Dec 11, 2017

Shopping mall operator GGP rejects $15 billion takeover bid

Brookfield Place in Manhattan. Photo: Beth J. Harpaz / AP

Chicago-based shopping mall operator General Growth Properties has rejected a $14.8 billion takeover offer from its largest shareholder Brookfield Property Partners, as first reported by Reuters.

Bottom line: Canada-based Brookfield has shown before that it will sweeten the pot to get what it wants. Just last year it was turned down by U.S. mall operator Rouse Properties, only to win the deal after bumping up the share price by over 7%.

Brookfield says that the merger would create a combined company with nearly $100 billion in global real estate assets and annual net operating income of around $5 billion. Its $23 per share offer represented a 21% premium to GGP shares before the first press reports of a bid by Brookfield, which currently holds a 36% stake.

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Orion Rummler

Mass shooting in Milwaukee: What we know

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in 2012. Photo: John Gress/Corbis via Getty Images

Six people died in a shooting at the Molson Coors Brewing Company in Milwaukee on Wednesday, including the gunman, Mayor Tom Barrett told reporters at a Wednesday evening press conference with local police.

Details: All of the victims worked at the brewery complex, as did the shooter who died of "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," police confirmed in a statement late Wednesday.

Go deeperUpdated 7 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Axios

Coronavirus updates: South Korea case count tops 2,000

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

33 people in California have tested positive for the coronavirus, and health officials are monitoring 8,400 people who have recently returned from "points of concern," Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,850 people and infected over 83,000 others in some 50 countries and territories. The novel coronavirus is now affecting every continent but Antarctica, and the WHO said Wednesday the number of new cases reported outside China has exceeded those inside the country for the first time.

Go deeperUpdated 8 hours ago - Health

Dave Lawler

Syria's darkest chapter

Family room without a family, in Idlib. Photo: Muhammed Said/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The worst humanitarian crisis of Syria’s brutal civil war is colliding today with what could be the war’s most dangerous geopolitical showdown, after at least 29 Turkish troops were killed in an airstrike.

The big picture: The fighting is taking place in Idlib in northwest Syria, where a ferocious Syrian and Russian offensive has displaced 1 million civilians and infuriated Turkey, which borders the region.

Go deeper10 hours ago - World