Datalogix is important element of Oracle’s acquisition strategy

On December 22, 2014, Oracle (ORCL) announced the acquisition of Datalogix, a provider of digital marketing data as a service (or DaaS). Datalogix connects offline consumer spending data with digital marketing efforts with the goal of tracking advertising, its influence on consumers, and the resultant returns.

Datalogix has more than 650 customers and 1,500 data partners that track $2 trillion in consumer spending. Advertisers and digital media publishers such as Lenovo, Google (GOOG), (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), Ahold, Kraft (KRFT), and Ford use Datalogix to enhance their media presence. The company provides purchase-based targeting that leads to more revenue generation.

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Mergermarket in FTSE Global Markets

Lack of mega deals weighs on UK M&A figures M&A activity targeting the United Kingdom stood at £37.5bn in the first half of 2014, the lowest half-year value since 2010 (£37bn) and a 12.5% drop from the first six months of last year.

M&A activity targeting the United Kingdom stood at £37.5bn in the first half of 2014, the lowest half-year value since 2010 (£37bn) and a 12.5% drop from the first six months of last year.

A lack of large transactions in the country pulled the UK M&A value down this semester, according to MergerMarket, with only one mega-deal (valued above US$5bn) announced in the region so far this year – the £8.6bn acquisition of the Oncology division of GlaxoSmithKline by its German peer Novartis.

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Healthcare at heart of robust year in M&A

Market wisdom has it that most takeovers destroy value in the long-run. But the world’s largest companies seem to have had little time for history lessons in 2014. In all, there were 96 deals worth more than $5bn completed over the past 12 months. Together, their value was around $1.2tn, or 37 per cent of the overall volume of corporate transactions.

In what soon became the best year for dealmaking since the financial crisis — measured on a total volume of $3.34tn — the US led the way, spurred by favourable economic conditions and central bank monetary policy. But Europe and Asia finished the year strongly as well.

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The New York Times: As Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Show, Mergers and Acquisitions Cycle All About Buy, Divide and Conquer

In the fall of 2001, Hewlett-Packard announced a momentous $25 billion merger with Compaq, as commented by The New York Times.

“This is a decisive move that accelerates our strategy and positions us to win by offering even greater value to our customers and partners,” declared Carly Fiorina, HP’s chairwoman and chief executive at the time, describing how the deal would “create substantial share owner value.”

Thirteen years later, just this fall, Meg Whitman, HP’s current chairwoman and

Mergers and Acquisitions Conference 2015 New York City

chief executive, undid that deal, splitting the company in two. “It will provide each new company with the independence, focus, financial resources and flexibility they need to adapt quickly to market and customer dynamics.”

Eerily mirroring Ms. Fiorina’s words, she said the divorced companies “will be in an even better position to compete in the market, support our customers and partners, and deliver maximum value to our shareholders.”

So which was the right decision? The merger or the spinoff?

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Goldman Sachs’s David Kostin on Why 2015 Could be Better than We Think

According to CNBC, Goldman Sachs already appears to be having second thoughts on its tepid forecast for 2015.

The firm’s clients believe Goldman is overestimating how much interest rates will rise in the years ahead, strategist David Kostin said in his weekly report that summarized recent meetings with market pros.

Kostin has projected the Federal Reserve‘s target funds rate to hit 3.9 percent by the end of 2018. Fund managers, though, believe slow global growth and low inflation will keep the U.S. central bank in only modest hiking mode, translating to just a 2 percent funds rate in that span.

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Honduras Votes for President as Drug Violence Crimps Growth

According to Bloomberg,

Hondurans choose a new president and Congress today as the world’s highest rate of violent crime crimps economic growth in the country four years after a military coup ousted former President Manuel Zelaya.

Polls show the race in a statistical tie between the ruling National Party’s Juan Orlando Hernandez, 45, and Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro, who heads the newly formed Libre party. Both candidates have vowed to improve security after a surge in murders fueled by drug gangs linked to Mexican cartels. Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time and will close at 5 p.m.

Castro, 54, is seeking to break a century-long grip on the presidential palace by the country’s two traditional parties. She has tapped into frustration from the coup, during which she led protests to have her husband returned from exile. Hernandez led the national assembly when Zelaya was ousted for backing a referendum to change the constitution.

In the eight-candidate race, no party is expected to win a majority in the legislature.

“It’s going to be difficult for whoever wins to govern,” said Geoff Thale, director of the Washington Office on Latin America.

Bordered by Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, Honduras has a murder rate of more than 80 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the world, according to the United Nations. The U.S. State Department estimated that last year about 90 percent of all cocaine smuggling flights departing South America for the U.S. first land in Honduras, where illegal airstrips abound in poorly patrolled parts of the country.

International Observers

The government plans to deploy 14,000 soldiers and police to safeguard the process, while almost 750 international observers will monitor the vote. Current President Porfirio Lobo is barred from seeking re-election and whoever gets the most votes wins. There is no second round.

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U.S. Stocks Extend Records on Fed Bets Amid Factory Data

According to Bloomberg,

U.S. stocks rose to records, with benchmark gauges capping a sixth week of gains, as investors assessed data on factory output amid growing speculation the Federal Reserve will maintain the pace of its monthly stimulus.

The New York Stock Exchange (Bloomberg)

Exxon Mobil Corp. rallied 2.2 percent to a record after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a stake. FedEx Corp. climbed 1.6 percent as billionaire investorsGeorge Soros andJohn Paulson took positions. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased at least 6.2 percent as Bill Ackman’s hedge fund bought shares in the government-backed mortgage insurers. Western Union Co. dropped 4.3 percent after the company said its chief financial officer is leaving.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.4 percent to 1,798.18 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge gained 1.6 percent in the past five days, capping its longest streak of weekly gains since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 85.48 points, or 0.5 percent, to 15,961.70, a third straight record. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, in line with the three-month average.

Janet Yellen’s remarks yesterday told investors that “interest rates are going to remain low for a while, which is a positive environment for equities,” John Fox, director of research at Fenimore Asset Management in Cobleskill, New York, said by phone. Fenimore oversees about $1.8 billion. “The combination of earnings growth and expanded PE due to investors feeling better about things just continues to move the market higher.”

Data Watch

The S&P 500 (SPX) and the Dow rallied as Yellen, nominated to succeed Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, said yesterday the central bank should take care not to withdraw stimulus too early from an economy that is operating well below potential.

Data today showed manufacturing in the New York region unexpectedly contracted in November. A separate report showed total industrial production in the U.S. fell 0.1 percent in October as output at mines and utilities declined. Factory output rose more than forecast. Wholesale inventories widened by 0.4 percent in September, the Census Bureau said.

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QE Raises Risk of Loss With Political Cost Leads to Fed Anxiety Rises

Fed Anxiety Rises as QE Raises Risk of Loss With Political Cost (Bloomberg)

According to Bloomberg,

The longer the Federal Reserve continues its bond-buying stimulus, the higher the odds it will face a year without any money to give the U.S. Treasury after taxpayers received a record $88.4 billion profit in 2012.

The Fed’s financial-crisis actions — from acquiring debt in the 2008 rescues of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc. to three rounds of quantitative easing — have led so far to the record payments. Now, the prospect of a stronger economy and rising interest rates means the value of the Fed’s bond holdings will fall at the same time its funding costs climb because the central bank pays interest on the excess reserves it holds for banks.

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JPMorgan Banker Backed $200 Million Madoff Loan in 2008

Daniel Bonventre (Bloomberg)

According to Bloomberg,

A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) banker who managed Bernard Madoff’s account said the con man was on track to receive a $200 million loan less than a month before his arrest if the request hadn’t been dropped.

Daniel Bonventre, one of five ex-Madoff employees on trial for allegedly aiding the fraud, asked JPMorgan in November 2008 to borrow twice Madoff’s credit limit of $100 million, with U.S. Treasuries as collateral, Mark Doctoroff, who left the bank last year, testified yesterday in federal court in Manhattan.

“They are doing well financially,” Doctoroff said of Madoff’s securities firm in an e-mail to JPMorgan’s credit department on Nov. 17, 2008. “They are looking at the current market as an opportunity to make investments, true to their value investing style.”

The five former employees are accused of helping Madoff hide his fraud from customers, banks and regulators for years, and getting rich in the process. It’s the first criminal trial stemming from the scheme, which prosecutors say started in the early 1970s and imploded at the peak of the financial crisis.

The loan was part of a last-ditch attempt by Madoff to  secure cash as his Ponzi scheme was collapsing and  Bonventre’s role in the application process was one of the  many examples of his involvement in the fraud, prosecutors  have said.

Doctoroff, who was Madoff’s relationship manager at the bank from about February 2008 until Madoff’s arrest in December that year, said he didn’t know at the time Madoff had a formal investment advisory unit — the center of the Ponzi scheme involving fake trades — or that Madoff’s JPMorgan account was used for that business.

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Hedge Funds See Further Profit From Glencore-Xstrata

Hedge funds are betting that commodities trader Glencore will succeed in its battle for miner Xstrata, in a long-running deal that has been profitable for arbitrageurs and is still attracting funds looking to make money.

Arbs, hungry for action after a lean period for M&A, have been buzzing around the deal for months, attracted by its size, liquidity and complexity, and many profited from last week’s move by Glencore(GLEN.L) to sweeten its now 23 billion pound all-share bid.

Reported by Laurence Fletcher and Sophie Sassard, Reuters, Xstrata (XTA.L) was expected to recommend the offer as early as next week, although Qatar Holding – its second-biggest investor after Glencore – has yet to make its decision public.

However, after a breakthrough in talks last week, brokered by former British prime minister Tony Blair, many funds believe it is only a matter of time before the deal gets the Qataris’ stamp of approval.

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