2008 Company Mergers and Acquisitions

List of company mergers and acquisitions which took place in the UK in 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 187Max 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”. 

HSBC is buying almost 90% of the Indonesian bank Bank Ekonomi Raharja Tbk for $607.5m. HSBC says that it sees “enormous growth opportunities ahead for Indonesia”, with its “rich natural resources, thriving commodities trade and foreign direct investment inflows, favourable demographics and the world's fourth largest population of 235 million people”.

Tri-Star Packaging has acquired Rhinopac, a specialist in vacuum packaging systems and food safety that counts Conran Restaurants, Le Gavroche and the Hilton Hotels Corporation as clients.

Digital Marketing Group has acquired the London-based IT systems consultancy and e-commerce specialist Cybercom Group UK from Cybercom Group Europe for a £6m. In a separate deal, DMG has also bought the direct voice marketing firm Gasbox for £1m.

ITV has acquired a majority stake in the German TV production firm Imago TV Film-und Fernsehproduktion for an initial €2m plus a possible further payment of €3.7m, depending on profits. ITV will have the exclusive international rights to distribute and exploit Imago's content, format, and series rights, and has the option to buy the rest of the company in due course.

Ink specialist Flint Group is to acquire the Hertford-based powder manufacturer Russell-Webb. The business will be integrated into Flint Group's press room consumables division, Day International. The coatings division of Russell-Webb continues as an independent company, RW Coatings.

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".

The Centrica subsidiary GB Gas Holdings has acquired Solar Technologies Group for £2.8m. The acquisition will enable British Gas to install solar photovoltaic technology, which converts sunlight into electrical energy, for its residential, business and public sector customers in the UK. Gearóid Lane, managing director of British Gas New Energy, said: “These technologies will become increasingly important as the UK implements policies to meet its stretching renewable energy and carbon emissions targets.  And with British Gas's energy experts supporting millions of Britain's homes and business, we are uniquely positioned to deliver".

IG Group is to acquire an 87.5% stake in FXOnline, a Japanese online retail FX trading company, for £112.2m. IG also has the option to acquire the remaining 12.5% of the company in 2011.

IDOX Group, the supplier of software to the local government sector, has acquired its rival, Plantech.

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.

The loss assessors Harris Claims Group and Balcombe Group have merged to form Harris Balcombe LLP.

Aggreko has bought the Canadian rental power specialist Power Plus Rental and Sales.

Philex Petroleum Corporation is to buy Forum Energy in a deal that values the UK-based oil, gas and coal exploration and production company at approximately £13.8m.

Cobham is to acquire the US digital equipment manufacturer GMS Inc for $26m.

Proventec, the provider of specialist steam cleaning and coatings technologies, has bought a 60 per cent stake in the 400-year-old German engineering business Frank GmbH.

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.

Coffee Nation, the coffee vending machine company, has been bought by its management and the private equity firm, Milestone Capital Partners, for around £25m.

The search marketing agency, Ambergreen has acquired the digital agency, Lightershade.

Recruit Retail Services has acquired the shopfitter, Kennedy Clayton.

Hamworthy Heating, the commercial heating equipment firm, has been bought by French engineering conglomerate, Atlantic Sfdt.

US buyout group, The Riverside Company, has acquired the Gloucestershire-based supplier of disposable medical devices, Summit Medical, for £36m.

Tullett Prebon is to acquire Primex Energy Brokers for up to $40m. Known as Amerex Europe until last year, Primex is a broker in a wide range of oil markets.

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.

Lavendon Group, is to acquire rival powered access equipment hire firm, The Platform Company, for £46.1m.

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.

Adconion Media Group, the independent online advertising network, has acquired San Diego-based direct marketing company, Frontline Direct, for £10m.

One of Britain's leading bed retailers, Dreams, has been bought by private equity firm, Exponent.

Aegis Group has acquired Peter Seagroatt & Associates, a specialist in the analysis of point of sale data from the petrol forecourt and convenience sectors for retailers and suppliers. Following the acquisition, PS&A will become part of Synovate Aztec.

Taylor Nelson Sofres has agreed to acquire the US digital intelligence company, Compete, for $75m. Compete conducts research into consumers' internet behaviour.

Bezier Group has acquired retail design agency, Coutts Retail Communications (CRC).

AOL is to acquire the social media network Bebo for £417m. Bebo has 40 million users worldwide.

Ekay, the advertising and marketing agency, is to acquire WFCA Integrated. Ekay claims that the purchase means that it is now is now the largest agency outside of London by media billing.

Spanish bank, Santander, is to acquire GE Money's card and vehicle businesses in the UK and integrate them into its Santander Consumer Finance and Santander Cards divisions. Santander owns the UK high street bank, Abbey.

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.

Yacht builder Oyster Marine has been bought by private equity firm Balmoral Capital for an undisclosed sum.

WPP Digital, the digital investment arm of WPP Group, has acquired 75% of HeathWallace, the Reading-based website design agency.

The affiliate network, buy.at, which has offices in London, Newcastle and New York, has been acquired by AOL. Buy.at will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL's Advertising.com.

Avro Industries has acquired the thermoforming packaging company RR Foodbox.

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.

Find out more about Electric Marketing and our mailing lists, please contact us at lists@electricmarketing.co.uk or on 020 7419 7999.