LSEG Data & Analytics

1 week ago | lipperalpha.refinitiv.com | Lauren Tuck

The brain-trust behind the benchmark S&P 500 Index (.SPX) made a bold move: it did nothing. For the first time in more than three years, no new companies were added to the tracker aimed at representing the overall market’s performance. It’s a reminder of an uncomfortable truth about investing: the best move is often just sitting tight. The panel’s calculated restraint stems from a selection process that is both quantitatively rigorous and strategically discretionary.

2 weeks ago | lipperalpha.refinitiv.com | Lauren Tuck

The world’s biggest asset manager knows a lot about the law of large numbers. BlackRock (BLK.N), opens new tab, with more than $11 trillion in assets under management, laid out on Thursday just how vast its key metrics may become at an investor day. Projections call for revenue hitting $35 billion in 2030, up 75% from last year. Half of that target comes from an aggressive push into private markets and technology services, a makeover that it reckons could double its market value.

3 weeks ago | lipperalpha.refinitiv.com | Lauren Tuck

The blank-check boom is revving up again, even without turbocharging from ultra-low interest rates and pandemic-era stimulus. Replacing 2020 and 2021 models like Nikola, Canoo and Fisker are ventures such as self-driving trucking technology firm Plus Automation, which agreed on Thursday to go public through a cash-stuffed shell led by venture dealmaker Michael Klein. Autonomous vehicles may have kicked into a higher gear, but things look uncannily familiar under the hood.

4 weeks ago | lipperalpha.refinitiv.com | Lauren Tuck

New competition cops are making their presence known. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday blessed the $35 billion merger of software developers Ansys and Synopsys, on the proviso that they offload some assets. It’s the sort of truce that the previous administration broadly rejected, and heralds a gentler, albeit stricter than expected, trustbusting regime. Under Chair Lina Khan, the FTC consciously dismantled a looser antitrust policy ushered in during the late 1970s.

1 month ago | lipperalpha.refinitiv.com | Lauren Tuck

Salesforce founder Marc Benioff has tested investors’ patience with costly M&A. His return to big-ticket dealmaking looks suitably chastened. The company’s $8 billion purchase of Informatica, announced on Tuesday, diverges from troubled acquisitions like Slack Technologies. It’s cheap, may well prove profitable, and elides promises of near-mystical transformation. Buoyed by years of robust growth and Benioff’s salesmanship, Salesforce became a distinctive giant of enterprise software.