Atul Karmarkar.Com

Game publisher Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest, has confirmed plans to acquire the mobile game development studio of Gameloft in Pune, India. This studio was set up in end 2006, the studio currently has a team of 120 developers and testers who will initially focus on creating titles for handheld consoles and reinforcing Ubisoft’s testing teams.

Tata Motors has acquired Jaguar Land Rover in a deal valued at $2.3 billion, which includes brands, plants and IPR.

The financial world got a rude jolt as JPMorgan Chase & Co., backed by the Government, confirmed their acquisition of 85 year old Wall Street firm Bear Stearns for $236 million, or $2 per share, a fraction of what it was worth till a while ago, and at a huge discount to it’s book value of $84 per share.

Consolidation seems to be the name of the game in the international aviation industry as well, as Alitalia has accepted Air France-KLM’s $1.1 billion bid. 

Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) has decided to buy the mutual fund business of Standard Chartered for $205 million (Rs.830 crore). This is significantly higher than the $135 million UBS was willing to shell out a year ago.

Standard Chartered Bank has finally received the go-ahead from the RBI to acquire American Express Bank in a $823 million cash deal. This happened after the RBI permitted AEB to transfer its credit card business to American Express Banking Corporation (AEBC). 

Following the decision by HDFC Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab to merge, the HDFC Bank board has finalised the share swap ratio as 1:29, which means 1 share (FV-Rs.10) in HDFC Bank for every 29 shares (FV-Re.1) held in Centurion Bank of Punjab.

In what is likely to be one of the biggest mergers seen in India Inc., HDFC Bank is all set to take over Centurion Bank of Punjab in an all-share deal. The boards of both banks are to meet on 25-Feb to decide on the swap ratio. Ernst & Young and Dalal & Shah have been appointed to determine the [...]

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has become the single largest shareholder in Kraft Foods Inc., the world’s second-biggest foodmaker. According to regulatory filings, Berkshire owned 132.4 million shares (around 8.6%) of Kraft, worth approximately $3.9 billion.

Microsoft announced that it was planning to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion.  This offer represents a 62% premium over the closing price of Yahoo common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.