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Mergers and Acquisitions

01 May 2008

Company activity over the last month. Film rental firm Blockbuster has made a $1.3 billion hostile bid for troubled consumer electronics retailer Circuit City. Blockbuster stated that it wants to create a 9,300-store chain that would sell portable devices and rent films. The value of the offer is more than Blockbuster's entire market capitalisation, but it says that it has the backing of billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The move was greeted with a certain amount of scepticism by market analysts. (TX, USA) Corporate Express (CE) has agreed to sell its Dutch print business Veenman Nederland to Xerox in a €43 million ($68 million) cash deal. CE has been looking to divest its print and graphics businesses as it follows its strategy of focusing on office products. Last year, CE sold its Veenman German subsidiary to Konica Minolta. The proceeds from the sale will go towards reducing debt, says CE. Xerox says that Veenman would be run under its name and continue to operate from its headquarters in Capelle a/d Ijseel. Veenman's managing director Eric Annema is expected to lead the company and would report to Rogério Fangueiro, senior VP of Xerox Europe's office group. The acquisition is expected to close later this year subject to approval from the Dutch antitrust authorities. (NL)...