Cosette terminates Mayne Pharma deal as legal challenge looms
US pharmaceutical giant Cosette has terminated its $672 million takeover bid for Adelaide-based drug company Mayne Pharma, but the target company says it will challenge the move in the courts.
Mayne Pharma shares fell as much as 7 per cent on Wednesday after it told investors it had received notice from private equity-backed Cosette that it would terminate the $7.40 per share offer, setting the stage for a potential legal battle.
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The Advertiser
6 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Japanese company's moon lander 'likely to have crashed'
Japanese company ispace says its uncrewed moon lander has likely crashed onto the moon's surface during its lunar touchdown attempt, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has not been able to communicate with the spacecraft after a likely hard landing, ispace said in a statement on Friday. The company's livestream of the attempted landing showed Resilience's flight data was lost less than two minutes before the planned touchdown time earlier on Friday. The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900km from the moon's north pole, and was on an hour-long descent from lunar orbit. A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design is mostly unchanged in Resilience, the company has said. Resilience was carrying a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. If the landing had been successful, the 2.3m-high lander and the microwave-sized rover would have begun 14 days of planned exploration activities, including capturing images of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with US space agency NASA. Japan in 2024 became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander, although in a toppled position. Japanese company ispace says its uncrewed moon lander has likely crashed onto the moon's surface during its lunar touchdown attempt, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has not been able to communicate with the spacecraft after a likely hard landing, ispace said in a statement on Friday. The company's livestream of the attempted landing showed Resilience's flight data was lost less than two minutes before the planned touchdown time earlier on Friday. The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900km from the moon's north pole, and was on an hour-long descent from lunar orbit. A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design is mostly unchanged in Resilience, the company has said. Resilience was carrying a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. If the landing had been successful, the 2.3m-high lander and the microwave-sized rover would have begun 14 days of planned exploration activities, including capturing images of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with US space agency NASA. Japan in 2024 became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander, although in a toppled position. Japanese company ispace says its uncrewed moon lander has likely crashed onto the moon's surface during its lunar touchdown attempt, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has not been able to communicate with the spacecraft after a likely hard landing, ispace said in a statement on Friday. The company's livestream of the attempted landing showed Resilience's flight data was lost less than two minutes before the planned touchdown time earlier on Friday. The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900km from the moon's north pole, and was on an hour-long descent from lunar orbit. A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design is mostly unchanged in Resilience, the company has said. Resilience was carrying a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. If the landing had been successful, the 2.3m-high lander and the microwave-sized rover would have begun 14 days of planned exploration activities, including capturing images of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with US space agency NASA. Japan in 2024 became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander, although in a toppled position. Japanese company ispace says its uncrewed moon lander has likely crashed onto the moon's surface during its lunar touchdown attempt, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has not been able to communicate with the spacecraft after a likely hard landing, ispace said in a statement on Friday. The company's livestream of the attempted landing showed Resilience's flight data was lost less than two minutes before the planned touchdown time earlier on Friday. The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900km from the moon's north pole, and was on an hour-long descent from lunar orbit. A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design is mostly unchanged in Resilience, the company has said. Resilience was carrying a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. If the landing had been successful, the 2.3m-high lander and the microwave-sized rover would have begun 14 days of planned exploration activities, including capturing images of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with US space agency NASA. Japan in 2024 became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander, although in a toppled position.
West Australian
7 hours ago
- West Australian
Superannuation wealth tax ‘a threat' to funding of new unicorns as Escalante moves to mop up VGW
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The group has raked in billions of dollars by using loopholes in US laws banning internet gambling to deliver online 'social' casinos and poker machine games such as Chumba Casino, LuckyLand slots and Global Poker. Under its sweepstakes model, customers buy virtual gold coins that allow them to play VGW's games but have no outside value. However, buyers of most gold coin packages also get bonus 'sweeps coins', which as well as being used to play the games are redeemable for cash in most of the US and Canada. US States are now moving against the group, claiming the games are illegal because they are generating cash winnings for players. Since December, VGW has quit Nevada and Delaware, and flagged its withdrawal from New York, in the face of the pushback. The regulatory crackdown is already hurting earnings, with VGW warning of a 15 per cent hit to its second-half profit. Mr Escalante's opulent lifestyle — he has translated his wealth into a private jet, super cars, luxury boats and swanky properties — and showy and sometimes angry social media posts had already raised doubts about whether he could win over the big institutional shareholders needed to support a stock market listing in the US or Australia. But it is the threat to what has been an enormously successful operating model that has most likely finished off lingering hopes of a float for investors who have been limited to selling stock via an illiquid over-the-counter trading platform. 'It's the model ... the likelihood of regulatory action, which are we starting to see,' a prominent Perth businessman said. While Mr Escalante's 'behaviour and lifestyle doesn't help', despite global stock markets being awash with such 'characters', a listing would have more chance with a 'safer and less vulnerable business model', the businessman said. There is no doubt that Mr Escalante, who founded VGW as a 28-year-old in 2010, has delivered in spades for his investors. The company paid its first dividend — a modest $2.8 million — in early 2019 off the back of a $19.8m profit and $179m of revenue for the December half-year in 2018. COVID-19 lit a fire under the business as uptake of its games in the US soared during lockdowns. Over the past four years, VGW has returned more than $1.3b to its shareholders, with Mr Escalante pocketing the lion's share due to his majority ownership. He will receive a further $200m from the $286m of interim and special dividends set to be paid for the 2025 financial year. VGW's two independent directors have determined that the offer price, which will be reduced by the dividends, recognises the company's value 'after taking into account its medium and longer-term potential and the ongoing risks relating to VGW's business and operating environment'. Mr Escalante's offer was endorsed after an earlier pitch of $3.50 of $4 a share was rejected as too low. However, it still may not be enough to get the buyout across the line, with some long-standing shareholders still reckoning VGW is worth more and disputing the inclusion of the proposed dividends in the offer price. 'A few of the shareholders who have got pretty good holdings feel as if it's an unreasonable offer, they feel as if it should be more,' the VGW shareholder said. The buyout documents are expected to be sent to shareholders by early July, with a vote to be called in August. Mr Escalante was not available for comment this week. Disclosing the buyout offer on Monday, he said it represented 'an efficient opportunity to allow those shareholders looking to monetise their investment for cash to do so'.
West Australian
9 hours ago
- West Australian
Kimberley Supt Hutchison warns of e-scooter dangers in Broome, following Perth pedestrian death
Kimberley Superintendent John Hutchison says Broome police will enforce e-scooter rules as part of a Statewide safety campaign, after an e-scooter struck and killed a Perth pedestrian. Fifty-one-year-old Thanh Phan was hit from behind by a hire e-scooter allegedly ridden by a backpacker who is accused of being three times over the legal blood alcohol limit on Saturday night. He died in hospital on Monday after undergoing surgery for a serious head injury. The British backpacker, 24-year-old Alicia Kemp, has been charged over the crash. Appearing in Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday her bail was opposed, with prosecutors arguing she was a flight risk due to being on a working holiday visa. Ms Kemp will be remanded in custody until July 15. The latest fatality brings the number of e-scooter-related deaths to five across WA this year. The growing number of fatalities is a serious concern for the Broome-based Superintendent. 'You only have to drive around Broome for five minutes, and you will see 10 people riding around on e-scooters with no helmets on, some of them at significant speeds,' Supt Hutchison said. He spotlighted how the tourist town's urban layout puts reckless e-scooter drivers at risk. 'We haven't got the bike path systems in Broome's that some other towns have, especially in the Perth metro area, so a lot of the time e-scooter riders are riding without proper lighting.' His apprehensions are backed by a medical study showing 190 e-scooter injuries were treated at Broome Hospital between April 2023 and April 2024. The study also found that the median age for accidents was 26 years-old, equally male and female, that 55 per cent reported being intoxicated, and 75 per cent were not wearing a helmet. Supt Hutchison is warning the Broome community that if e-scooters go over 25km/h on the road and are heavier than 25 kilograms, they are classifies as off-road motorcycles, which means police can seize them if they are not on the road. The Shire of Broome said they did not intend to suspend their e-scooter trial after two local governments in Perth ordered their removal in the wake of the pedestrian's death. 'We will continue to monitor the trial closely and assess its outcomes based on local data, community feedback, and safety considerations,' the shire said. 'We acknowledge the concerns raised by recent events at the City of Perth and remain committed to ensuring the safe use of e-scooters in Broome through appropriate regulation and operator engagement.'
