M&A & Partnerships

ScanlanKemperBard, known as SKB, and KCB Partners have acquired Trellis West, a four-building research and development campus in Hillsboro, Oregon, for $30.9 million. The property, which is 90% leased, adds 214,152 square feet to SKB's Oregon portfolio and sits in Hillsboro's Sunset Corridor, at the heart of Oregon's Silicon Forest. It is anchored by Applied Materials and KLA, features more than 5.0 megawatts of power, and lies less than three miles from Intel's Ronler Acres and Hawthorn Farms campuses. SKB President Todd Gooding said the deal builds on the firm's regional investment, with SKB having acquired six assets totaling more than one million square feet over the last two years, Trellis West included. KCB Principal Romayh El Jurdi said the acquisition marks KCB's third investment in Oregon this year.

A 50/50 joint venture between OKX and ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has filed to launch 24/7 tokenized US stock trading under the SEC's proposed five-year innovation exemption, the first major attempt by anyone to use that exemption. The initial list will have 63 stocks, including Strategy, Apple, Nvidia, Coinbase, Robinhood, Circle and major banks. Trading would run continuously, 24/7 365, through Uniswap liquidity pools on OKX's X layer and in USDC, USDG and USDT pairs, with users holding assets in self-custodial wallets subject to identity verification, AML and KYC. Unlike Robinhood-style representations, the tokens must be backed one for one by an actual share held through a registered broker dealer, and investors would receive dividends and voting rights just like on any stock. Companies have 30 days to object to having their stock tokenized.

Strategy added 334 bitcoin for $28.7 million while spending $176.3 million to buy back its STRC preferred stock, a sum roughly six times larger than its latest bitcoin purchase. The bitcoin purchase was funded with $15.7 million from issuing and selling MSTR shares and $13 million from Strategy's flexible USD cash pool, while the STRC buyback was funded with $154.1 million of its USD cash pile and $22.2 million of interest earned on its dollar holdings. Strategy now holds $4.88 billion in protected USD reserve and $833.4 million of flexible USD cash, and has spent about $64 billion in total on bitcoin at an average cost base of $75,440.70. Separately, a joint venture between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, has filed to offer 24/7 tokenized US stock trading under the SEC's proposed five-year innovation exemption, with an initial list of 63 stocks including Strategy, Apple, Nvidia, Coinbase, Robinhood and Circle. Trading would run continuously through Uniswap liquidity pools on OKX's X Layer in USDC, USDG and USDT pairs, with assets held in self-custodial wallets and backed one-for-one by actual shares held through a registered broker-dealer. Bloomberg Terminal has also begun carrying Hyperliquid data, and the Independent Community Bankers of America is suing the OCC over national trust bank charters granted to crypto companies. Ethereum Layer 2 network Blast will shut down with an October 26 withdrawal deadline, after assets on the network fell from $2.2 billion to $32 million and its token lost 98% of its launch value, while the IMF approved funds for El Salvador after a waiver for its bitcoin breach.

Akamai Technologies announced an approximately $11.6 billion agreement supporting Anthropic's central processing unit workloads, a deal that also provides for a potential additional $9 billion in business beyond the initial commitment. On Mad Money, Jim Cramer said the seven-year contractual commitment works out to $1.66 billion per year, more than a third of what Akamai is expected to bring in this year, though the annual figure is a simple average and Akamai's filing specifies separate seven-year project terms beginning on their respective service start dates, with payments subject to delivery and availability requirements. Akamai estimates approximately $5.5 billion in capital expenditures related to the Anthropic commitment, including an additional approximately $1.7 billion in 2026, and left its 2026 revenue guidance unchanged while issuing an Anthropic warrant covering up to approximately 5% of its outstanding common stock. In the second quarter, Akamai's cloud infrastructure services revenue rose 39% year over year to approximately $99 million and security revenue rose 10% to approximately $604 million, helping total revenue grow 5% to approximately $1.1 billion, while delivery and other cloud applications revenue declined 6% and adjusted earnings per share fell 8% to $1.59. Cramer, who highlighted Akamai's distributed Akamai Inference Cloud initiative and its edge computing approach, said the stock's retreat after the announcement felt like a buying opportunity, noting it trades at approximately 16.6x forward earnings, below Fastly's approximately 48x multiple.

Sintana Energy's Namibian affiliate Trago Energy has agreed to transfer its entire 10% participating interest in Petroleum Exploration Licence 90 to Harmattan Energy Limited, an affiliate of Chevron, for US$11 million in cash upon completion. Sintana holds an indirect 49% interest in Trago, and the agreement also provides for additional contingent consideration tied to appraisal and production milestones, including revenues from potential commercial production currently estimated at between 1.5 million and 2.5 million barrels of oil. CEO Robert Bose said the deal removes Trago from the PEL 90 joint venture, eliminating capital obligations that could reach $15 million per exploration well and as much as $500 million if the project moved into development with an uncarried 10% interest, while preserving exposure to milestones such as appraisal plan approval and first oil. Attention now turns to the Nabba 1-X exploration well on PEL 90, expected in December, which will test the prospectivity of Namibia's Orange Basin near the Mopane and Venus discoveries. Bose also noted that Total is set to begin a three-well campaign on PEL 83 in the fourth quarter, with Equinor having recently farmed into PEL 90.

Novartis entered a licensing and option agreement with China-based Abogen Biosciences, giving the Swiss pharma giant exclusive worldwide rights to Abogen's lead candidate ABO2203 and options to license additional programs built on Abogen's proprietary RNA platform. Under the agreement, Abogen will receive an upfront payment of $575 million and is eligible to receive up to approximately $7.2 billion in potential milestone payments if all options covering additional programs are exercised and the specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones are achieved, plus royalties on future product sales. ABO2203 is an investigational messenger RNA-encoded CD19xCD3 T-cell engager being developed for autoimmune diseases, designed to reset B cells by directing endogenous production of T-cell engagers in vivo. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory clearances. The deal comes as Novartis faces generic competition for Entresto and Promacta and back-to-back pipeline setbacks, including the late-stage failure of pelacarsen and the HARBOR study of del-desiran in myotonic dystrophy type 1.

Reactor, the developer platform for real-time generative video and world models, announced that NVIDIA and Sapphire Ventures have joined its Series A round, which is led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company said the investment comes as demand grows for infrastructure capable of running increasingly powerful world models in real time. Reactor's proprietary inference engine, global GPU cloud and low-latency streaming layer let developers and enterprises run models at 60+ FPS and sub-40ms latency through a unified SDK and API. The platform is already used across media and entertainment, where major Hollywood studios, advertising platforms and video streaming services have active projects, and by leading world model labs in the U.S. and internationally. Reactor was co-founded by CEO Alberto Taiuti and CTO Bryce Schmidtchen, both former technical leads on Apple Vision Pro, and its team includes engineers and researchers from Apple, Meta, Google, Adobe, Replicate and Microsoft.

Verizon Communications has entered into a joint venture with AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile US, Inc. to expand wireless coverage and reduce mobile dead zones across the United States using satellite connectivity. The venture will complement Verizon's existing network with direct-to-device services, letting compatible devices connect to satellite networks and providing backup connectivity during natural disasters or other network disruptions. The partnership is expected to reduce coverage gaps, improve reliability and provide more satellite service options, while helping Verizon adopt common technical standards that improve compatibility among devices, operating systems and satellite networks. Existing carrier-satellite agreements will remain in place, allowing Verizon to continue its independent connectivity initiatives alongside the new venture. Verizon shares have gained 10.8% over the past year compared with the industry's growth of 119.6%, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 8.77 versus the industry average of 37.6. Earnings estimates for 2026 have remained static at $5.03 per share, while estimates for 2027 have increased 0.2% to $5.30 over the past 60 days.

Paramount Skydance, the major US media company, announced on the 5th the leadership team of Skydance, the new company that will be formed once its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is completed. According to the announcement, Mark Thompson, chief executive officer of CNN, the news network under WBD, will stay on as chairman and editor-in-chief of CNN. Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News, which is under Paramount, will also remain in her current role. Both Thompson and Weiss will report directly to chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Jon Klaise. As a result, CNN and CBS are expected to each maintain independent editorial structures, easing concerns that Weiss of CBS would take control of all news divisions at the new company. In a memo to staff obtained by Reuters, Thompson said he would lead CNN as an independent editor-in-chief with the same responsibilities and authority as now. Andy Gordon, chief operating officer of Paramount, will become president of the new company.

Veeva Systems announced that Servier has selected Veeva OpenData to standardize customer reference data across more than 80 countries, expanding the French pharmaceutical group's relationship with Veeva beyond its existing use of Veeva Link Key People. The deployment is expected to improve data consistency, connect customer information with actionable insights and support more targeted commercial and medical engagement. Veeva OpenData is one product within Veeva's broader Data Cloud portfolio, which also includes Veeva Link and Veeva Compass, each addressing different aspects of life sciences data requirements. The win could deepen Veeva's footprint within large pharmaceutical organizations and support recurring revenue growth in its Data Cloud business as drugmakers scale artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. Veeva currently has a market capitalization of $44.25 billion, and its shares have gained 22.4% year to date.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. is exploring a robotics solution for research and laboratory operations aboard future commercial space stations, working with space and defense technology provider Redwire Corporation. Honda's U.S.-based space development team is combining its multi-fingered robotic hand with Redwire's STAARK robotic arm and experiment locker technology to automate research tasks and cut the time astronauts spend on routine lab work. The push comes as NASA shifts from the International Space Station toward commercially operated stations in low Earth orbit, where smaller crews and shorter astronaut stays are increasing the need for automation. Honda's hand uses actively controlled joints with force and tactile sensing across the fingertips and palm for precise, human-like manipulation, while Redwire operates eight facilities on the ISS and has tested the STAARK arm's ability to autonomously track and grasp dynamic objects. The integrated system could eventually support the broader experiment workflow, from sample handling and material transfers to equipment operation, plus inventory management, cargo movement and inspections.

Schneider Electric agreed to buy PTC for about $22.6 billion in an all-cash deal aimed at tapping into the artificial-intelligence boom, sending PTC shares rallying. Qualcomm shares moved higher after the company agreed to license patents underpinning Huawei Technologies Co.'s novel LogicFolding chipmaking technique. Taiwan Semiconductor shares gained as sentiment was boosted by discussions between the Taiwanese chip giant and Elon Musk's Terafab on potential collaboration.

Fortinet shares have climbed 119.9% over the past six months, and the company's second-quarter 2026 results and raised full-year guidance suggest the rally rests on fundamentals rather than speculation. In the second quarter of 2026, revenues rose 26% year over year to $2.05 billion, product revenues jumped 52% to $773 million, and billings climbed 33% to $2.37 billion, while the newly framed SASE Firewall business grew 34% to more than $2 billion. Management raised its 2026 revenue outlook to $8.02-$8.18 billion from a prior $7.71-$7.87 billion, implying 19% growth at the midpoint, and lifted billings guidance to $9.35-$9.55 billion, non-GAAP operating margin to 35-37%, and non-GAAP earnings to $3.41-$3.47 per share. Fortinet also acquired Virtue AI on Aug. 17, 2026, was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hybrid Mesh Firewall on Sept. 10, and opened a New York City Innovation Hub on Sept. 15 with an investment of more than $60 million, while second-quarter free cash flow more than tripled year over year to $966 million and Moody's upgraded its debt rating to A3. The stock trades at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 48.59 versus the sector's average of 21.33, and Fortinet will report third-quarter 2026 results on Oct. 28.

ConocoPhillips has signed a long-term agreement with Venture Global to purchase 1 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year, with deliveries beginning in 2030 and running for 20 years. Venture Global said it looks forward to supporting ConocoPhillips in expanding its global LNG portfolio. ConocoPhillips expects LNG demand to double by 2050 and is building its LNG portfolio toward a targeted 10-15 million tons per annum. In the second quarter, the company's Qatar LNG operations were affected by the conflict in the Middle East, with the Ras Laffan plant largely shut down, though ConocoPhillips said the NFE and NFS projects in Qatar were progressing well despite the conflict.

Cloudflare has entered a strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom under which the German carrier will add Cloudflare's security and connectivity solutions to its enterprise portfolio and the two companies will directly connect their networks. Deutsche Telekom will also train and certify its professionals on the Cloudflare platform through T-Systems, giving customers support for consulting, implementation and managed security services. The deal covers protection of applications, networks and data as well as AI workloads, and the companies plan to work on digital resilience and sovereignty in Europe, including protection of critical data and infrastructure and the use of post-quantum cryptography. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cloudflare's 2026 and 2027 revenues indicates year-over-year growth of 32.5% and 28.6%, respectively. Cloudflare shares have jumped 77% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Internet – Software industry's return of 9.9%, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 35.28 versus the industry's average of 4.42.

LeapXpert and Webex by Cisco announced a collaboration that extends Webex beyond internal collaboration into governed client messaging, starting with WhatsApp. The integration, available now on the Webex App Hub, lets Webex users message clients on WhatsApp without leaving the platform, signing in with their existing Webex credentials on desktop or mobile. It is the first of several channels LeapXpert plans to bring into Webex, and additional messaging channels will be rolled out. Every message is checked by data loss prevention in both directions, and the full conversation is captured by LeapXpert for archiving. With Webex used by 95% of the Fortune 500 and roughly 300,000 organizations worldwide, the partnership brings governed consumer messaging within reach of tens of millions of business users. A Leap Work account and a Webex license are required, and LeapXpert will showcase at WebexOne 2026, October 5 to 8, 2026, at booth B24.

EpiSign Inc. and Geneyx Genomex Ltd. announced a partnership to advance the integration of genomic and epigenomic analysis for rare-disease interpretation. Under the collaboration, EpiSign METRIC becomes available to Geneyx customers, letting laboratories incorporate epigenomic evidence alongside genomic and phenotypic information in an integrated interpretation workflow. EpiSign METRIC automates analysis of disease-associated DNA methylation episignatures across more than 300 EpiSign-associated conditions, while EpiSign METRIC 5-base extends that capability beyond methylation microarrays to methylation data generated by Illumina 5-base, PacBio HiFi and Oxford Nanopore sequencing. Geneyx Chief Executive Officer David Yizhar said the partnership combines Geneyx's genomic and multi-omics analysis platform with EpiSign's expertise in DNA methylation and episignatures, and EpiSign co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Bekim Sadikovic said genome sequencing increasingly generates genetic and epigenetic information from the same assay. EpiSign Chief Executive Officer Dan Sinai said generating genomic and epigenomic information together from a single assay can reduce wet-lab testing and data-generation costs and shorten the diagnostic odyssey for patients and families. EpiSign METRIC 5-base is available for research use only.

Summit Therapeutics has signed a clinical collaboration with AstraZeneca and its Japan-based partner Daiichi Sankyo to evaluate ivonescimab in combination with the antibody-drug conjugate Datroway, also known as datopotamab deruxtecan, across multiple solid tumors including breast and lung cancers. The collaboration is expected to initially focus on a phase III study in first-line triple-negative breast cancer, expanding ivonescimab's development into a new tumor type. Under the agreement, each company will supply its respective drug, AstraZeneca or Daiichi will sponsor the planned studies, and the companies will share study costs while retaining development and commercial rights to their own therapies. The Datroway collaboration builds on the larger deal between AstraZeneca and Summit announced in the last week, under which AstraZeneca agreed to invest $2 billion in Summit to accelerate development of ivonescimab, with the companies also set to evaluate ivonescimab alongside AstraZeneca's investigational Claudin-18.2-targeted ADC sonesitatug vedotin, or Sone-Ve, in gastrointestinal cancers. An FDA filing is under review seeking approval for ivonescimab plus chemotherapy in patients with EGFR-mutated, locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC who had progressed following EGFR-TKI treatment, with a final decision expected by Nov. 14, 2026.

Vince Holding Corp. has acquired the operating business of October's Very Own, or OVO, adding a streetwear growth platform beyond its core Vince brand. OVO generated nearly $50 million in net sales in calendar 2025 and operates 12 stores across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, plus an e-commerce business. Vince Holding plans to expand OVO's store base from 12 locations to about 20 by fiscal 2030, with the United States as a key focus, and to launch a U.S. wholesale business alongside e-commerce improvements. The company targets increasing OVO revenues to more than $100 million by fiscal 2030 with adjusted EBITDA margins in the low-double-digit range. OVO is expected to be earnings neutral, excluding transaction costs, in fiscal 2026 before becoming accretive in fiscal 2027.

Mission Produce's Marketing and Distribution segment posted third-quarter fiscal 2026 sales of $414.3 million, up from $344.1 million a year earlier, with adjusted EBITDA rising to $24.7 million from $20 million. The company sold roughly 253 million pounds of avocados in the quarter, up 38% year over year, lifted by the Calavo acquisition and growth in its legacy business, though lower average selling prices partly offset the gain. A more balanced sourcing mix across Mexico, California and Peru helped per-unit margins recover sequentially from the fiscal second quarter, and Mission Produce increased its estimated U.S. retail market share by about 60 basis points year to date. Management said added packing capacity in Mexico and California and complementary customer relationships from the Calavo combination could drive meaningful market-share gains between 2027 and 2030. The Zacks Consensus Estimate points to a 17.7% year-over-year decline in AVO's fiscal 2026 earnings and 29.2% growth in fiscal 2027, with the stock carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Baker Hughes said Monday it signed agreements with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, engineering firm Lindsayca, and LNG developer Fulcrum LNG to develop natural gas infrastructure in Venezuela, with financial terms not disclosed. Under the first alliance, the three companies will combine their capabilities to develop the infrastructure needed to process, transport, commercialize, and potentially export natural gas. Baker Hughes said the agreements establish an enterprise deal framework that can connect upstream resource development, midstream infrastructure, gas monetization, and liquefied natural gas commercialization. Separately, Baker Hughes signed a memorandum of understanding with New Stratus Energy to support future oil and gas projects in the country. Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said Venezuela holds tremendous potential to become a significant contributor to the evolving global energy landscape, and that the agreements are designed to bring world-class resource opportunities, project development, energy infrastructure and technologies, and financing expertise together to realize this.

Oceaneering International announced that its Aerospace and Defense Technologies segment, known as ADTech, has secured a follow-on contract from the U.S. Navy to support the Dry Deck Shelter program. The five-year award, which includes one base year and four option years, carries a potential value of $154 million. The agreement covers maintenance, overhaul, engineering and field change services for Dry Deck Shelters, specialized systems that help enable the deployment of special operations forces and undersea vehicles. Oceaneering has supported the Navy's Dry Deck Shelter program since 2002, and the company said its ADTech segment provides engineered solutions for U.S. Navy undersea programs. The full $154 million value depends on the exercise of the four option years, with the initial base-year award providing the foundation for continued engagement with the Navy.

CellCarta has established a strategic partnership with Waters Corporation to jointly pursue companion diagnostic and next-generation flow cytometry opportunities with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The collaboration will initially emphasize flow cytometry-based programs, aiming to give sponsors a coordinated path from biomarker strategy through clinical development, regulatory submission and global commercialization. Waters will provide underlying technology capabilities including instrumentation, reagents, standardized panels, assay development, software analysis, and where appropriate custom reagent and IVD commercialization, while CellCarta will integrate and deploy assays across its global CDx Lab Network, supporting Phase I-III clinical trial testing, analytical and clinical evidence generation, regulatory and logistics support, and commercial laboratory services. The companies cited existing platform alignment between CellCarta's CAP-accredited laboratory in Jining, China and BD flow cytometry platforms as a practical foundation for global sponsors seeking to include China in future multinational CDx and biomarker programs. Todd Chermak, President of CellCarta, said the partnership offers sponsors a more connected path from biomarker strategy through global clinical development and, where appropriate, commercialization, and that the companies are already engaging pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on near-term opportunities.

Maris-Tech Ltd. announced it has received a pilot order for an armored vehicle situational awareness application from a leading global defense company, secured through a distributor. The pilot follows an extensive engineering and adaptation process in which Maris-Tech's Jupiter product line was adapted to meet the end customer's specific video streaming requirements for armored vehicle situational awareness. The company said the adaptations developed through this process have expanded the capabilities of its products and may also support additional applications and market opportunities across the modern battlefield. Based on estimates and forecasts provided by the end customer, successful completion of the pilot could result in significant follow-on orders over the coming years, according to the company. Chief Executive Officer Israel Bar said the pilot represents the result of a substantial engineering process focused on meeting the specific video requirements of a major defense customer, and that the capabilities developed strengthen the versatility of the Jupiter product line and expand its relevance to additional armored vehicle and battlefield applications.

NextNav Inc. announced a strategic partnership with AiRANACULUS to advance integrated sensing and communications across NextNav's licensed lower 900 MHz spectrum. The collaboration combines NextNav's ground-based 5G-powered 3D PNT network with AiRANACULUS's advanced signal processing technology to expand NextNav's drone sensing and long-range early warning capability for counter-unmanned aircraft systems while reducing the infrastructure required for wide-area sensing coverage. The two companies will validate long-range ISAC capabilities using NextNav's 5G PNT Network and AiRANACULUS's hardware and software stack, with initial testing focused on extended-range threat detection to identify and track drone activity within NextNav's 5G PNT Network footprint in Santa Clara County, California. Deepak Joseph, Vice President of Product at NextNav, said safe airspace management is critically enhanced by long-range detection capabilities that provide early warning and scale cost effectively, while AiRANACULUS Founder and CEO Dr. Apurva N. Mody said applying digital beamforming and advanced receiver signal processing to low-band 5G enables detection of smaller targets at much greater distances. NextNav said results from the collaboration will support ongoing assessments of performance and applicability across critical infrastructure and national security use cases.

Vistar Media announced the availability of enhanced audience segments for digital out-of-home activation, powered by T-Mobile's privacy-centric first-party carrier data and offered exclusively through the Vistar demand-side platform. The thousands of segments draw on an expanded universe of consented data, using deterministic signals such as real app ownership and engagement plus location insights to build larger, more representative audiences. T-Mobile Advertising Solutions converts proprietary carrier signals into aggregated audience scores showing where selected audiences are more likely to be present throughout the day, and Vistar matches those scores to available inventory so advertisers can target the screens most likely to reach the desired audience. Lucy Markowitz, General Manager of Vistar Media Americas Marketplace, said mobile usage patterns offer some of the clearest signals into where and how audiences engage with the world around them. Jess Zhu, Head of Advertising Products and Development at T-Mobile Advertising Solutions, said the provenance and fidelity of the carrier data is a genuine differentiator, giving a direct, consented understanding of mobile behaviors.

TELUS and AST SpaceMobile have successfully completed their first integration test between TELUS' wireless network and AST SpaceMobile's space-based network, a milestone toward delivering broadband data, voice calls and text messages directly between smartphones and satellites. The service is expected to be available to TELUS customers within the next year, letting eligible smartphones connect beyond the reach of traditional cell towers. AST SpaceMobile's constellation features the largest communication arrays ever deployed in Low Earth Orbit. Nazim Benhadid, Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer at TELUS, called the milestone a major step forward in extending cellular coverage to places where service isn't available today, while AST SpaceMobile Chief Commercial Officer Chris Ivory said the test reflects the strength and maturity of the company's technology. The partnership builds on TELUS' ongoing investments in its wireless network, including faster 5G+ and LTE speeds and expanded coverage across Canada.

Safe-Guard Canada, Ltd. announced on October 5, 2026 that it has expanded its partnership with Stellantis Canada by adding a dedicated 16-person field sales team supporting 432 stores across the country. Effective October 5, 2026, the team became part of Safe-Guard Canada, bringing field sales support and program administration together under one company. The move effectively doubles Safe-Guard Canada's field presence, and the company said it now supports more OEMs with dedicated domestic field teams than any direct competitor. The team provides hands-on consulting to help dealers improve operations and finance and insurance performance, including product training for F&I managers, compliance guidance and support for delivering Stellantis protection programs. Michel Archambault, General Manager of Safe-Guard Canada, said the partnership reflects the confidence Stellantis Canada has placed in the company, while David Pryor, president and CEO of Safe-Guard Products International, said the combined structure allows for greater consistency and faster response across the Stellantis Canada network.

Ruanyun Edai Technology Inc., trading as RYET, has signed a definitive agreement to grant BioNexus Gene Lab Corp., or BGLC, an exclusive license to its Cogni AI document-intelligence platform for healthcare in Malaysia, alongside a reciprocal share exchange. The license runs ten years from closing and is renewable at BGLC's option for two further five-year terms, up to 20 years in total, and is exclusive in Malaysian healthcare for the full term. RYET would receive a 10% royalty on qualifying technology receipts collected by BGLC and its affiliates, with no minimum royalty or guaranteed revenue, and the same 10% royalty applies to any other industry BGLC adds in Malaysia by notice. At closing BGLC would issue 410,000 common shares to RYET for the license, a consideration of US$3.5 million, and a further 150,000 shares in exchange for 500,000 new RYET ordinary shares, with no cash payment or true-up. Based on Nasdaq closing prices on October 2, 2026, of US$1.27 for BGLC and US$0.8599 for RYET, the 410,000 license shares had a quoted value of US$520,700, the 150,000 BGLC exchange shares US$190,500, and the 500,000 RYET shares US$429,950. The deal comes as Malaysia accelerates public healthcare digitalization, after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced a RM1 billion allocation on August 30, 2026, involving 150 hospitals and 2,000 health clinics, though neither company is a party to or has been awarded any contract under these government programs, and Cogni AI is not an electronic medical records system. Closing remains subject to conditions including BGLC's written acceptance of the technology after testing, due diligence, corporate and regulatory approvals, and any PRC approval, registration or license RYET needs to license and deliver the technology, with either party not in default able to terminate if closing has not occurred by March 31, 2027.

Diskover Data announced a new collaboration with NetApp that extends the Diskover Platform's governed visibility and control to ONTAP and StorageGRID environments in media and entertainment, semiconductor design, and other file-intensive sectors. Under the collaboration, customers will be able to purchase Diskover Platform through NetApp beginning in November 2026, with the platform available now for NetApp ONTAP and StorageGRID environments. Diskover's DataDiscovery uses specialized scanners to index metadata in place across ONTAP and StorageGRID, capturing ownership, permissions, age, cost, and project context in a searchable, governed catalog. Diskover says customers typically reclaim 10 to 30 percent of their footprint, exceeding three million dollars in larger environments, with return on investment inside 30 to 60 days. Will Hall, Chief Executive Officer of Diskover Data, said the collaboration gives NetApp customers a governed, searchable view of the data behind their projects, while Sandeep Singh, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Platform at NetApp, said Diskover extends the NetApp ecosystem with specialized discovery for customers with file-intensive workloads.

ORO Labs announced an agreement with SAP under which its procurement orchestration solution will be sold as a solution extension named SAP Ariba Procurement Orchestration by ORO Labs. The offering gives SAP customers a purpose-built orchestration layer connecting procurement experiences, workflows and systems across complex enterprise environments, spanning both SAP and third-party systems, including current-generation and next-generation SAP Ariba environments, and working with Joule Work as the primary user engagement layer. ORO Labs CEO and Co-founder Sudhir Bhojwani said the partnership brings agentic orchestration to SAP customers by combining SAP Ariba solutions with ORO's procurement orchestration capabilities, while SAP Autonomous Suite President and Chief Product Officer Manoj Swaminathan said the solution extension reflects how the ecosystem lets customers modernize at their own pace. ORO Labs is an SAP Solution Extension partner, and such extensions must pass SAP's qualification process and are SAP-branded, sold and supported. SAP Procurement Orchestration by ORO Labs is planned to be generally available by November 2026.

Guild has achieved Workday Certified Integration status with the launch of the Guild Workday HCM Connector, the workforce development platform announced. The certified connector links Workday Human Capital Management directly to Guild, replacing manual file transfers with an automatic synchronization of employee information used to determine and manage eligibility for Guild programs. Guild said the connector is designed to reduce implementation complexity and ongoing maintenance while improving the reliability and accuracy of the employee data that governs access to its programs. OU Health, the University of Oklahoma's academic health system, is among the first employers to implement the certified integration. Guild also plans to expand its integration through Workday Cloud Connect for Learning, allowing skills earned and learning completion data from Guild programs to feed directly into an employee's Workday profile.

LPL Financial LLC announced that Praxis Financial Partners advisors Scott Christian, Cecil Loyd, Jay Gentry and Matt Dion have joined its broker-dealer and Registered Investment Advisor platform, bringing approximately $1.1 billion in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets from Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Praxis is a planning-focused wealth management practice serving business owners, corporate retirees, executives and multigenerational families across 24 states, tracing its roots to 2013 when Christian and Loyd launched the firm. The team said it chose LPL after evaluating more than a dozen firms, citing greater flexibility, advanced planning capabilities, access to emerging technology and support for its long-term independence and succession strategy. LPL Chief Growth Officer Marc Cohen said the four advisors had built Praxis with a clear sense of purpose and a disciplined, planning-first approach. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. supports more than 32,000 financial advisors and approximately 1,100 financial institutions, custodying roughly $2.6 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets.

AMTD Group, AMTD IDEA Group, AMTD Digital and The Generation Essentials Group, a subsidiary of AMTD Digital, announced they are in negotiations as a final stage bidder to acquire a second hotel in New York City, located in the Times Square area. The parties are in the final negotiation stage and are working toward a definitive purchase agreement with a target closing date before the end of 2026, though AMTD cautioned there is no certainty the transaction will be consummated. The move follows AMTD's March 2026 acquisition of a hotel at 39 6th Ave, New York, NY 10013, for a cash consideration of USD69 million, now rebranded as the AMTD IDEA Tribeca Hotel. AMTD currently holds a portfolio of six hotel properties across four continents, including Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, New York, London, Perth and Kuala Lumpur, totaling 919 rooms, and said completing this second New York City hotel acquisition would fulfil its commitment to grow the global portfolio to over 1,000 rooms and a global network of an independent hotels group under the AMTD brand. AMTD described the opportunity as a significant strategic move and said it believes the new hotel will become another profit catalyst for the Group.

DLH Holdings announced on Monday that it has been awarded a task order to design, develop, and pilot a data governance framework for secure access to controlled biomedical research data by the National Institutes of Health. Under the task order, DLH will serve as a technical advisor to harmonize NIH and federal data policies and integrate governance workflows across biomedical data platforms, piloting a data management approach within the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and at least one other NIH Institute or Center, which could serve as a roadmap for NIH-wide adoption. The company said it will incorporate security, privacy, data rights, and artificial intelligence governance requirements where applicable and collect performance metrics related to usability, compliance, interoperability, and stakeholder satisfaction. DLH said the task order represents new work and carries a total value of $2 million over an eighteen-month period of performance.

Entersekt and SEB Baltic have reinforced their partnership to enhance digital payment security across the Baltic region, focusing on evolving authentication needs. The collaboration uses Entersekt's 3-D Secure Access Control Server to support various authentication methods, balancing robust security with a smooth customer experience. The two organizations said the partnership addresses technical, regulatory and operational challenges in payment authentication, emphasizing deep collaboration beyond mere product provision. As digital payment landscapes evolve, they aim to adapt their strategies to meet changing security and customer experience requirements. The news was originally reported by Simply Wall St, citing Entersekt on GlobeNewswire.