank Macquarie. Airwave is a secure digital radio network used exclusively by the UK’s emergency services.

Information giant Experian has acquired US-based website performance monitor Hitwise for £120m.

British mining firm Scarborough Minerals is to merge with its Australian counterpart Mineral Securities.

BT Group has agreed to buy Comsat International, a provider of data communication services in Latin America.

The local government owners of Leeds-Bradford International Airport have chosen private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital as the preferred buyer to take the airport off their hands. The terms of the deal have yet to be agreed but the 75-year-old airport is thought to be worth in the region of £130m.

British engineering firm GKN has agreed to acquire US manufacturer of engine components for the aerospace industry, Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group.

Australian bank Macquarie has bought broadcast and mobile phone mast company National Grid Wireless for £2.5bn.

Bob Geldof’s TV production company Ten Alps has bought publishing firm Atalink for £2.98m.

Timberland has acquired SouthWales-based fashion brand howies.

Premier Farnell has agreed to sell its tool distributor subsidiary BuckHickman InOne  to BSS Group for £27m.