AirTest Technologies Inc. (TSXV: AAT)
A Green-Tech company specializing in sensors that improve commercial building operating efficiency and at the same time create energy savings.
AT&T (T +0.5%) is now looking at selling a “significant minority stake” in its DirecTV, AT&T Now and U-verse pay television operations, CNBC reports.
It’s talking with private-equity firms including Apollo Global Management (APO +1%) to solicit bids for a complicated transaction that would move the legacy assets off the AT&T balance sheet, according to the report.
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AT&T would maintain majority economic ownership, and would continue to own U-verse infrastructure including plants and fiber. But the buyer would control pay TV distribution and consolidate the businesses on their books.
Unchanged from previous reports is the expectation that DirecTV may be valued at less than $15B including debt, after AT&T acquired the operation in 2015 for $67B with debt.
Final bids are due in early December, CNBC says.
Uber (NYSE:UBER) shares are up 3% and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) up 7% after a MKM Partners survey suggests a victory for the companies in an important California ballot measure.
MKM analyst Rohit Kulkarni says a survey of 1,000 likely California voters found that 57% supported Proposition 22, while 22% were opposed and 21% were undecided.
The analyst notes that Lyft has a higher market exposure to California (about 15% of pre-pandemic bookings) and thus has more to gain or lose.
Prop. 22 would overturn a prior state law that required companies to classify gig workers as employees, which comes with more pay and benefits requirements.
Uber and Lyft have donated money to promote Prop. 22 and have threatened to leave California if the state law remains in place.
Battery Ventures, a global, technology-focused investment firm, has agreed to acquire the combined Cimatron and GibbsCAM software businesses from global additive manufacturing solutions company 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD), +5.2% PM.
Transaction expected to close during Q4.
As part of the acquisition, Cimatron and GibbsCAM will join Battery-backed SigmaTEK Systems, a CAD/CAM software provider serving professional fabricators, in a new holding company called CAMBRIO.
“As a combined entity, we will continue to invest in each of the individual products, make our customers more productive, and enlarge our distribution capability,” SigmaTEK Systems CEO Robbie Payne.
Earlier, news broke that the Shanghai arm of fintech Ant Group’s (NYSE:BABA) blockbuster IPO was suspended by regulators, but there weren’t any details about the Hong Kong arm.
Ant Group has now confirmed that the Hong Kong listing has also been suspended.
The listing was supposed to be the world’s largest offering, raising about $34.4B – or nearly $40B if greenshoe options were exercised – at a $310B valuation. There were reportedly nearly $3T on the order books for the offering.
BABA shares are now down 7.4% pre-market.
A tweet from Chinese state-affiliated media company Global Times says the Shanghai stock exchange has suspended that arm of Ant Group’s (NYSE:BABA) IPO.
There’s nearly $3T in orders for the offering, which hopes to raise just shy of $40B.
The tweet was backed up by Shanghai’s market regulator, which cites recent regulatory talks and the possible inability for Ant to comply with IPO disclosure requirements.
Yesterday, the WSJ reported that controlling Ant owner Jack Ma and two executives were summoned on Monday to meet with China’s central bank and the securities, banking, and foreign exchange regulators.
The details weren’t discussed. Ant simply said that views “regarding the health and stability of the financial sector were exchanged.”
Alibaba shares are down nearly 5% pre-market to $295.37.
