ING Groep has received a bid for its Latin American assets from a group that includes the Grupo Financiero Banorte (Mexico) and the Luksic family (Chile), according to Bloomberg. Other bidders also may have submitted offers by the May 9 deadline. Goldman Sachs is managing the process. ING had said in February that it was reviewing strategic options for the assets, which were acquired from Banco Santander for $1.6 billion in 2008. www.ing.com
Virgin Money plans to bid on 600 Lloyds bank branches, according to the FT. Lloyds is looking to sell the branches as a condition of a recent government aid package.
BC Partners has sold a 28% stake in French nursing homes operator Medica SA (Paris: MDCA) to Covea Group (18.6%) and Batipart (9.5%) for approximately €215 million. BC Partners took Medica public in early 2010, and will retain a 3% position going forward. www.bcpartners.com
Reply.com, a Mountain View, Calif.-based marketplace for the acquisition of locally-targeted consumer traffic, has acquired MerchantCircle, a Los Altos, Calif.-based online network of local business owners. The deal was valued at $60 million in cash and stock. Reply has raised around $42 million in VC funding, from firms like Scale Venture Partners, Outlook Ventures and ATEL Ventures. MerchantCircle had raised over $14 million in VC funding, from firms like Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures and IAC. Late last year, MerchantCircle acquired TimeBridge, which had raised $10 million from Mayfield and Norwest Venture Partners. www.mrchantcircle.com
THURSDAY, MAY 27
British American Tobacco PLC has agreed to acquire Columbian cigarette maker Productora Tabacalera de Colombia for $452 million.
Foxtel, an Australian on-demand television company, has offered to acquire rival Austar for A$2 billion.
Maple Group, a consortium of Canadian banks and pension funds, said they will take their rejected buyout bid for TMX Group – operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange – directly to shareholders. The hostile move is an effort to rival a merger between TMX and the London Stock Exchange.
Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) said that it plans to raise more than $190 million in new capital, largely to fund development of a crossover vehicle dubbed Model X. It plans to offer 5.3 million common shares via a secondary public offering, plus sell 1.5 million shares via a private placement to CEO Elon Musk. Existing shareholder Daimler will purchase another 577,000 shares via private placement.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25
Archway, a Rogers, Minn.-based provider of marketing fulfillment and marketing supply chain management services, has secured an $85 million credit facility (expandable to $120 million) for acquisition purposes. Madison Capital Funding served as lead arranger. Archway shareholders include Tailwind Capital and Black Canyon Capital. www.archway.com
Diageo (LSE: DGE) is in talks to acquire Casa Cuervo, the owner of Jose Cuervo tequila, for more than $2 billion, according to multiple press reports. The two companies also may reach an alternate agreement to expand their distribution deal.
Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE: WPI) has acquired Specifar Pharmaceuticals SA, a Greek generic drug developer. The deal is valued at $562 million in cash.
GE has agreed to acquire FMC-Tech, a Ireland–based provider of real-time power line monitoring solutions. No financial terms were disclosed. FMC-Tech had been a finalist in GE’s Ecomagination Challenge, a $200 million innovation contest co-sponsored by VC firms Kleiner Perkins, Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital and Rockport Capital. www.ge.com
TUESDAY, MAY 24
Accelrys Inc. (Nasdaq: ACCL), a San Diego-based provider of scientific enterprise R&D software and services, has acquired Contur Software AB, a Swedish provider of electronic lab notebook software. The deal was valued at $13.1 million in cash. www.contur.com
Conduit, an Israel-based network of browser and mobile app publishers, has acquired Wibiya, a Web publishing solution and app platform. The deal was valued at around $45 million. Conduit backers include Benchmark Capital and Yozma Group, while Wibya had raised money from Primera Capital. www.conduit.com
GlobalLogic, a Vienna, Va.-based provider of outsourced software product engineering services, has acquired Rofous Software, a product and content engineering company. No financial terms were disclosed. GlobalLogic has raised nearly $50 million in VC funding from firms like Sequoia Capital India, New Atlantic Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. www.globallogic.com
Jive Software, a Portland, Ore.-based maker of social business collaboration software, has acquired OffiSync Corp., a provider of social solutions to the Microsoft environment. No financial terms were disclosed. Jive has raised nearly $60 million in VC funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. www.jivesoftware.com
MONDAY, MAY 23
TowerBrook Capital Partners has agreed to sell shoemaker Jimmy Choo to Labelux for approximately $811 million. www.jimmychoo.com
Global Telecom and Technology has acquired PacketExchange, a UK-based content delivery network, for $20 million in cash and assumed debt. PacketExchange shareholders include Bank of Scotland, DFJ Esprit, ETV Capital and GMT Communications Partners.
The Toronto Stock Exchange has rejected a C$3.6 billion takeover bid from a group of Canadian pension funds and financial institutions.
Software AG (Frankfurt: SOW) has acquired Terracotta Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of software for application scalability, availability and performance. No financial terms were disclosed. Terracotta raised around $30 million in VC funding from Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital and DAG Ventures.www.terracottatech.com
