Coca-Cola Moves into Hot Drinks with Costa Coffee Acquisition

​According to preliminary data from Pitchbook, a total of 27 M&A transactions were completed last week, resulting in $6.03 billion in capital invested. Overall, the business-to-business sector had the most deals at six, while the healthcare space conducted the most deals on a dollar-value basis with $1.84 billion. The following are notable deals from the week, headlined by Coca-Cola’s acquisition of coffee chain Costa and Stryker’s acquisition of K2M.

• VC-backed healthcare equipment manufacturer Cartiva has been acquired by Wright Health Group (NAS: WMGI) for $435 million. Cartiva develops evidence-based medical devices intended for the treatment of cartilage damage and osteoarthritis. The company’s lead product is a synthetic cartilage implant that has received U.S. pre-market approval.

• Insurance provider Allstate (NYS: ALL) accelerated its expansion into identity protection by acquiring InfoArmor. The Scottsdale, Arizona, company provides identity, financial, and privacy protection to clients through its suite of cybersecurity software platforms.

• In a push to grow its cloud-services business, VMware (NYS: VMW) has acquired cloud-management software company CloudHealth Technologies for $500 million. Based out of Boston, CloudHealth’s platform allows clients to manage their computing environments in both their own data centers and public clouds alike.

• Making a grand move into the hot beverage space, Coke will buy British coffee chain Costa Coffee for $5.1 billion. A rival to Starbucks, Costa is the world’s second-largest coffee brand and has 4,000 retail outlets across the globe, including China.
  

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• K2M (NAS: KTWO), a publicly traded manufacturer of spinal surgery products, has agreed to an acquisition by Stryker for $1.4 billion. K2M has become one of the premier players in the spinal market through its minimally invasive and complex spinal support systems. Stryker is one of the largest makers of hip- and knee- replacement parts and its acquisition of K2M will help with its struggling spine business.