On April 7, 2021, Amundi and Lyxor announced that Amundi is in exclusive talks with Société Générale to buy its asset management arm Lyxor for a total cash consideration of €825m. Following these negotiations, the deal was closed on June 11, 2021. Besides serving as a platform for alternative strategies, Lyxor ETF is the main target of this acquisition, since the merger would create the second largest ETF promoter in Europe. Even as there was a rumor going on, the announcement of the possible sale of Lyxor was a bit surprising. This is because Lyxor ETF had just finalized the

The announced merger between Franklin Templeton Investments and Legg Mason follows a series of other takeovers. It shows that the global asset management industry is further in a consolidation mode, even as the overall assets under management increased massively over the last 10 years. The ongoing corporate activity regarding transactions is driven by the increased pressure on fees for active management, which is shrinking the revenues of asset managers. The trend started in the U.S., but has also reached Europe. One reason for the increased pressure on the revenues of asset managers is the fact that they are no longer

Walt Disney has hurled magic and moolah to woo the Murdochs. The Mouse House leapfrogged Comcast by raising its offer for parts of Twenty-First Century Fox to $71 billion, including a generous dollop of cash. Disney has room to go higher still. The cable firm may yet go hostile but would be better off focusing its efforts on Sky. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger raised his original December bid for Fox’s cable networks, movie studios and international assets to $38 per share from $28 on Wednesday. And Fox shareholders will have the option to take 50 percent in greenbacks. The