Deals in Brief

Liberty Global plc and Telefonica SA have announced an agreement to merge their operating businesses in the UK to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV). Virgin Media Plc and O2 Holding are telecommunication service providers and are based in the UK.

The deal is valued at £15.2bn, with O2 valued at £12.7bn and Virgin Media at £18.7bn, both on a total enterprise value basis. O2 will be transferred into the joint venture on a debt-free basis, while Virgin Media to be contributed with GBP11.3 billion of net debt and debt-like items.

Executive leadership of the JV will be agreed prior to the closing. The board will consist of eight members, four from each of Liberty Global and Telefonica. Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global, and José María Álvarez-Pallete, CEO of Telefonica, will sit on the board. The post of chairman will be held for alternating two-year periods by Liberty Global or Telefonica with Liberty Global holding the position first.

The transaction is expected to close around the middle of 2021 and is subject to regulatory approvals, consummation of the recapitalisations, and other customary closing conditions

Stripe, Inc, a US-based technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet and online payment processing, has secured an additional $600m in Series G funding.

Investors include Andreessen Horowitz LLC, General Catalyst Partners LLC, GV Management Co LLC and Sequoia Capital Operations LLC.

The transaction values Stripe at $36bn.

John Collison is the president and co-founder of Stripe.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson is to sell a stake of up to 12% in Virgin Galactic LLC, a US-based private space industry company that develops, owns and operates spaceships and spaceports, for $500m. This amounts to 25 million shares.

The announcement prompted a 5% fall in the share price of Virgin Galactic during pre-market trading. The sale is intended to plug the gap in airline Virgin Atlantic's books, which has been caused by Covid-19 lockdowns.

Xerox Holdings Corporation, a developer of printers, scanners, supplies, and accessories, has withdrawn the tender offer to acquire all shares in HP Inc, a developer of personal computers, printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing solutions, due to global health crisis and resulting macroeconomic and market turmoil caused by Covid-19.

Both companies involved in the transaction are based in the US, and the enterprise value of HP is $35.4bn.

Previously announced on March 2, 2020, Xerox Holdings had launched a tender offer to acquire all shares in HP. The offer price for the tender was intended to be $24 per share, comprised of $18.40 in cash and 0.149 Xerox shares for each HP share.

HP shareholders would have received $27bn in immediate, upfront cash.

This followed a previous rejection by HP of an offer to buy the company by Xerox in November 2019, which proposed an offer to HP shareholders at $22 per share comprised of $17 in cash and 0.137 Xerox shares, for a total transaction value of approximately $33.5bn.

JD.com, Inc (formerly known as 360buy or Jingdong), a Chinese e-commerce company, has filed a registration document with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to raise a minimum of $2bn and up to a maximum of $3.2bn in a public offering.

JD.com is planning to list its common stock on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and aims to sell 5% of the company.

Bank of America, UBS and CLSA will be the lead arrangers for the JD.com offering.

The transaction is subject to market conditions and other approvals. The offering could take place late in the third quarter of 2020.

Social media and technology company Facebook Inc has announced it will acquire Giphy Inc, a search engine that allows users to find, share and discover animated graphics interchange formats (GIFs) on the internet.

Both companies involved in the transaction are based in the US.

The transaction is valued at $400m.