Mergers & acquisitions season is back on us, with Thorntons and Sky on the menu.
Thorntons (LON:THT) looks certain to fall into the hands of Italian confectionery firm Ferrero after the board of the British firm backed a 145p a share offer.
Ferrero, the maker of Nutella chocolate spread, already has control of a third of the shares and a referral to the authorities on competition grounds is unlikely given that the authorities were happy to see giants of the British confectionery scene Rowntree and Cadbury pass into foreign ownership.
Pay TV outfit Sky (LON:SKY), meanwhile, is reportedly in the sights of French media group Vivendi, which owns the Canal+ pay-TV operation.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Murdoch family, which controls Sky, knocked back an offer for its 39% stake in the pay-TV pioneer.
The newspaper also claimed mobile phone network operator Vodafone (LON:VOD) made an informal offer for the stake last year.
In other media news, it looks like Taylor Swift 1 Apple nil, after the popular singer wrote an open letter to Apple taking the unspeakably rich US firm for not paying music owners for songs listened to by customers trying out Apple's music service.
Apple media boss, the superbly named Eddy Cue, said in a tweet that Apple would, after all, pay artists for music streamed to customers during free trial periods.
Apple has often been accused of having its foot firmly on the throat of the music industry, harvesting 30% of the price for any download without investing money to sign or develop artists.
Indie record label Beggar’s Banquet, which has been around since the days of the Icicle Works, the Associates and The Lurkers, has also torn Apple off a strip for its parasitical role in the music scene, but it evidently lacks the same clout as Ms Swift.
On to the decidedly less glamorous world of debt restructuring and refinancing, and Afren (LON:AFR), which put out a statement after the market closed on Friday unveiling details of its rescue plan.
Slipping out a statement late on a Friday is a favourite trick of companies seeking to bury bad news – it rarely works – but this does not seem to be the case with Afren, which needs shareholders to vote in favour of the rescue plan.
The company announced the launch this morning of a micro-site dedicated to providing investors with information about the refinancing, which will see a chunk of loan notes converted into equity.
The information can be accessed on www.afrenegmvote.com.