Mergers and Acquisitions

Manus, a Singapore-headquartered AI agent startup founded in China, will return to operating as an independent company and delete some user data, months after Chinese regulators blocked Meta's $2 billion acquisition of the startup.

Singapore's Competition and Consumer Commission (CCS) has given its nods to Texas Instruments' proposed $7.5 billion acquisition of fellow US chipmaker Silicon Laboratories, finding that the deal poses no substantial lessening of competition in Singapore or globally.

Vietnam recorded over $1 billion in M&A deals in June alone, yet technology barely featured, with three deals worth a combined $0.6 million—less than 1 percent of the total. The stark disparity highlighted how much room Vietnam’s tech sector still has to grow, despite the country’s strong push towards a digital future.

By combining Jumpstart's deep roots in Hong Kong with TNGlobal and TechNode's extensive network across Greater China, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and global innovation hubs, the combined organization will strengthen Hong Kong's role as a gateway connecting Asia's technology ecosystem with the world.

Switzerland's Cicor Group (SIX: CICN), a contract electronics manufacturer, will acquire EDMI Electronics Sdn. Bhd. in Johor, Malaysia, which is in turn a manufacturing subsidiary of Singapore-headquartered smart metering company EDMI Limited, for $15 million-$20 million.

London-based Winnow, an AI-powered food waste solution provider, has acquired Singapore's Lumitics, a food waste technology company operating in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, the former said in a statement on Thursday, without any financial details.

Singapore's Timah Partners has launched a Specialized Waste Management Platform to consolidate Singapore's fragmented specialized waste management industry, signing an agreement to acquire an established operator as its first deal.

German-listed Deutsche Defence Beteiligungen AG (DDB AG) has acquired Infinium Robotics, a Singapore-founded logistics technology company with deployments across Malaysian warehouse and logistics operations, in a transaction valued MYR95.6 million ($22 million).

Singapore's Singtel has sold 2.8 percent of its stake in Gulf Development, Thailand's largest energy company, for approximately S$1 billion ($775 million), generating cumulative equity gains of approximately $109 million.

Carro, Asia Pacific's leading online automotive marketplace, has acquired CarPlace, a leading Australian used car platform operated by Autoleague, one of Australia's largest automotive groups, giving Carro a physical presence in three of Australia's four largest markets.