Deal Dispatch: Sage And Silvus Are Up For Sale, MrBeast Secures $20B For TikTok

New On The Block

• Sage Therapeutics, Inc. NASDAQ: SAGE) is officially exploring "strategic alternatives" to make shareholders happy. The process includes anything from a possible business combination to a full-on sale.
  
  Who’s interested? That would be Biogen Inc. BIIB, which submitted an unsolicited offer Sage rejected. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sage is known for its ZURZUVAE treatment for women with PPD. Goldman Sachs is providing financial advice and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP oversees legal matters.
  
• Silvus Technologies, a Los Angeles-based mobile telecom owned by TJC, hired Morgan Stanley to explore a sale or initial public offering. TJC could seek a valuation of as much as $5 billion for Silvus, Bloomberg reported citing sources. TJC, aka The Jordan Company purchased Silvus in December 2019.
  
• Allakos Inc. ALLK is shutting down its AK006 program, leading to a major downsizing — about 75% of the company will be laid off. The biotech plans to keep around 15 employees to explore strategic alternatives, which CEO Robert Alexander described as "the usual things," according to Fierce Biotech.
  
  The move will significantly deplete Allakos' cash reserves, which stood at $81 million at the end of last year. The company expects to spend $34 million to $38 million on severance and restructuring costs, leaving it with just $35 million to $40 million in reserves by mid-year. The pressure is on to find a new strategic direction quickly.

Updates From The Block

• YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) has secured more than $20 billion for a TikTok offer. An investor group, led by tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, includes Roblox Corp. RBLX CEO David Baszucki and Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley as investors. Tinsley told Bloomberg that their offer is “significantly higher” than a competing $20 billion bid. Whether Tinsley was referring to the Project Liberty bid by former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O'Leary is unclear. Also uncertain is whether Microsoft was seriously making a bid, as indicated by President Trump.

• Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s HPE $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks JNPR hit a roadblock. The Department of Justice is suing the tech company in what marks the first antitrust action of Trump's second term. The deal would result in Cisco Systems Inc CSCO and the combined HPE-Juniper entity controlling 70% of the wireless networking industry, regulators said. The merger, which was announced last January, has already received U.K. and EU regulatory approvals.
  
• President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing Goldman Sachs GS to sell its Russia subsidiary to Balchug Capital. The deal makes the U.S. bank one of the few Western banks to fully exit the country, Bloomberg reports.

• Nippon Steel 5401 launched a $456 million tender offer for the remainder of its subsidiary Sanyo Special Steel 5481, representing a 37% premium.

• Outbrain Inc. OB received U.K. antitrust approval for its $1-billion acquisition of Dutch digital advertising platform from Altice, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• Welltower Inc WELL acquired NorthStar Healthcare Income, a New York-based real estate investment trust focused on senior housing, for $900 million.

• Emerson Electric Co EMR, an automation technology provider, has agreed to acquire the remaining shares it doesn't own of software supplier AspenTech for $265 per share in an all-cash tender offer. The minority stake being now acquired is valued at $7.2 billion.

Off The Block

• General Mills Inc GIS completed the $2.1 billion sale of its U.S. and Canadian yogurt units to French dairies Groupe Lactalis and Sodiaal.

Bankruptcy Block

• Spirit Airlines rejected a $400 million merger proposal from Frontier Group Holdings Inc ULCC. The offer wasn’t high enough, the bankrupt air carrier said. Spirit, considered the biggest U.S. budget airline, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in November.

For last week’s Deal Dispatch, click here.

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