Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Lockheed Martin (LMT) announced it has terminated its agreement to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD). The decision to terminate the agreement follows the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit filed late last month seeking a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition. 2. Amazon (AMZN) and Spotify (SPOT) are considering rival takeover approaches for Audioboom, the London-listed podcasting group which has seen revenues and its share price surge during the pandemic, Sky News’ Mark Kleinman reported. Sky News has learnt that the two digital behemoths have been exploring bids for Audioboom in recent weeks, and could decide whether to make formal offers as soon as this month. 3. Since the start of 2020, chip stocks are up 82%, easily beating the 54% gain for the Nasdaq Composite. Big names like AMD (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA) have gotten much of the attention, but a little-known chip maker has beat them all: Synaptics (SYNA), Eric J. Savitz wrote in this week’s edition of Barron’s. Once a low-key provider of chips used for PC touchpads, mobile phone screens, and fingerprint scanners, Synaptics has turned itself into a play on the Internet of Things, which aims to bridge the physical and digital worlds, the author noted. In recent months, though, Synaptics has been caught up in the broader tech selloff, with shares down 28% from their December peak. The pullback is a good entry point for investors who missed the original rally, Savitz contended. 4. Disney’s (DIS) “Death on the Nile” won the Super Bowl weekend – usually a challenge for Hollywood studios – with a $12.8M debut as the ongoing pandemic continues to keep older moviegoers away from theaters. Overseas, the Agatha Christie adaptation opened to $20.7M for a global cume of $34M. 5. Boyd Gaming (BYD), Bally’s (BALY), Caesars (CZR), Caterpillar (CAT), CNH Industrial (CNHI), Procter & Gamble (PG), Philip Morris (PM), Ford (F), and Disney saw positive mentions in this week’s edition of Barron’s.
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