From Wednesday, Peloton will begin selling its original bike as well as a number of accessories to US customers via Amazon. 

Speaking to CNBC, Peloton’s chief commercial officer, Kevin Cornils, said: “Post-Covid, the retail environment — online and in stores — is continuing to evolve, and that’s something that we’re trying to understand better to make sure the Peloton of the future is calibrated appropriately for that.”

The move appears to be the most recent effort by Peloton to widen its customer base and boost investor confidence after a number of setbacks.

For example, February saw Peloton accused of concealing rust and corrosion on its bikes to avoid product recalls, with the company claiming the rust was “superficial” and would not impact the bike’s performance. In the first quarter of 22%, Peloton’s sales slumped by 24%.

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Deloitte Tax & Legal advised Biofarma with a team including Marco Bastasin (Tax M&A and Deal Advisory) and Mario De Blasi (Tax M&A and Deal Advisory).

Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici advised Biofarma with a team including Michele Aprile (Tax M&A and Deal Advisory).

Giovannelli e Associati Studio Legale advised Biofarma with a team including Matteo Delucchi (Corporate M&A).

Daniele Corno and Marco Fraschini, Partners at independent tax firm CORNO FRASCHINI + PARTNERS, acted as tax and corporate advisers to Giellepi.

The deal with CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II, which is also backed by CC Capital, marks Getty Images’ return to public markets after 13 years. The deal will provide the company with proceeds of up to $1.2 billion, including funds from the special purpose acquisition company’s (SPAC) trust account as well as a $150 million private investment in public equity. 

Getty Images, which was founded in 1995 by Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein, was bought out by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman in 2008, then acquired four years later by the Carlyle group. In 2018, the Getty family took control of the company after acquiring Carlyle Group’s stake, valuing it at around $3 billion.

Getty Images said the merger would bring down debt and increase cash flow to support the company in its future growth.

The deal between the firms follows Ericsson's acquisition of wireless networking company Cradlepoint for $1.1 billion in 2020. However, this latest deal marks Ericsson’s largest in many years. 

In a statement, Ericsson said, “The merger agreement was approved unanimously by the Board of Vonage. The transaction builds upon Ericsson’s stated intent to expand globally in wireless enterprise, offering existing customers an increased share of a market valued at USD 700 billion by 2030.” 

In the statement, President and CEO of Ericsson Börje Ekholm also said: “The core of our strategy is to build leading mobile networks through technology leadership. This provides the foundation to build an enterprise business.”

The deal with Vonage, which had sales of $1.4 billion in the 12 months to September 30 2021, marks a new phase since Ekholm took over as company CEO in 2017. 

Ekholm has focused on restructuring Ericsson following the firm’s decision to branch out into multi-media in the early 2000s, which proved a struggle for the company as it grappled to fit its purchases into its operations. 

The deal will close in the first half of 2022, subject to approval by Vonage shareholders, regulatory approvals, and other conditions. Eccrison expects the deal to boost earnings per share and free up cash flow in the coming years. 

His background consists of extensive work in both restructure/corporate renewal as well as capital markets transactional advisory. In the restructure realm, Joseph specialises in liquidity management, crisis management, balance sheet restructure, and organisational change. In this capacity, Joseph has served as both an interim and fractional CFO and COO. Through Kreshmore Group, he has served in these roles for private equity sponsored companies and other privately held middle-market companies. Over the course of his career, Joseph has closed a multitude of transactions in virtually every industry with a special emphasis on transportation, multi-unit retail chains, clinical medicine, and distribution/wholesale. Joseph has been successful in pushing the fold of capital stack creativity by leveraging equity, complex subordinated structures, traditional financial offerings, and federal, state, and local government incentives.

Kreshmore Group serves privately held middle-market companies. It works on behalf of both management teams and creditors to resolve clients’ core problems. Kreshmore’s senior advisory staff is comprised of industry-leading strategists with strong finance and accounting backgrounds and a history of owning and managing their own companies which gives them a distinct advantage over traditional consulting firms.

The COVID-19 economy continues to challenge many businesses across the globe. What has that meant for restructurings and turnarounds in the US?

The predominant buzzword thrown around the business community in 2020 used to describe the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic was “unprecedented”. Despite how overused the term is 18 months later, it still remains a rather accurate description of the challenges companies faced throughout the pandemic and continue to face as the pandemic looms. To that end, COVID-19 has forced business leaders, their management teams, and their financial advisers to make extremely challenging decisions and to push the bounds of innovation. A key fact pattern in restructures consists of the following: assess the current situation and determine knowns from unknowns, gather data and determine quality of said data, craft plans and strategies to enact key initiatives, make assumptions and forecast the various scenarios that could arise as a result of the decisions made. The COVID pandemic has not fundamentally changed that process. What it did change, perhaps, is the extent to which the “equation” is filled with unknowns. In the heat of the pandemic, it took sound judgment and deep experience to swiftly close offices, shutter stores, lay off certain personnel, etc. Today, with the immediate emergency at bay, there is a return to a systematically slower approach that affects change and revives enterprises.

Today, with the immediate emergency at bay, there is a return to a systematically slower approach that affects change and revives enterprises.

How has the pandemic affected Kreshmore Group’s restructuring and turnaround department and how have you navigated this?

When it became evident that the attempted containment of the COVID-19 pandemic would grind the world economy to a halt, our team was highly focused on existing restructure clients. We were headlong in numerous files that were inching towards resolution when COVID stopped everything in its tracks. It in many ways it felt like COVID would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Our approach was to reallocate resources internally from M&A activities to Restructure initiatives, understanding that M&A transactions were going to cease or slow down until the pandemic restrictions eased. This enabled the Kreshmore team to enact the key initiatives we had outlined across a wide base of clients (both ongoing restructures and pre-emptive restructure planning). This further allowed us to dedicate analyst resources towards reading the dense local and federal aid legislation in order to be at the forefront of economic aid programs. We prioritised our focus on debtor and creditor relationships as we had to build trust with the creditors and garner their buy-in to our process and ultimate plan to survive the pandemic. We additionally focused on forging relationships with the SBA and related parties to better understand the various grant and relief programs. These programs would ultimately serve as a crutch for our entire client base who would go on to qualify to varying degrees.

The 2020 pandemic has been a roller coaster for our company and our clients both professionally and personally. There were many 14-hour days in early March 2020 when clients were reeling and there was little help in sight with regard to government intervention. Overall, Kreshmore’s restructure business became very busy in the early innings of the pandemic and continued to stay busy throughout the pandemic.

Our goal at the outset of the pandemic was to rapidly institute cash preservation plans and to proactively open discussions with our clients’ various stakeholders. This entailed significant planning and execution of loan and lease deferrals, landlord deferrals and abatement, furloughs and staffing restructures. The COVID crisis was a predicament of catastrophic consequence and we knew that in order for our clients to have a fighting chance we needed to be realistic with the help we would require from our creditors. We also had to base our requests on actual facts supported by meaningful analysis. This analysis would prove to be some of the most challenging work we have undergone in that it was nearly impossible (and in some ways still is) to see what the world would look like in 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks, etc.

Today we see many companies who have had their balance sheets shored up with government aid. The clients who were able to negotiate with key stakeholders have further strengthened cash reserves. We are seeing a much more sober management approach than perhaps 24 months ago, with many companies still waiting for a clearer line of sight on the mid-to-long term impacts of the economic recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What are the main lessons the pandemic has taught you?

In many ways, the same tools, strategies, and best practices deployed pre-pandemic are just as important in the environment we’ve found ourselves in today. One particularly interesting insight the pandemic has offered is the fragility of the supply chain and the benefit of US-based manufacturing (for US-based companies). Most companies, especially in (or above) the middle market, have experienced supply and vendor related issues; be it through natural disasters, rising prices, or any number of other complications that may happen in the ordinary course of business. Typically, management can inexpensively manoeuvre and replace the key vendor/supplier so as not to severely impact operations. The supply chain disruption we have experienced as a result of the pandemic has been economy-wide and has opened eyes as to the importance of manufacturing “close to home”. It has also become very evident that in addition to simply keeping a wide base of potential suppliers it is critical to have strong lines of communication open at all times with suppliers to help forecast potential disruptions and course correct at an earlier juncture.

Another very practical reminder from the COVID pandemic is the human consequences that happen as a result of management initiatives. Oftentimes management teams are so focused on revenue targets, growth, profitability metrics, etc. that they forget about their impact (as an organisation) on their employees’ and customers’ lives. The sweeping changes that were enacted by companies across the United States were bold, costly, and commendable. These changes were done with no known government aid and no idea of when restrictions would ease. The restrictions were put in place for the common human goal of ending the pandemic. This human reminder was a rare time that borrowers, creditors, competitors, employees, employers, etc. put everything aside and were completely aligned on a non-financial goal.

The deadline to negotiate the exit was recently prolonged to October 31st, 2019. What are financial and economic consequences going to be for the UK? Public opinion has changed a lot lately. Theresa May has stepped down from the position of the UK’s Prime Minister and got replaced by Boris Johnson on 24th July. He promised that Brexit is going to be executed by 1st November with or without a deal with the European Union. Labour party demands another vote, as their members don’t think that leaving the EU would be a good idea at this moment.

Great Britain would no longer have the tariff-free trade status with other European countries if they decide to leave without a deal. This would have a significant increase in exports cost and automatically make the UK goods more expensive in Europe and potentially weaker the British Pound.

The prices to import goods to the UK would be higher, which also means some of them would simply reconsider distribution to Britain.

The same thing would happen with European merchants. The prices to import goods to the UK would be higher, which also means some of them would simply reconsider distribution to Britain. One-third of the food is coming from the European Union, which means inflation and a lower standard of living would be inevitable for UK residents. No deal agreement could also reignite the issues with North Ireland. This country would stay with the UK but there would be a custom border introduced between them and the Republic of Ireland. The last two things we would like to mention as a potential consequence of no-deal exit are rights for EU citizens living in the UK and outstanding bills. In case of an exit like this UK would have to pay $51 billion of debt and find a solution to guarantee rights to EU people within their borders.

Hard Brexit is the second alternative, and it is different in so many ways than the above-mentioned exit. This one would include a trade agreement with the EU; but this would require another re-schedule of the exit, as there is no enough time to negotiate it. Hard Brexit could have serious consequences on London as the financial centre. A lot of companies would stop using it as an English-speaking entry to the European Union economy. Also according to the latest research, more than six thousand people could lose jobs because of this and turn the real estate market into a disaster. There would be hundreds of office buildings in London sitting empty, without anyone to rent them. By comparing housing prices now and two years back, the price has already started to drop drastically. Another significant impact on UK companies would be the inability to place bids on public contracts in any European Union zone. This would take a massive toll on banking as well. Best betting sites experts have publish some odds that show that Hard Brexit deal would also increase costs of mobile phone services and airfares. Could the UK lose Scotland in case of Hard Brexit agreement? Potentially, yes. Scotland might have a bigger advantage of being an EU member, which also means a referendum to leave the United Kingdom. One of the most profitable industries in the UK is online gambling, and this one shouldn’t be affected much by any option.

This is the warning from Nigel Green, the Founder and CEO of deVere Group. Mr Green says: “The actual process of leaving the EU itself is now increasingly irrelevant.  Indeed, even if the UK didn’t leave, unprecedented damage to the UK’s financial services industry has already been done.

“Following years of uncertainty and a lack of firm leadership from all parties, firms across the sector have had to take precautionary action to safeguard their interests. 

“Typically, this involves relocating parts of their business or key staff to places like Paris, Luxembourg, Dublin, Frankfurt and Amsterdam, or setting up legal entities in the EU.  Sometimes this has been done publicly, but a lot has, so far, not been disclosed, so we still can’t know the full scale of the situation.”

He continues: “With no meaningful access to the EU’s single market, the UK’s financial services sector is bracing itself for what is likely to be a long and steady decline, ultimately losing its coveted ranking as the world’s top financial centre.

“The lack of confidence in the UK’s financial services sector, which contributes around 6.5 per cent to the country’s GDP, will inevitably hit jobs and the government’s tax base.”

The deVere CEO concludes: “The steady drain of investment, talent and activity away from UK financial services might be able to be stopped, the situation might be recoverable, but confidence needs rebuilding fast.”

(Source: deVere Group)

Investors are rapidly losing confidence in the government’s ability to secure a good Brexit deal, according to new data from Assetz Capital’s Q3 Investor Barometer.

The peer-to-peer business lender carries out its Investor Barometer every quarter, a survey of its 29,000-strong investor community.

The Investor Barometer has tracked Brexit sentiment since the start of 2018, and as the UK’s withdrawal gets closer, confidence of a positive outcome to the negotiations has dropped. In Q3, only 10% were ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ of a good deal. This is down from 20% in Q2 and 21% in Q1.

Conversely, the number of ‘not confident’ or ‘not at all confident’ has continued to rise. The figure hit 90% in Q3, up from 80% in Q2 and 79% in Q1.

The results come following Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond warned that a no-deal Brexit would lead to ‘large fiscal consequences’.

Stuart Law, CEO at Assetz Capital said: “Whatever optimism our investors had around the Brexit negotiations is slipping away. The view from the Assetz Capital community is that there’s significant economic pain on the horizon.

“Post-withdrawal, it will be more important than ever that the whole alternative finance industry works hard to deliver for both investors and borrowers. It’s when the economy struggles that growth capital becomes even more scarce. Peer-to-peer lenders must stand up and support the country through this Brexit uncertainty.”

(Source: Assetz Capital)

Investors should expect an increase in market volatility and ensure that they are properly diversified, warns the senior analyst at deVere Group.

The warning from Tom Elliott, International Investment Strategist at deVere Group, comes as US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will exit the Iran nuclear deal and impose “powerful” sanctions.

Mr Elliott comments: “Investors should expect an increase in market volatility following Trump’s announcement that he is quitting the Iran nuclear deal.

“There will be global stock market sell-offs as the world adjusts to the news.”

He continues: “Due to the severity of the US President’s approach, in the shorter term at least it is likely gold and the US dollar may rally on growing fears of further conflicts in the Middle East breaking out; and risk assets, namely stocks and credit markets, may weaken. Oil may rally strongly.

“We will need to wait for the full Iranian response. However, I expect that they will try to continue to appear the reasonable partner and work with Russia and the Europeans, playing them off against the US If they take a more aggressive stance, oil, gold and the dollar will go considerably higher.”

Mr Elliott concludes: “Geopolitical events such as these underscore how essential it is for investors to always ensure that they are properly diversified - this includes across asset classes, sectors and geographical regions – to mitigate potential risks to their investment returns.”

Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox means that the House of Mouse now controls a huge amount of our most beloved films and television series.

Announced in December 2017 and expected to take until at least 2021 to complete, this $66.1bn deal (that included taking on a sizeable debt portfolio from Fox) ranks amongst the largest mergers of its kind in history.

We’ve compared these media giants, looked at the potential impact of the deal on both their own employees and the end user and demonstrated how Disney is looking to leverage this deal to break into new markets.

Read on to see how the merger will affect everything from television and the cinema box office to streaming platforms and sports broadcasting with our comprehensive infographic:

(Source: ABC FINANCE LTD)

A new report from VentureFounders, in conjunction with Beauhurst, has found that 56% of UK tech founders expect that their business will sell for £50m or less, but 80% want to re-enter the tech ecosystem and support it post-exit.

Other key findings:

• Most UK tech founders are intending to exit within 2-5 years, despite recognising the risks of exiting too early.
• If founders think they will sell for more than £50m, it would be to an overseas buyer.
• The longer a company has been generating revenue, the lower the valuation they expected on exit.

Quoted respondents include James Meekings of Funding Circle, Justin FitzPatrick of DueDil and SwiftKey's Jon Reynolds.

No ambition gap 

James Codling, CEO and co-founder of VentureFounders, believes that, despite the £50m figure, there is no ambition gap among UK tech founders:

"Our report highlights the challenges faced by scale-up entrepreneurs and how critical it is for the UK to continue to nurture the scale-up ecosystem. While UK founders do expect to exit earlier, 80% of them want to go back in to the ecosystem and support it, after they've exited their own business. We hope the government's Patient Capital Review will address some of the key findings from this report.

"We are also commissioning a further piece of work to look at the cost to scale a business in the UK and the funding gap that businesses experience. On the back of this, we expect to make a number of policy recommendations."

Toby Austin, CEO at Beauhurst, commented: “At Beauhurst, we have observed what I suspect are the beginnings of a shift in the funding landscape. Late-stage companies have been able to find the support and capital they need in the UK recently, although much of the money has come from foreign investors. The findings of the report support my belief that the UK is brimming with exciting, ambitious businesses and the ecosystem simply needs to catch up — hopefully it has already started to do so.”

(Source: VentureFounders)

Uber is close to securing an investment deal with Softbank, which if succesful, could amount to £10bn according to reports.

TechCrunch were given the following statement: “We’ve entered into an agreement with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer on a potential investment. We believe this agreement is a strong vote of confidence in Uber’s long-term potential… strengthening our corporate governance.”

Uber have said the money is going to aid them in their international expansion and technological advancements. The aim of the expansion is partly due to the competition they are currently experiencing.

As well as an initial $1bn investment, Softbank will attempt to buy up £6.8bn ($9bn) worth of shares, resulting in a total stake of 14% in Uber. However, this is reliant on the agreement of a fairly complex tender offer.

The tender offer is set to take place on November 28th and could go on for 20 business days, making it possibly the biggest secondary transaction ever.

Given that any deal would be reliant on existing Uber shareholders selling their stakes, the process will require more work before it can be finalised. To help spread the word about their tender offer to existing shareholders including venture capitalists and ex-employees, Uber plan on putting adverts into newspapers.

According to TechCrunch, the following statement was given to reporters via Softbank on behalf of Rajeev Misra, CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisors: “After a long and arduous process of several months it looks like Uber and its shareholders have agreed to commence with a tender process and engage with SoftBank. By no means is our investment decided. We are interested in Uber but the final deal will depend on the tender price and a minimum percentage shareholding for SoftBank.”

The statement made by Softbank reveals that the deal has not been confirmed and will depend on the agreement of the tender price and percentage shareholding for Softbank.

This investment is seen by many as potentially crucial for Uber. Up until now, employees were unable to sell shares of the company and this investment will aid them in turning paper riches into cash.

It’s been a difficult year for Uber so far with legal battles involving Alphabets self-driving car division, the loss of their licence to operate in London and attacks on their company culture. The CEO Travis Kalanick was also forced to step down in June this year amid several scandals and legal wrangling with investors.

The investment made by Softbank might not only provide a welcome boost at a difficult time, it could very well be vital for Ubers future.