Buyout shops across Europe and the United States have their eyes set on a possible acquisition of The Body Shop, a business that L’Oreal (OREP.PA) originally acquired in 2006 but a business that L’Oreal now hopes to unload in the wake of years of weakening sales and severe margin compression. Original a pioneer in the field of ethically sourced cosmetics, increasing competition as well as a shift in consumer sentiment towards natural and oil-based cosmetics has meant that The Body Shop have found itself with a decreasing topline and slowing consumer demand.
DRIVERLESS CARS: INTEL’S BIG BET
Intel made waves last week when it announced a deal to purchase autonomous vehicle technology company Mobileye for $63.54 a share, valuing the Israeli firm at $15.3B. The offer represents at 34.5% premium on Mobileye's $47.27 stock price at close of the market on March 10. The acquisition would put Intel directly amid the race to debut driverless vehicles on a commercial scale, one that includes industry rivals Nvidia and Qualcomm.
DUPONT DIVESTS TO SATISFY EU REGULATORS
Dow Chemical and DuPont, two of the largest and oldest companies in the American chemical industry, have been in merger talks since early December 2015. Their merger would fuse the two industrial giants into a single entity worth over $130 billion, which would serve as a vehicle for producing $3 billion of synergies. They then would split up into three separate businesses to better position themselves in their respective industries.