France's Sagem, Snecma in $9 Bln Merger
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French companies Snecma and Sagem  announced a planned 7 billion euro ($8.9 billion) merger on  Friday in a deal that analysts said was driven by political  rather than shareholder interests.
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The Tokyo and London stock exchanges are set to sign a business alliance on Friday as part of a global race for consolidation among the world's top bourses, informed sources said Thursday.
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Top Chinese car maker SAIC Motor Corp  will sign an agreement to buy the manufacturing assets of  smaller rival Nanjing Automobile Group on Wednesday, the  Shanghai Securities News said, in a deal worth up to $1.9  billion.
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Realogy, the giant real estate franchisor, agreed today to be sold to Apollo Group, the private equity firm, for about $9 billion.
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(InfoWorld) - While consolidation can be a sign of a mature, slowing market, the M&A activity happening now, especially seen in context of this week's six-year Nasdaq Composite Index high, signals confidence in IT and prospects for growth. High-tech mergers and acquisitions hit a record number last year and the trend continues. Wednesday, Cisco Systems announcedÂ it will make a $135 million acquisition of Reactivity, a maker of XML gateway and security hardware to manage Web services. Tuesday,Â SAP said it would acquire Pilot Software, a supplier of strategy management software, while Wind River SystemsÂ saidÂ it bought FSMLabs' embedded Linux technology for real-time applications. SAP rival Software AG said Wednesday thatÂ it will be focusing on SOA products and services and plans acquisitions to broaden its product portfolio. Companies outside of traditional enterprise IT are also part of the M&A trend. Satellite radio operators Sirius Satellite RadioÂ and XM Satellite Radio Holdings, with total revenue of about $1.5 billion, announced Monday thatÂ they plan to merge. Though different sectors within IT are subject to unique market situations, globalization and trends in financing are the prime forces driving M&A, according to Eric Gebaide, managing director of Innovation Advisors, a New York investment firm. After the "general meltdown" in 2001, it's been hard for small companies, especially those under $75 million in revenue, to go public, Gebaide said. This makes them acquisition targets. "Another factor is the need to start having global solutions," Gebaide said. The globalization of technology is underscored by an Innovation Advisers study, based on using data sourced from Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, that shows that the total percentage of U.S.-based companies participating in M&A activity continued to decline to 51.6 percent from 57.9 percent in 2005. Overall M&A transactions hit a record last year: The total number of transactions in 2006 was 4,669, exceeding 2005's total of 3,455, and the 2000 total of 2,871 deals at the peak of the dot-com boom, according to Innovations Advisers. But the total amount of dollars spent on M&A last year was less than in 2000: $295.8 billion, while the 2000 transaction total was $490.3 billion. Company valuations are more reasonable now than in 2000. Recent deals show software companies are being valued at two to four times revenue, while service companies are valued at one to two times revenue, Gebaide said. Historically, these numbers are more normal then the valuations of the dot-com boom. Meanwhile, services companies are forecasting solid revenue growth this year -- a sign that users are investing in IT, Gebaide points out. The Nasdaq close on Wednesday, at 2518.42, was the highest in six years. On Thursday it closed up again, at 2524.94. Coming right after earnings season, this is another sign that confidence is high. Although overall global revenue growth in IT is expected to be modest compared to the dot-com boom --- most estimates peg IT growth this year at about 6.5 percent -- the expansion is likely to be more sustainable than it was seven years ago. Though the IT market may not be as exuberant as it was in 2000, many investors are certainly willing to settle for more stable, rational growth. Â
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Acquisition-happy firm gobbles up 70 percent Sage, the UK-based biz management software maker, has acquired a majority stake in French firm XRT.â¦
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Canadian insurer Great-West Lifeco Inc.  said on Thursday it will buy ailing money manager Putnam Investments from Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.  for $3.9 billion in a bid to gain a key foothold in the U.S. asset management market.
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Orthopedic device maker Biomet Inc.   said on Monday it has agreed to be acquired by a  private equity consortium for about $10.9 billion.
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Consolidation in Europe's drugs   sector gathered steam on Thursday as Germany's Merck MRCG.DE   unveiled a $13.3-billion deal to buy Europe's top biotech firm   Serono SEO.VX, and Denmark's Nycomed won the drugs unit of   Altana ALTG.DE.
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Sprint (FON:NYSE - news - research) and Nextel (NXTL:Nasdaq - news - research) confirmed their $35 billion merger Wednesday, setting ambitious plans for growth along with extensive cost-cutting.
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Great-West Lifeco said it would acquire Putnam Investments from the Marsh & McLennan Companies for about $3.9 billion.
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Euronext  shareholders are due to approve a $14 billion plan to merge with the New York Stock Exchange  and create the first transatlantic bourse. But some opponents may cause heated discussions at a meeting on Tuesday.
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ROME  - Italy's defence and aerospace company Finmeccanica SpA said Friday it had agreed to merge its space activities with those of French telecommunications company Alcatel SA through two joint ventures.
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- Asset management firm BlackRock Inc.  said it agreed to acquire the fund of funds business of Quellos Group LLC for up to $1.7 billion, in a move to expand its alternative investment operations.
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Dutch financial group SNS Reaal  is to buy the Dutch insurance operations of France's AXA  for 1.75 billion euros ($2.35 billion) to double its domestic market share and save costs.
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Orthopedic device maker Biomet Inc.  said on Monday it will be acquired by a private equity consortium for about $10.9 billion, ending talks with rival implant maker Smith & Nephew Plc. .
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Euronext  shareholders are due to approve a $14 billion plan to merge with the New York Stock Exchange  and create the first transatlantic bourse.