Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Speaker 3: Let's have a look at some stocks on the move
Speaker 3: today here in Europe. I'm Caroline Hepget and I'm joined
Speaker 3: by Boomberger portacloimb Malay. Good morning, good morning, Happy Friday.
Speaker 3: So ITV is in talks with Comcasts about a sale,
Speaker 3: so potentially a bit of amna.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and that's really boosted the shares this morning.
Speaker 1: So ITV confirmed that it was in early talks to
Speaker 1: sell its media and entertainment unit to Sky, which is
Speaker 1: owned by a Comcast, for six sorry, one point six
Speaker 1: billion pounds. And so it seems that investors are very happy.
Speaker 1: After years and years of ITV being discussed as a
Speaker 1: takeover target, it seems that now it is finally happening.
Speaker 1: This is interesting because this is a doubling down on
Speaker 1: the UK broadcasting market from Comcast after buying Sky, which
Speaker 1: is an interesting bet given that it's not necessarily worked
Speaker 1: out super well for them so far. So Compcast has
Speaker 1: written down the valley of Sky by billions of dollars
Speaker 1: since it acquired it in twenty eighteen, and the division
Speaker 1: of ITV that it wants to buy, this media and
Speaker 1: entertainment unit, is struggling quite a bit because of a
Speaker 1: slowdown in advertising and this move away from kind of
Speaker 1: traditional media as well. So the CEO said of ITV
Speaker 1: said just yesterday that businesses were really holding back on
Speaker 1: spending on advertising because of the uncertainty surrounding the UK
Speaker 1: budget that's coming later this month and that it will
Speaker 1: mean lower revenue in that division for the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So it's quite an interesting move to be buying this
Speaker 1: particular division which has been a struggling a little bit.
Speaker 1: But let's see if the deal goes through. But so
Speaker 1: far it seems that investors are very very keen on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, So that's on ITV in terms of never
Speaker 3: more disc they've increased their bid for Metsarah. We're talking
Speaker 3: about this yesterday't way this offer and a battle to
Speaker 3: buy a company that's also making vival obest jugs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, but it is Actually Nova was actually down
Speaker 1: this morning after raising that bid for the OBC startup
Speaker 1: mid Serah. So it's another escalation in that take of
Speaker 1: a battle between Phiser and Nova for for that company,
Speaker 1: getting mid Sarah is really going to be crucial for
Speaker 1: both of them. So Novo has fallen behind its closest
Speaker 1: rival Eli Lilly and that abest space and Pfizer is
Speaker 1: really trying to make inroads in that market because that's
Speaker 1: such a profitable market. So they both really want it
Speaker 1: and you can see that with that take of a
Speaker 1: battle continuing. But now, the reason why Nova shares were
Speaker 1: down this morning is because there are concerns now arising
Speaker 1: among investors that the higher the bids go, the more
Speaker 1: likely the bidders will be overpaying. And there's also the
Speaker 1: threat of regulatory hurdles. There's antitrust concerns coming into view
Speaker 1: as well. So we'll see how this goes going forward.
Speaker 1: The bidding what is apparently expected to conclude in a
Speaker 1: few days, so let's see who actually wins out and
Speaker 1: how the investors will be reacting to that based on
Speaker 1: the eventual price.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that in the farmer space. Now looking at IAG,
Speaker 3: which owns British Airways and Arthur as their share price
Speaker 3: has not done well today.
Speaker 1: Not at all, and that is because it seems that
Speaker 1: people are just not traveling between the in Europe as
Speaker 1: they did before as much as they used to before.
Speaker 1: So the North Atlantic route, which is really crucial for IAG,
Speaker 1: is it was quite weak over the third quarter and
Speaker 1: that in turn weighed on earnings which ended up missing
Speaker 1: estimates for that quarter. Airlines in Europe have been mentioning
Speaker 1: that weakness for quite a while now, saying that passenger
Speaker 1: demand into the US is becoming more and more restrained.
Speaker 1: That is because partly travelers are quite put off by
Speaker 1: the stricter immigration procedures that are currently in place in
Speaker 1: the US, and then also because amid all of the
Speaker 1: trade tensions, companies are scaling back on corporate travel, so
Speaker 1: there's fewer work trips as well, and that is obviously
Speaker 1: quite a big part of demand for British Airways or
Speaker 1: Iberia as well, which is also owns. The demand for
Speaker 1: premium cabins though is still quite solid, so that is
Speaker 1: also what air France and Luftanza have said. So those
Speaker 1: are the three kind of legacy carriers, so at least
Speaker 1: there's that, but that weakness in North Atlantic group is
Speaker 1: really what is dragging down those shears. This morning for IAG.
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