Wall Street Breakfast

FTC moves to block Tempur Sealy's $4B Mattress Firm deal

FTC sues to block Tempur Sealy's (TPX) $4B purchase of Mattress Firm. (00:23) EV maker Rivian (RIVN) has no production plans with Volkswagen - report. (01:42) Eli Lilly (LLY) wins FDA approval of donanemab for Alzheimer's. (02:27)

Episode transcripts seekingalpha.com/wsb.

Show links:
Biggest stock movers today: PARAA, CVAC, and more
Deutsche Bank’s Fresh Money list for Q3
The stocks with the most extreme upside in Q2 - Piper Sandler
Skydance, NAI come to new deal on Paramount merger - WSJ

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Duration:: 5m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. Good morning! Today is Wednesday, July 3rd. I'm Julie Morgan. The FTC sues to block the Tempere Sealy mattress firm deal. Don't expect a Rivian Volkswagen vehicle, and Eli Lilly gets a win from the FDA. The Federal Trade Commission has sued to block mattress maker Tempere Sealy's plan $4 billion purchase of mattress firm. According to a statement from the FTC on Tuesday, the regulator issued an administrative complaint and authorized a lawsuit in federal court to prevent the deal. Alleging that Tempere Sealy, the world's largest mattress supplier and manufacturer, will have the ability and incentive to suppress competition and raise prices for mattresses for millions of consumers once it acquires mattress firm. The commission voted 5-0 to authorize the lawsuit. Henry Liu, the director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement that Tempere Sealy has made it abundantly clear that its acquisition of mattress firm is intended to kneecap competitors and dominate the market. Tempere Sealy responded to the FTC suit in a statement on Tuesday and said it believes the FTC's perspective does not reflect all the relevant facts and law. The statement went on to say that Tempere Sealy believes that a successful litigation process can be completed in the coming months, which would allow them to close the transaction in late 2024 or early 2025. Tempere Sealy agreed to buy mattress firm in a $4 billion deal in May of 2023. Rivian Automotive is denying rumors and says it has no plans to expand its partnership with Volkswagen for vehicle production. A German newspaper earlier said that the businesses were considering joint production of Rivian's more affordable and smaller R2 SUVs at Volkswagen's New South Carolina plant. However, a Rivian spokesperson told Reuters that there are no plans for production of vehicles with Volkswagen Group. The company plans to start production of R2 at its normal Illinois manufacturing facility before moving to the Georgia plant. Rivian gained more than 25% after announcing the $5 billion deal with Volkswagen to share electrical architecture and software technology. The US FDA has approved Eli Lilly's Denana Mab as a treatment for early Alzheimer's disease. The therapy, which is given via infusion once a month, will be marketed under the name Kasanla. Lilly noted that the treatment will cost $12,522 over six months and $32,000 per year. The 12-month cost includes 13 infusions while the six-month cost assumes six. A US FDA advisory panel in June unanimously endorsed the drug as effective. Kasanla will compete with Biogen's Lekambi, Lekambi, which is dosed every two weeks as a one-year list price of $26,500. However, the FDA is set to decide in January of 2025 whether to approve a monthly version. I have a few other articles I'd like to share with you on Seeking Alpha. We have Deutsche Bank's Fresh Money list for Q3. We're also sharing the stocks with the most extreme upside in Q2, according to Piper Sandler. And when will it be final? The rumors surrounding Paramount continue, according to the Wall Street Journal Skydance and NAI have come to a new deal on the Paramount merger. On our catalyst to watch For the Day, Universal Studios' Despicable Me 4 will open in the US. The film is expected to top $100 million for its extended five-day opening weekend. The three-day DroidCon Berlin Conference for Android Developers will begin in Berlin. And as land pharmaceuticals will begin trading on a post-split basis following the one-for-eight reverse ADS split. Now, for a look at the markets today as of 6 a.m., Dow, S&P and NASDAQ futures are in the green. Crude oil is flat at $82 a barrel. Bitcoin is down 3.4% as $60,000. In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.6% and the DAX is up 1%. First Foundation is on our list of the biggest movers of the day pre-market. FFWM is down 27% after the company announced a $228 million equity investment led by Fortress Investment Group, Canyon Partners, Strategic Value Bank Partners and North Reef Capital. On today's economic calendar, at 7 a.m., the Feds John Williams will speak at the ECB Forum. At 10.30 a.m., the EIA Crude Oil Inventories report is expected to attract more attention than normal. And at 1 p.m., the U.S. stock markets will close early ahead of the Independence Day holiday. At 2 p.m., the bond markets will close. Also at 2 p.m., the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from the June meeting of the FOMC. And of course, since tomorrow is a stock market holiday, there will be no Wall Street Breakfast podcast, but we will return on Friday. I will see you again on Monday. Enjoy your weekend. That's it for today's Wall Street Breakfast. Thanks for listening. To take full advantage of Seeking Alpha with coverage on significant stocks and ETFs, become a premium subscriber. Check out zkingalpha.com/subscriptions. I'm your host, Julie Morgan. Go out and make it a great day. ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]