It’s the Summer of Love, and big business is along for the ride. Across numerous industries this week, flings among various major players are turning into full-fledged unions in a series of high-profile mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships.
SpaceX, DraftKings, and agriculture corporation Cargill are each poised to welcome new businesses into their corporate portfolios. WeWork, meanwhile, is finalizing a fresh partnership with commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield.
The Price is Right
It’s a buyer’s market, and this market is hot, hot, hot. Even Elon Musk’s famously acquisition-adverse space company, SpaceX, is partaking in the fun with a purchase of satellite data startup Swarm Technologies. Meanwhile, DraftKings snapped up a cyber-casino competitor in Tilman Fertitta’s Golden Nugget Online, and Cargill expanded its chicken game with the purchase of poultry producer Sanderson Farms.
A few particulars of the deals:
- Swarm Technology and its 120 “tiny SpaceBee satellites” are set to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SpaceX. Though financial details are not yet public, Swarm was last valued at $85 million in a funding round completed in January 2019, according to Pitchbook. The firm’s SpaceBee fleet will presumably be folded into SpaceX’s existing Starlink satellite network.
- As demand for poultry soars, Cargill and agriculture-investment firm Continental Grain have agreed to purchase Sanderson Farms for $4.5 billion, taking the chicken company private at $203 per share, roughly 30% above its stock price.
- DraftKings agreed to acquire Golden Nugget Online Gaming for $1.6 billion in stock, giving the daily sports fantasy and gambling site access to Golden Nugget’s well of 5 million reliable online casino customers.
Playing The Odds: According to experts, virtual casino players are worth seven times the value of sports betting customers. It doesn’t take a casino magnate on the level of Sheldon Adelson to recognize a gambler can lose quite a few hands of blackjack in the time it takes to miss on a football bet.
WeWork With New Friends: WeWork is undergoing a $150-million merger with commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, in a deal that values the oft-embattled shared-office company at $9 billion including debt. But can the duo effectively respond to the rise of remote work?