Welcome to the Over the Top issue of M&A Daily
Apple
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is trying to get Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to make a topping bid for Time Warner (NYSE:TWX). The current AT&T (NYSE:T) deal has a $20.02 arb spread offering a 20% IRR if the deal closes by 2018. The timing and risk to the current deal gives alternative suitors room to bid. A suitor with more certainty and a speedier process could get TWX shareholder support with a bid only slightly more than $100 per share.
Goldman is under pressure in the M&A league tables. It is clinging to the narrowest of leads in the US - as of today, they have $479 billion of deals compared to JPMorgan's (NYSE:JPM) $464 billion. If they could get Apple to come in over the top for Time Warner, they could seriously extend their lead. Meanwhile, confusion between Time Warner and Time Warner Cable (nee TWC) mounts; most recently, a bipartisan group of easily confused US senators invited the wrong company's CEO to testify before their committee. Central planning would have more credibility if the planners could first correctly identify the companies that they would command and control.
