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Sgcarmart has learnt that Supreme Cars and Cars & Coffee will merge to become one entity from 1 August 2023. This strategic merger leverages on the unique strengths of both companies, who will now offer a whole experience under one roof for all of their customers. In the process, Cars & Coffee will be branded as Supreme Cars moving forward. Read more here: https://www.sgcarmart.com/articles/news/supreme-cars-and-cars-coffee-to-merge-from-august-2023-33446

Facebook said it will pay $19 billion in cash and stock to acquire smartphone-messaging app WhatsApp Inc., a deal that further emphasizes the social network's mobile push. WhatsApp allows users to send text messages free over the Internet, bypassing wireless carriers that may charge users to send messages over their networks. Texting apps are especially costing wireless carriers, which for years relied on the services for the bulk of their revenue. WhatsApp claims 450 million people use its service each month and 70% of those people are active on a given day. It also claims it is adding more than 1 million new registered users a day. "WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people," said Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. WhatsApp will continue to operate independently and retain its brand, while co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook's board, bringing the total number of members to nine. WhatsApp will remain based in Mountain View, Calif., and Facebook said its own messenger app and WhatsApp's core messaging product will continue to operate as separate applications. Facebook said in a regulatory filing that it would acquire all outstanding stock and options in WhatsApp for about 183.9 million of its shares, valued at about $12 billion. The deal also includes $4 billion in cash and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp's founders and employees. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in December, Mr. Koum attributed the company's steady growth to his company's "focus on messaging." Unlike competing messaging apps that make money with advertising or games, "we want to get out of the way. We want to let people have a conversation." At the time, he also said the company had no plans to sell or launch an initial public offering or seek new funding. The deal marks the latest signal that Facebook is willing to pay huge sums to acquire rival apps that gain sway with consumers. The company in 2012 agreed to pay $1 billion in cash and stock to buy Instagram, a popular app used to help people share photos. Facebook also reportedly offered to pay close to $3 billion or more to acquire messaging service Snapchat, though that offer was spurned. Facebook was slow to embrace a global shift away from desktop computing to mobile phones, opening it up to scrutiny from investors since its IPO in 2012. But its latest quarterly results illustrated the company is managing that transition as mobile advertising now makes up more than half of its total advertising revenue. In the event the merger is terminated if regulatory approval isn't achieved, Facebook would pay WhatsApp a $1 billion cash breakup fee and issue $1 billion in Facebook shares. Facebook was advised by Allen & Co. LLC and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, while WhatsApp was advised by Morgan Stanley and Fenwick & West LLP. Facebook intends to host a conference call later Wednesday to discuss the merger. The news sent Facebook shares down about 3% in after-hours trading.

Comcast Corp. agreed to buy Time Warner Cable for about $45.2 billion in stock, in a deal that would combine the nation's two biggest cable operators. The boards of both companies have approved the transaction, which was announced Thursday morning. With the proposed deal, Comcast almost certainly ends an eight-month takeover battle for Time Warner Cable waged by fourth-largest cable operator Charter Communications Inc. and its biggest shareholder, Liberty Media Corp. whose chairman is cable pioneer John Malone. By negotiating the deal, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts ensures his dominance of the U.S. cable industry will be maintained. But the transaction is expected to face a lengthy regulatory review. Charter's pursuit of Time Warner Cable, which began after Liberty bought a 27% stake in Charter about a year ago, had raised the possibility that Mr. Malone would emerge as a rival to Mr. Roberts. Mr. Malone once led the U.S. cable industry but sold his previous cable firm, Tele-Communications Inc., to AT&T in 1999. In the deal, Time Warner Cable shareholders will receive $158.82 a share in stock for their shares, about $23 a share above where Time Warner Cable has been trading. Time Warner Cable shareholders will own about 23% of the combined entity. Charter has made three offers, the most recent of which was valued at $132.50, all of which were rejected by Time Warner Cable as too low. Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Rob Marcus had said Time Warner Cable wanted $160 a share. The new company will be led by Comcast President and CEO Neil Smit. Mr. Roberts, in an interview with CNBC, said he expects the deal to add to earnings in the first year it is completed. Comcast also said it is going to expand its buyback program by an additional $10 billion at the close of the transaction, which is expected at the end of 2014. To reduce competitive concerns, Comcast is prepared to divest systems serving about 3 million managed subscribers and will, through the acquisition and management of Time Warner Cable systems, net about 8 million managed subscribers in this transaction. News of the deal comes just a couple of days after Charter ratcheted up the pressure on Time Warner Cable by nominating a group of 13 people as candidates for Time Warner Cable's board, ahead of this spring's annual meeting. In a statement late Wednesday, Charter said it "has always maintained that our greatest opportunity to create value for our shareholders is by executing our current business plan, and that we will continue to be disciplined in this and any other M&A activity we pursue." Time Warner Cable had long seen Comcast as a preferred partner. Last year, Time Warner Cable approached Comcast about a deal, hoping to ward off Charter. The two companies had talks off and on. But until a week ago there were signs that Comcast was leaning toward striking a deal with Charter instead. Comcast and Charter were in talks about a deal in which Comcast would endorse Charter's bid in exchange for an agreement where it would buy some Time Warner Cable systems on the East Coast from Charter, if Charter were successful in buying Time Warner Cable. But last Tuesday Comcast and Time Warner Cable re-initiated talks, when Mr. Roberts reached out to Time Warner Cable's Mr. Marcus, one of the people said. Comcast was very uncomfortable with the idea of a proxy fight that Charter was gearing up to wage, another of the people said. Time Warner Cable, in turn, was uncomfortable with the amount of debt Charter would have layered onto the company had it succeeded in buying it, one of the people said. Combined with Comcast, Time Warner Cable would have much more conservative leverage ratios than it would have, had Charter succeeded. Comcast approached Time Warner Cable last week with an offer to buy the entire company at about $150 a share, a person familiar with the matter said. As the offer was much closer to the $160 a share Time Warner Cable was looking for, it sparked the renewed talks. Comcast's Mr. Roberts at times negotiated with top Time Warner Cable brass, including Mr. Marcus and Chief Financial Officer Artie Minson on the phone from Sochi, where Mr. Roberts has been visiting for the Winter Olympics. On Wednesday evening, Time Warner Cable's board met around 5 p.m. to discuss the deal, around the same time Comcast's board was meeting. By about 8 p.m., the boards had approved the deal. The deal faces high regulatory barriers. Comcast not only serves more pay-TV customers than any other company in the U.S., nearly 22 million video subscribers, but it also owns the entertainment company NBCUniversal, parent of the NBC broadcast network and several big cable channels as well as Universal film studio. Time Warner Cable serves about 11 million video subscribers. Comcast is prepared to divest three million subscribers, the people said. Those divestitures will keep its ownership of the pay TV market below 30%, the people said. Comcast hopes to convince regulators that because cable companies don't compete, their deal should go through. "We believe that this transaction is approvable. It is proconsumer, procompetitive and strongly in the public interest," Mr. Roberts said on a conference call. "It will not reduce competition in any relevant market be because our companies do not overlap or compete with each other." The companies added that the deal does not include a breakup fee, should the acquisition not close. Any bid for Time Warner Cable would have to be approved by both the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department, which hasn't been shy about bringing antitrust enforcement actions against would-be mergers that it believes will harm competition. Last year, the department's antitrust chief, Bill Baer, challenged major mergers in the beer and airline industries, though both cases ultimately settled and the deals were allowed to proceed after the companies made several concessions. However, recent events may give Comcast a better shot at securing regulatory approval. Purchasing Time Warner would give Comcast roughly a third of the national cable market, raising concerns over whether the combined company would have too much leverage over content providers in negotiations. However, the deal may benefit from the perception of some regulators that cable is a natural monopoly whose primary competition comes from satellite providers and telephone companies like Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. The FCC previously tried to impose a 30% horizontal ownership cap on the cable industry, but the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out that limit in 2009. Since then the commission approved Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, giving it a strong foothold in the content industry and control over one of the four broadcast networks. Comcast agreed to a wide range of conditions as part of that deal, including a promise not to discriminate against third-party content traveling over its networks for seven years. Having recently lost a court challenge to its Open Internet rules, the FCC could force Comcast to agree to extend its net neutrality agreement as part of any review.

Volkswagen has been on a roll in Singapore as of late. It would be hard not to see one when you step out of your house. I decided to read up more about its history and had some interesting findings. Volkswagen was originally founded in 1937 by the Nazi trade union, the German Labour Front. In the early 1930s, German auto industry was still largely composed of luxury models, and the average German rarely could afford anything more than a motorcycle (let

Hi guys, I'm this close to signing on the dotted line (maybe nowadays they use solid lines, actually) for an optra5. Wonder if any optra5 owners here would like to advise me on what to look out for, what i can bargain for etc etc... and.. i've seen the black, blue, silver and red one, but dunno wat the brown (beige?) one looks like, anyone got a pic to show? I'm surprised that some reviews have said that the engine is quiet. i mean it's not NOISY but i wouldn't say it's quiet. nice tone to it, but certainly not quiet. anyone? any comments on this car, good or bad, please educate me!! maybe quite soon i'll be part of your family.