Drugmaker AstraZeneca agreed on Saturday to buy biopharma company Alexion for $39 billion in cash and stock. In the deal—the “biggest by a health care company this year”—will help AstraZeneca expand into the immunology sector - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Law360
Turns out FireEye was far from the only victim of suspected Russian-led hacking in recent months. U.S. officials are confirming that “a range of key government networks, including in the Treasury and Commerce Departments,” were compromised by CozyBear hackers who “had free access to their email systems” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Last week’s banner debuts for DoorDash and Airbnb and a frothy IPO market have prompted gaming company Roblox to push back its planned IPO until 2021—a “sign that the enthusiastic market” for public offerings at the moment “has made it difficult to price shares accurately” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Point-of-sale lender Affirm Holdings is taking the same tack, now focusing on January for its planned IPO - WSJ
Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares is acquiring TCF Financial—the Michigan and Minnesota-focused regional banking chain—in an “all-stock deal valued at almost $6 billion” - Bloomberg and WSJ
A recap of Disney’s big investor presentation from last week, in which it revealed that Disney+ has topped 87 million subscribers, unveiled a “blitz of new ‘Star Wars’ projects, including 10 television shows,” and at least “15 Disney-branded movies” in the works - NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch
Bloomberg suggests that a key difference between the hoped-for 2021 economic recovery and the long comeback from the Great Recession is the state of the housing market, which this time around is “looking like a tailwind that will help lift the economy as we move past the pandemic” - Bloomberg
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up argument on Goldman Sachs’ “challenge to certification of an investor class accusing the bank of concealing conflicts of interest”—a decade-old action that centers on the “breadth of the price maintenance theory” and “defendant’s ability to rebut the so-called Basic presumption of classwide reliance” – Law360
Another day, another Brexit delay - Bloomberg
House Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal is prodding President-elect Biden to “renew trade negotiations with the European Union,” despite a pledge from the incoming administration to “postpone any new trade talks until after the United States has made significant domestic investments” - NYTimes
The State of California filed paperwork on Friday seeking to join the DOJ’s antitrust action against Alphabet, the first Democratic-led state to do so - WSJ
Moved by the holiday spirit a bit late this year? Good luck pulling off the full Clark Griswold. Retailers across the board are reporting that holiday décor “is selling out faster than usual . . . as Americans fill dark, increasingly cold pandemic days by buying up more lights, trees and ornaments at a rapid pace” - WSJ
A love story that starts on the hockey rink and plays out pretty much daily on the golf course? Go ahead and file that under just about perfect - NYTimes
Stay safe,
MDR
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