Brian Roberts is a buyer rather than a seller. The boss of U.S. media giant Comcast may want to make an exception for Sky. Four years after he won the auction for the European pay-TV provider with a $40 billion bid, the logic of the deal remains fuzzy while consumers are under duress. Spinning off Sky while it’s still in decent shape will shortcut challenges on the horizon. Including acquired debt, Roberts paid a multiple of 15 times Sky’s EBITDA to clinch the deal, two and a half times the company’s enterprise value before the takeover battle began. That was because he

As with often value-destructive mergers and acquisitions, the numbers aren’t adding up for dealmakers. After a record-breaking $5.8 trillion of activity in 2021, they have endured a staggering reversal of fortune. The slump will last through 2023. Once chief executives and buyout barons recovered from the initial pandemic shock in 2020, they embarked on an epic shopping spree. The following year brought 64% more M&A, according to Refinitiv data, 40% beyond the previous high of $4.1 trillion in 2007, right before the world stared into the financial abyss. The latest comedown is therefore understandable, especially given higher interest rates, which

One of China’s biggest exports in 2023 will be its social e-commerce phenomenon. TikTok, YouTube and Amazon.com are among the companies rolling out features that blend online sharing and shopping. The latest craze also is destined to run into some limitations. There’s early evidence that selling goods over live social networking works beyond the People’s Republic. Viewers enjoy interacting with celebrities and so-called influencers, but the ultimate goal is clicks to buy. Social sensation Nisrin, for one, has attracted 500,000 TikTok followers, while selling as much as 10,000 pounds ($12,313) of makeup and other products in a single video session. ByteDance-owned