Friday, October 2, 2026 · Covering: Mon–Fri this week
TL;DR
German chemicals giant BASF rejected a counter-rejection fight of its own making this week, going public with an €10.3B (~$11.7B) takeover approach for rival Evonik that the target's board called too cheap — and then reportedly sweetening it to €22.15 a share. Two deals that had been in the pipeline for months finally closed: Capital One completed its $5.15B purchase of fintech Brex, and TTM Technologies closed its $1.1B acquisition of defense-electronics maker Epiq Solutions from Veritas Capital. Markets swung on a lackluster September jobs report (just 29,000 jobs added) that sharply cut the odds of another Fed rate hike this month, a notable shift after the Fed's September hike to 3.75%–4.00%.
TOP 3 DEALS
DEAL 1
Industrials / Chemicals
DEAL SIZE (EV)~€10.3B initial (~$11.7B); reported revised offer €22.15/share
STATUSRejected; talks reportedly continuing
BIDDER ADVISORSAdvisors TBD
TARGET ADVISORSAdvisors TBD
BASF confirmed exploratory talks to buy German rival Evonik, but Evonik's board rejected the initial €10.3 billion approach as undervaluing the company, with reports saying BASF has since come back at €22.15 a share. The wrinkle: RAG-Stiftung, a foundation, controls roughly 44% of Evonik's shares and will effectively decide whether any deal happens.
Why it matters for recruiting: A live, unresolved European strategic M&A situation with a classic "anchor shareholder" subplot — great material for questions on hostile-vs.-friendly tactics and how a concentrated ownership structure changes a bidder's playbook.
DEAL 2
Fintech / Financial Services
DEAL SIZE$5.15B, cash + stock
STATUSClosed this week
BUYER ADVISORSAdvisors TBD
SELLER ADVISORSAdvisors TBD
Capital One closed its previously announced purchase of corporate-card and spend-management fintech Brex for $5.15 billion in cash and stock, folding Brex's business-payments technology into Capital One's commercial banking arm. The deal had been in regulatory and integration process since its January announcement.
Why it matters for recruiting: A bank-buys-fintech story that's useful for talking about why incumbents acquire disruptors instead of building in-house — product speed, engineering talent, and an existing customer base.
DEAL 3
Defense / Tech
DEAL SIZE$1.1B, all-cash
SELLERVeritas Capital
SELLER ADVISORRobert W. Baird
BUYER ADVISORSAdvisors TBD
TTM Technologies closed its $1.1 billion all-cash purchase of Epiq Solutions, a maker of RF-sensing and signals-intelligence (SIGINT) hardware, from Veritas Capital. The deal adds defense-electronics capability to TTM's printed-circuit-board manufacturing business, deepening its exposure to the Pentagon's electronic-warfare and ISR budgets.
Why it matters for recruiting: A clean example of a sponsor-to-strategic exit in defense tech, and a reminder that "boring" industrial manufacturers (PCBs) are increasingly buying their way into higher-margin defense-electronics niches.
SECTOR SIGNAL
DEFENSE / AEROSPACE
RTX secured a $24.4B Navy contract to ramp up SM-6 missile production — not M&A, but another data point on how much capital is flowing into munitions capacity amid stockpile concerns. Source ↗
TECH / TMT
OpenAI is reportedly in talks for a funding round that would value the company near $1.4 trillion — a scale that keeps reshaping how bankers think about AI-adjacent M&A and financing. Source ↗
INDUSTRIALS
The BASF/Evonik standoff (above) is the headline, but it's part of a broader wave of European chemicals consolidation as producers look for scale amid weak demand and high energy costs.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon reiterated the bank is "on the lookout" for an acquisition as large as $20 billion, a signal big-bank M&A appetite remains open even as organic growth stays strong. Source ↗
M&A / LEVERAGED FINANCE
TPG closed a $10B climate-infrastructure fund, adding to the pile of sponsor dry powder chasing energy-transition and data-center assets. Source ↗ Separately, the leveraged-loan primary market stayed busy with a mix of new LBO financings and opportunistic refinancings this week, per credit-market trackers. Source ↗
MARKET TONE
September payrolls badly missed expectations — just 29,000 jobs added, with the labor market described as "flashing yellow." Source ↗
Traders slashed the odds of another Fed rate hike this month after the weak jobs data, a sharp reversal from the hawkish tone that followed the Fed's September hike to 3.75%–4.00% (its first since 2023). Source ↗
Stocks rallied Friday on the "bad news is good news" dynamic, with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all higher as investors bet a softer jobs picture keeps the Fed from tightening further. Source ↗
Thursday was a comeback day: stocks staged a rebound as Treasury yields fell and chip stocks gained, clawing back some of the week's earlier losses. Source ↗
Oil firmed into the start of October, pressuring Asian equities and keeping bond markets in focus as a cross-current against the softer-jobs rally in the U.S. Source ↗
INTERVIEW ANGLE
TOPIC: ANCHOR SHAREHOLDERS AND THE MECHANICS OF A REJECTED TAKEOVER BID
BASF's approach to Evonik is a good one to have ready if you're prepping European or industrials-coverage stories — it has all the classic ingredients of "what happens after a target says no."
The opening move: BASF went to the board first with a premium offer; the board rejected it as too low, which is the normal first step in a "friendly" process, not yet a hostile fight.
The real blocker: RAG-Stiftung's ~44% stake means no deal gets done without the foundation's blessing — in effect, one shareholder has an informal veto, which changes how a bidder negotiates versus a widely held company.
The bidder's choices from here: walk away, wait and re-approach later, raise the price again (which reports suggest BASF already did, to €22.15/share), or go directly to shareholders with a tender offer if the board keeps saying no.
How to bring it up: If asked "what happens when a board rejects an offer," use this deal to show you understand rejection is usually the start of a price negotiation, not the end of the deal — unless a blocking shareholder makes it one.