—— PE Firms to Own 30% of Top Accounting Firms; Apple Shares Hits All Time High; Musk to Ban iPhone If OS Adds OpenAI; WeWork Names Cushman Veteran As CEO; Related Sells Manhattan Building at 67% Discount; Dell to Sell $29bn of Shares in 2024; Cold Storage Giant Seeks $3bn in IPO
1. PE Firms to Own 30% of Top Accounting Firms
Ten of the 30 largest US accounting firms may soon be owned by private equity, according to sources familiar with ongoing negotiations. At least four groups are currently in deal talks, following the recent sales of Grant Thornton and Baker Tilly, both top-10 firms by revenue.
These acquisitions by financial buyers have sparked a wave of similar deals, significantly increasing private equity’s influence over the US accounting profession.
One top-30 firm, Atlanta-based Aprio, is reportedly planning to sell a majority stake to the private equity firm Charlesbank Capital, according to individuals familiar with the matter.
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2. Apple Shares Hits All Time High
Apple shares hit a record high in early trading, pushing the company’s valuation back above $3 trillion, following its decision to partner with OpenAI to launch a new artificial intelligence system.
This increase more than compensated for Monday’s dip, which occurred after CEO Tim Cook announced upcoming software upgrades that will use AI to make Siri a smarter voice assistant and add more personalized features to Apple’s devices to enhance productivity.
The stock rose more than 4 percent to an intraday high of $201.49 on Tuesday morning, bringing its gains for the year to approximately 4.5 percent.
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3. Musk to Ban iPhone If OS Adds OpenAI
Billionaire Elon Musk has stated that he would ban Apple Inc. devices from his companies if OpenAI’s artificial intelligence software is integrated at the operating system level, citing security concerns.
These remarks came after Apple announced on Monday that its customers would soon have access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot via the Siri digital assistant. Apple plans to introduce these capabilities as part of a suite of new AI features later this year.
Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI but later had a falling-out with the San Francisco-based startup, has expressed concerns about the rapid development of generative AI technology. Despite these concerns, he is working on his own competitor to ChatGPT.
“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies,” Musk wrote on X, the social network he owns. “That is an unacceptable security violation.”
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4. WeWork Names Cushman Veteran As CEO
US job growth surged in May, with wages accelerating, leading traders to delay their expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.
According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released on Friday, nonfarm payrolls increased by 272,000 last month, surpassing all projections in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4% from April and 4.1% from a year ago, both higher than the previous report.
However, the unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey, rose to 4% from 3.9%, reaching this level for the first time in over two years.
Source: Financial Times – WeWork names real estate veteran as new CEO after exit from bankruptcy
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5. Related Sells Manhattan Building at 67% Discount
A New York City office building owned by an affiliate of Related Cos. is set to be sold at a significant discount. Empire Capital Holdings and Namdar Realty Group have agreed to purchase the property at 321 W. 44th St. for less than $50 million, according to sources who requested anonymity due to the private nature of the information.
This price represents approximately a 67% discount from the nearly $153 million that Related Fund Management paid for the property in 2018.
The deal was a short sale, meaning Related and its lenders, including the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, agreed to sell the property for less than the outstanding mortgage amount. The loan balance for the tower was more than $100 million, according to one of the sources. Short sales have become more common in the office sector as property values have declined below the loan amounts.
The 10-story building, located in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, offers roughly 220,000 square feet (20,400 square meters) of space. Current tenants include Battery Studios and the ad agency AKA.
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6. Dell to Sell $29bn of Shares in 2024
The CEO of Dell Technologies Inc., Michael Dell, plans to sell 10 million shares valued at $1.3 billion, as indicated by a regulatory filing dated June 6. This sale, combined with shares worth $1.6 billion sold by him and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation earlier this year, positions 2024 to be his largest selling year ever.
This will surpass his previous record set in 1999 when he sold $1.7 billion worth of Dell stock just before the internet bubble burst the following year.
Despite these sales, Michael Dell will still own nearly half of the Round Rock, Texas-based company, which is the largest asset in his $108 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Michael Dell, 59, is the 12th-richest person in the world, according to the Index. The company he founded in 1984 while a student at the University of Texas at Austin has benefited from the AI boom, as corporations invest in servers and infrastructure to support advanced chips from companies like Nvidia Corp.
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7. Cold Storage Giant Seeks $3bn in IPO
Logistics giant Lineage is aiming to raise over $3 billion in a US initial public offering, according to sources familiar with the matter. The company may seek up to $3.5 billion, with the listing potentially occurring as soon as July.
Based in Michigan, Lineage is a real estate investment trust seeking a valuation of more than $30 billion in the IPO, and it is collaborating with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on the offering, as reported by Bloomberg News.
Deliberations are ongoing, and no final decisions have been made regarding the size or timing of the listing. Representatives for Lineage did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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本文内容来自《Financial Times》、《Bloomberg》，以及《The Real Deal》等多家财经新闻媒体。