Happy Thanksgiving! At K. Liu & Co., we are particularly thankful for all of the support we have received in our first year of existence. Despite the short holiday week, there was still a fair bit of news to digest with the off-calendar reporting season now underway.
Read MoreJust when we thought the summer doldrums were upon us, VMware (VMW) made waves with the announcement of two public company take-outs. The first, an acquisition of long-time partner and fellow Dell Technologies (DELL) controlled company Pivotal Software (PVTL), came as no surprise given last week’s 13D/A by Dell Technologies disclosing merger discussions.
Read MoreFollowing a 13D/A filing by controlling shareholder Dell Technologies (DELL) disclosing merger discussions, Pivotal Software (PVTL) confirmed that the company is negotiating an agreement to be acquired by VMware (VMW) for $15.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of nearly 81% to the close price prior to the disclosure.
Read MoreIn a quiet week on the earnings front, several strategic M&A transactions dominated the headlines. Following Google’s $2.6 billion of business intelligence provider Looker last week, Salesforce (CRM) entered into an agreement to acquire self-service analytics provider Tableau Software (DATA) in an all-stock deal valuing Tableau at an enterprise value of $15.7 billion, representing a TTM EV/Sales multiple of 13.2x and a FY ’20 EV/Sales multiple of 9.6x based on consensus forecasts at the time of the announcement.
Read MoreConsolidation continued in the cybersecurity space this week with FireEye (FEYE), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), and Zscaler (ZS) all announcing acquisitions to expand the breadth of their respective offerings.
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