JPMorgan's clean sheet already looks off-white

Pick up the tabula

Reuters

Unicorns stampede through tech fantasyland

One-stick ponies

Blackstone stock tells similar tale to Hilton's

Twin peaks

Business Standard

No-help desk

Wall Street megadeal quest reaches end of rainbowAfter a decade-long quest, investment bankers on both sides of the Atlantic might have finally discovered the end of the rainbow. A $130 billion transaction between Vodafone and Verizon, longtime partners in US wireless, would translate into a highly coveted - and given the post-crisis pace of M&A, much-needed - pot of golden fees.Thousands of man-hours, lost evenings, spoiled weekends and holidays have been devoted to calling on the two telecommunications giants. The status of the Verizon Wireless joint venture was a steady source of tension that demanded attention both chronic and impulsive. Going back at least as far as January 2003, Vodafone has been pressed regularly to defend its 45 per cent ownership of the business.The formation of the $300 billion cellular provider already has required multiple excursions to Wall Street, generating in excess of $250 million of fees, according to Thomson Reuters. It started back in 1994 when

Dialling for dollars

RT @Google #IPO

Nelson Peltz ends Pepsi's game of kick the can

Monde-Lays

Now comes the hard part for Marissa Mayer

Purple reign

Fruity American M&A saga may be about to ripenAn epic American M&A saga may be about to come full circle. Nearly 25 years after it was carved up in a landmark deal, much of fruit group Del Monte could be put back together. Along the way, the US food giant has become an enormous part of Wall Street - and even City of London - lore. It's practically a textbook unto itself for merger lawyers and bankers. Following KKR's 1989 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, made famous by the best-selling "Barbarians at the Gate," the private equity firm led by Henry Kravis needed cash to cover the then-record $25 billion price tag. Offloading Del Monte was an important component of the effort. A group led by Merrill Lynch paid $1.5 billion for the canned food division while British conglomerate Polly Peck bought Del Monte's fresh fruit business for $875 million.The latter acquisition marked something of a turning point for UK Plc. Soon after, Polly Peck collapsed in scandal and its chief executiv

Fruit loop

Marissa Mayer puts exclamation point back in Yahoo!

Yahoo?

Bloomberg scandal spares bankers' blushes

The other foot

Apple's bite out of market seeds IPO appetites

Core of the matter

Potemkin Dell fight would have optical merits

Ctrl-Alt-Dell

A brief history of Time: An epic M&A taleThe brief history of Time is a truly epic M&A tale. The gold standard of US  magazine publishing proved the ultimate foundation for a giant media conglomerate. Time Warner's decision on Wednesday to spin off the legacy of Henry Luce's 1920s vision represents the last step in dismantling the empire.From a single news weekly started 90 years ago for some $86,000, or about $1.2 million in today's money, the company eventually grew to be valued at almost $250 billion in 2001. One of Luce's first deals, buying Architectural Forum about a decade after founding Time, was only a small sign of things to come. An eventual standout in Time Inc's stable, Life magazine, was the result of an acquisition, too.Long after Luce retired in 1964, the collection of publications he started, which came to include Fortune and Sports Illustrated, proved a powerful acquisition currency. It was put to use on a grand scale in 1990 when Time Inc bought Warner Commun

Time flies

M&A advisers get a lot of Valentine's Day loveCupid emptied his quiver in Wall Streetâ€™s direction on Thursday. Over $36 billion of corporate affection, in the form of mergers and takeovers, was announced this Valentineâ€™s Day. Two transactions alone, the buyout of H J  Heinz by private equity firm 3G Capital and Warren Buffettâ€™s Berkshire Hathaway and the union of American Airlines parent AMR and US Airways, required the services of two dozen banks and law firms. Hearts must be racing for M&A advisers everywhere.Itâ€™s only about seven weeks into the year, but activity is up 17 per cent from where it was this time in 2012, according to Thomson Reuters data. Februaryâ€™s deal volume already surpasses all of what was announced in January, thanks to the agreed sales of Dell, Virgin Media and NBC Universal. Buyers and sellers are spreading the love, too. No fewer than 11 law firms were asked to â€œbe mineâ€ by the merging US airlines. Financial advice was soug

Roses all around

Comcast ad-libs on winning NBC Universal script

Proud as a peacock

The unsexiest media company alive: Time Warner

Bringing unsexy back

Rupert Murdoch makes an unlikely fairy godfather. The News Corp boss is more often portrayed as a cartoonish evil villain, especially inside rivals like Disney. But by paying a punchy price for a big piece of the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network, Murdoch is implying an even richer valuation for ESPN than is already attached to the coveted Disney sports brand. That in turn makes the whole Magic Kingdom look worth more.

Wish upon a star

It is the beginning of the end for a big Blackstone misadventure. In 2006, the US buyout firm spent Euro 2.7 billion on a small stake in Deutsche Telekom. It has just dumped a third of its underwater investment. The tale shows why private equity and minority stakes in big public companies don&rsquo;t connect.

Dial it down

The last US presidential debate was an oratorical rendition of Saul Steinberg&rsquo;s 1976 illustration of the myopic world view from New York. Listening to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spar on Monday night, it would have been easy to forget Europe exists and imagine the Middle East is as big as the African continent and Asia combined. Free trade got short shrift and the global coordination of finance nary a mention.

Foreign language

The folly of investing in Facebook has been put on full display. Peter Thiel, who bet $500,000 on the social network back in 2004, took the first opportunity available following the company&rsquo;s initial public offering to unload more stock. He sold some 20 million shares, worth about $400 million. The decision cements the idea that Facebook&rsquo;s IPO was run by and for its early backers. Thiel&rsquo;s seat on the board is now a snub to new investors, too.

Jeffrey Goldfarb