Many people are asking about the recent news of potential takeovers/mergers/acquisitions of some of the other IP firms in Australia, New Zealand and Canada! … so… here’s an update!

However, please firstly note that Halfords IP is NOT part of this!

Halfords IP remains proudly independent, and is wholly owned by its Attorneys!

 

Background:

There are 2 publicly owned Australian entities, IPH and QANTM, each of which own multiple firms, most notably in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and other Asian countries.

IPH LIMITED owns Spruson & Ferguson, Griffith Hack, Pizzeys, A J Park, Smart & Bigger, ROBIC and Applied Marks.

QANTM IP LTD owns Davies Collison Cave, FPA Patent Attorneys and Sortify.tm Ltd

A chart showing these entities is here.

 

Recent News:

Below are the latest updates!

27 Feb 2024:   ROUSE INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LIMITED put forth a proposal to acquire all of the shares in QANTM.

12 March 2024:   ADAMANTEM CAPITAL (an Australian private equity investor) put forth an alternative (cash and script) proposal to acquire QANTM.

7 May 2024:   IPH LIMITED put forth yet another proposal to acquire all the shares in QANTM in return for IPH shares.

10 May 2024:   QANTM board recommends that QANTM shareholders vote in favour of the ADAMANTEM proposal.

13 May 2024:   QANTM issues a notice that the senior employees of the various firms it owns have executed Deeds committing them to vote in favour of the ADAMANTEM proposal.

 

What’s next?

It depends!

The QANTM board and their employee insiders want ADAMANTEM to purchase QANTM, but this will now have to go to a full shareholder vote, and requires a 75% vote in favour of the purchase.

But!…  IPH has previously surprised and successfully gazumped QANTM… and may well do it again!! Back in November 2018, QANTM announced that it wanted to merge with XENITH IP, but, IPH had other ideas. IPH secretly acquired a controlling stake in XENITH IP and blocked the proposed merger of QANTM and XENITH, and then IPH and XENITH combined… leaving QANTM out in the cold.

Current speculation is that IPH may be secretly buying up QANTM shares to block ADAMANTEM’s purchase of QANTM… so it will be interesting to watch if IPH will finally gobble up QANTM, or, if they are just wanting to leave QANTM out in the cold yet again!

NOTE: Halfords IP (HIP) is a totally independent IP boutique firm that is NOT owned by IPH or QANTM… it is wholly owned by its Attorneys.

 

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