Electric Business

Belgian businessman Roland Duchatelet has sold EFL Championship club Charlton Athletic to East Street Investments.

JPI Media has sold the i newspaper to dmg media for £49.6m. The Daily Mail & General Trust CEO Paul Zwillenberg has said the i will retain editorial independence.

The regulatory and compliance services provider Marlowe has acquired the chemicals supplier Aquatreat.

Video game developer Slightly Mad Studios has been bought by Codemasters in a deal worth up to £152.2m. Slightly Mad, best known for the Project Cars video games, is currently working on a racing game based on a Hollywood blockbuster movie franchise. The deal strengthens Codemasters position as one of the leading developers of racing games in the industry.

Boris Johnson has announced that the Government has abandoned plans to cut the rate of corporation tax in April 2020. The rate will remain at 19% if the Conservatives win next month’s General Election. In 2016 the then Chancellor, George Osborne, pledged that the rate of corporation tax would be cut to 17% by 2020.

Salvage and recycling company Synetiq, which was formed through a four-way merger earlier this year, has acquired Motorman, a remanufacturer and supplier of engines, transmissions and drive train products. The deal strengthens Synetiq’s proposition as an innovative provider of solutions to the parts, salvage and fleet market.

WH Smith has agreed to buy Marshall Retail for $400m. The takeover will double the iconic British retailer’s presence in the international travel sector, and strengthen its status in the $3bn US Airport market. While WH Smith continues to struggle on the high street, its travel division delivered a 22% rise in sales last year.

Professional services giant Accenture has acquired UK consultancy Happen for an undisclosed fee. Happen specialises in advisory work relating to innovation and idea generation. Accenture has made several acquisitions in this area in recent years, with a deal for UK firm ?What if! in March. Happen is headquartered in London with additional offices in Amsterdam and New Jersey. Its offering covers strategy, design, ideation, insight and research.

Sophos, a global leader in cloud-enabled cybersecurity, has accepted a $3.9bn (£3.1bn) offer from private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The news has seen Sophos shares jump 37% in line with the bid's terms. A FTSE 250 firm based in Abingdon, Sophos was instrumental in assisting the NHS and other businesses affected by the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017. It floated at a value of £1bn in 2015, one of largest technology IPOs in the UK that year.

Manchester-based social media agency Social Chain has completed a merger with German beanbag retailer Lumaland to create a unified advertising firm. The unconventional move creates a group with a combined value of €186m (£161m). Social Chain will be expected to continue to grow its external brand revenue.