Britain’s 500-year-old Royal Mail is being bought by a Czech billionaire
CNN
The owner of Royal Mail has accepted a £3.57 billion ($4.6 billion) takeover bid from Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, paving the way for the sale of one of Britain’s oldest and most iconic institutions to a foreign owner for the first time.
The owner of Royal Mail has accepted a £3.57 billion ($4.6 billion) takeover bid from Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, paving the way for the sale of one of Britain’s oldest and most iconic institutions to a foreign owner for the first time. International Distribution Services, which owns the loss-making postal service, said Wednesday that it had accepted a £3.70-per-share ($4.69) takeover offer from Křetínský’s EP Group. The deal follows a torrid few years for Royal Mail, which was privatized in 2013. It has suffered a sharp drop in demand for its services and recorded a loss of £348 million ($445 million) for the year that ended on March 31 — a slightly better result than the previous year when it lost £419 million ($536 million). Křetínský’s move comes at a sensitive moment politically as the United Kingdom gears up for a general election on July 4. The proposed takeover will be subject to a national security review, possibly by a new government. Opinion polls suggest the Labour Party will win its first election since 2005 and replace the incumbent Conservative administration. Labour has already taken a keen interest in the deal, which will have consequences for thousands of workers and the provision of a vital public service. In a letter earlier to Křetínský earlier this month, Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s business spokesperson, urged the EP Group to provide “cast-iron guarantees” that it would keep Royal Mail’s headquarters in the UK and would work closely with its workers’ union.
Thanksgiving dinner will cost less this year than last but will still be 19% higher than before the pandemic, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Thanksgiving survey out Wednesday.
Comcast is planning to spin off most of its cable television networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, into a separate publicly traded company, according to executives with knowledge of the plan.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has sued a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee and the families of some of the Sandy Hook victims in an attempt to stop the sale of his media empire Infowars to the satirical news outlet The Onion.
The cat’s out of the bag: Jaguar has unveiled a new logo that emphasizes its posh pronunciation as it transitions into a “new era” that emphasizes its all-electric vehicle lineup.
Markets sold off Tuesday as geopolitical tensions escalated between Ukraine and Russia.
Protesters opposed to Tesla’s expansion of its plant near Berlin were holding out in trees Tuesday as German police sought to clear their forested camp.
Jersey Mike’s Subs is selling a significant stake to private equity giant Blackstone, ending its nearly seven-decade run as an independently owned business that transformed into a major competitor against well-entrenched competitors like Subway.
Walmart’s business is surging. Customers making more than $100,000 a year are fueling the growth.
The president-elect’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrations may backfire, driving up the cost of homebuying even further.
In the first quarter of this year, the price of bitcoin broke records in the wake of approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds. The cryptocurrency topped $70,000 in March, according to coinmarketcap.com.
Donald Trump is returning to the White House without many of the guardrails of his first term.