US stock futures were trading slightly higher in Tuesday’s pre-market trading session amid uncertainty around the Georgia runoff elections and as the new Covid-19 strain continued to drive investors’ risk appetite.
On Monday, the first trading day of 2021, all three major indices ended the day with losses. The Dow had its first negative start to a year since 2016 slipping 1.25%, with the S&P and Nasdaq both losing around 1.5%.
In deal news, shares of Boston Private Financial Holdings (BPFH) popped 24% in pre-market trading after SVB Financial announced a cash and stock takeover deal worth $900 million. SVB Financial (SIVB) will pay $2.10 in cash and 0.0228 of its common stock for each share of Boston Private. The transaction has been approved by both companies’ board of directors and is anticipated to be completed in mid-2021. According to SVB Financial, the “Combined private bank and wealth management assets under management would be $17.7 billion,” based on Sep. 30, 2020 figures.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile US (TMUS) announced that the telecom operator has bought Sprint-branded wireless operating assets of Brookings Municipal Utilities (BMU) for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, expected to close in Q1, includes BMU’s wireless network, retail stores, and PCS (personal communications service) range, and will help T-Mobile expand its retail delivery and network coverage. T-Mobile shares ended the day down 1.8% on Monday.
Twitter (TWTR) said that it has bought social podcast operator Breaker as it strives to help “create new experiences” for the social media giant’s users. Breaker will shut down its social podcasting app on January 15 as a result. Leah Culver, Breaker’s Chief Technology Officer will be joining Twitter to work on Twitter Spaces, its new audio-based networking project.
In other corporate news, ViacomCBS (VIAC) has signed a new multi-year distribution agreement with Walt Disney’s Hulu to add 14 new networks to Hulu’s live TV streaming service, Hulu + Live TV. The agreement also allows Hulu to continue streaming existing content including SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel and CBS Sports Network. Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed by the companies. VIAC shares were little changed.
Shares of Workhorse Group (WKHS) rose another 1.2% after closing 8.3% higher on Monday. Investors piled into the stock after the company announced that it has received a purchase order for 6,320 C-Series all-electric delivery vehicles from Pride Group Enterprises.
In other stock news, New Mountain Finance (NMFC) said that it will repurchase $50 million worth of its common stock by December 2021 to prevent the undervaluation of the company’s share price. New Mountain has already repurchased around $2.9 million thus far.
In real estate-related corporate news, Life Storage (LSI) announced that it will increase its quarterly dividend by 3.7% to $1.11 per share. It will also be executing a 3-for-2 stock split of its common stock in the form of a 50% stock dividend. Outstanding shares in LSI will increase to 74.3 million as a result. LSI shares were up less than 1% after ending the day down around 3.5% yesterday.
