The Daily Dish (08/09/21)
DraftKings Announces Deal to Buy Golden Nugget for $1.56 Billion
DraftKings has agreed to buy Golden Nugget Online Gaming Inc for $1.56 Billion, in a deal that sees the Houston Rockets owner join the fantasy sports betting firm with over 5 million customers.
Fertitta, which owns a 46% stake in Golden Nugget, has agreed to continue holding shares for a minimum of one year after the SPAC transaction closes.
As part of the new deal, DraftKings said that it would form a new holding company called New DraftKings, which would contain both DraftKings and Golden Nugget, which owns Landry’s portfolio of restaurants.
In a deal that is all stock, shareholders of Golden Nugget will receive 0.365 shares of New DraftKings stock for each share held.
Th transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. Golden Nugget’s parent company Fertitta Entertainment, agreed to go public through a SPAC merger. DraftKings used a similar route to go public in April last year.
Qualcomm Looking to Buy Auto Parts Maker Veoneer
Qualcomm is planning to hold talks with Swedish automotive technology company Veoneer in a bid to acquire the company. A recent offer from Qualcomm is likely to constitute a ‘superior bid’ under the terms of a previous acquisition bid Veoneer’s board had approved with Magna International.
Despite the discussions with Qualcomm, Veoneer has not withdrawn from its agreement with Magna.
Veoneer stated in its announcement that terminating the deal with Magna would require payment of a $110 million termination fee. Reports suggest that Qualcomm has made a $4.6 billion bid for Veoneer, which would represent an 18.4% premium over Magna’s.
The Qualcomm bid comes after two major recent announcements in the automotive technology sector. This includes Toyota adding mobility services to its fleet of self driving cars and driverless car startup Aurora announcing that it would go public through a SPAC merger.
EQRx Signs $2 Billion SPAC Merger with CM Life Sciences
EQRx, a pharmaceutical company which specializes in developing drug candidates for cancer and inflammatory conditions announced that it had entered a definitive SPAC merger agreement with CM Life Sciences, with the combined company valued at $2 Billion.
Using established drug targets, the company expects its candidates to have an increased probability of regulatory success, reduced risk adjusted cost of drug development and a more efficient access model.
The company’s pipeline has more than 10 programs, including two pre-registration oncology assets, aumolertinib and sugemalimab, which provided favourable Phase III data.
Furthermore, the company is bolstering its portfolio through engineering partnerships with major drug discovery such as Exscientia and AbCellera Biologics. The funding comprises $552 million in cash held in CM Life Sciences’ trust account as well as $1.2 billion from a committed PIPE placement.
