Mergers and acquisitions June 2008
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.

Mergers and acquisitions May 2008
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.

Mergers and acquisitions April 2008
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


Mergers and acquisitions March 2008
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.

Mergers and acquisitions February 2008
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.

Mergers and acquisitions January 2008
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 December 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.