“We’re deeply engaged” with an “iconic, phenomenal great business,” Ackman said. But it’s an “extremely complex” transaction that’s taking time to work out.
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“iconic, phenomenal”
That interview is so bullish, wish I actually had cash left to buy anything… 
Being serious: he declined supermarkets, said he can’t keep narrowing down when asked about Mars. When asked about “mature unicorn” he said that was only one of the categories, so to me says spinoff or other private business. He did specifically mention “iconic” company with negotiations started in November. That for me puts the nail in the coffin for Stripe or any of the other startups. ARM acquisition was not being contested that early afaik. Starlink could be classed as an iconic spinoff but also probably unlikely since it was no where near ready in November. Bloomberg immediately comes to mind. Mars also can’t be ruled out. He did seem to say there will be no PIPE so valuation cant be too stretched.
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Yeah, standout options for me: Bloomberg, Mars or Porsche
He also said, ‘cautiously optimistic’ for the next few weeks and made sure he added that it’s not a done deal so lets not get our hopes up!
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Porsche is part of VW, they won’t sell it to some Spac 
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Another interesting thing from the interview for PSH holders: Starbucks was sold for Dominos who I imagine is doing very well since COVID.
This isn’t “some SPAC”. Blasphemy!
Actually, the timing on this is all wrong: Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
One other thing - he no longer says mature unicorn and pushed back on that again during the interview. The things that jumped out immediately when he said that were Plaid and Starlink. I really need to stop obsessing about this…
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Honestly I’m a car guy and I would be so happy with Porsche. I think it could run to $200b+ quite easily in a short space of time, it has so much going for it. Stake in Rimac, rapidly electrifying, huge brand, even better financials than Ferrari.
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I assure you that this won’t happen.
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Commit to a tattoo or ban (edit: inside joke, sorry)
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It would be my fave but the leader now is probably Bloomberg. They refuted in October so could have restarted talks in Nov. Also very complex transaction regarding shareholders, financial compliance so that could be the holdup.
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The Daimler truck division maybe?
All just guesses at the moment.
Frankfurt listing confirmed for that one.
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Don’t want to keep blowing my own trumpet but this does seem to have some sort of legs. A few weeks ago FT reported BT has been speaking to Dazn, Amazon, Disney and ITV to try and sell all or part of BT Sport to raise money to focus on broadband/telephony. Today the FT reports BT hunts for funding partners in fibre broadband expansion. Excerpt:
The potential creation of a joint venture fibre investment vehicle follows similar activity in countries including France and the Netherlands where telecoms companies have teamed up with pension funds and infrastructure investors to provide capital for faster network upgrades.
BT has been exploring ways to unlock the value of its Openreach network division over the past year including options to bring in outside investors. It faces competition from Virgin Media, CityFibre and smaller ‘alt-nets’ that are investing billions of pounds to build new fibre networks. BT’s fibre investment plan means its capital expenditure will peak at about £5bn a year, a sum Jansen described as “eye watering” but necessary. “BT is firmly positioned to pivot to growth,” he said.
Personally can’t think of an industry that would need a $5b cash pile more right now than fibre providers. BT thinks total rollout cost is £15b, pretty iconic brand. Massive, stable cash flows and still huge barriers to entry despite increasing competition. Low cyclical risk. Its a stretch but I think it works, and there really aren’t that many investors of that size.
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Interesting. Although I can see it now - “we hoped we’d get the future of the internet, Starlink, and we ended up with the past, BT.”
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I thought Bill was after a US-based firm?
Personally, I thinking with every passing day the case for Bloomberg gets stronger.
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That definitely ticks the iconic box. I wonder what the problem they’ve been trying to solve for them is though?
Isn’t the SEC trying to make financial data freely available? Would worry Bloomberg with those 20 grand terminals.
Universal Studios or NBCUniversal
Looks like this wasn’t far off, very likely they could 3-way merge with PSTH, delisting DISCA, using the trust cash to pay off debt and add Ovitz and Gersh to the board. “The agreed deal is expected to be announced in the coming days”
Edit: announcement has been made official, PSTH doesn’t look involved.
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