M&A

In a Form 8-K statement issued last week, UPS said that it terminated its plans to acquire Estafeta due to the inability of all closing conditions to be satisfied.

A letter sent this week by the Rail Customer Coalition (RCC), a concern comprised of trade associations representing the manufacturing, energy, and agricultural industries reliant on railroads, to the leadership at the Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent adjudicatory and economic-regulatory agency charged by Congress with resolving railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers, laid out various concerns and reservations that RCC has in regards to the proposed merger between Class I railroad carriers Union Pacific and...

DHL Supply Chain is expanding its healthcare reach with the acquisition of SDS Rx, a company that handles last-mile deliveries for long-term care and specialty pharmacies, radiopharmacies, and health system networks.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman spoke with Chris Jahn, President & Chief Executive Officer, at the Washington, D.C.-based American Chemistry Council (ACC). Topics covered included: the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger; railroad service and pricing; and the regulatory environment, among others.

President Trump this week terminated Robert Primus from his position as Board Member of the Washington, D.C.-based Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent adjudicatory and economic-regulatory agency charged by Congress with resolving railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Earlier this month, activist investor Ancora Holdings LLC penned a letter to the Board of Directors at Jacksonville-based Class I railroad carrier CSX, in which it stated that CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs has put the company in the position of having to play “catch up,” following the recently-announced merger between Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS).

The deal promises faster returns, lower costs, better customer experiences, and improved sustainability.

Chicago-based third-party logistics and technology-enabled transportation services provider Echo Global Logistics announced earlier today it has acquired Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Freight Saver, a provider of third-party logistics (3PL) services.

Following the late May announcement, in which Sydney, Australia-based WiseTech Global, a provider of logistics software, including CargoWise, its logistics execution platform, announced it would acquire e2open Parent Holdings Inc., parent company of Austin, Texas-based e2open, a network-based provider of cloud-based, mission-critical, end-to-end supply chain management platform services, WiseTech said the deal is now official.

While leadership at Class I railroad carriers Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) touted the benefits of this week’s announcement, coming to terms on an $85 billion deal in which UP will acquire NS—to create the nation’s  first transcontinental railroad that will connect more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states from the East Coast to the West Coast and connect around 100 ports as well—feedback from various shipper groups has been less than receptive to the deal.

Following a heavy amount of speculation that Omaha-based Union Pacific (UP) was taking steps to acquire Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern (NS), in first Class I railroad merger since the April 2023 deal, in which Canadian Pacific acquired Kansas City Southern for $31 billion, that was subsequently respectively confirmed by the companies in recent days, UP and NS announced today that they have come to terms on an agreement for a deal.

A Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, noted an agreement could be reached as soon as this week, adding, if the deal came to fruition, it would represent the largest railroad deal on record.

A report stated that Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific (UP) “is working with investment bankers at Morgan Stanley to explore the acquisition of a rival.”

A combination of factors is having what could be viewed as a negative impact, when it comes to transportation and logistics (T&L) mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity. That was the primary thesis of a new report issued today by business consultancy PwC, entitled “Transportation & Logistics: US Deals 2025 Midyear Outlook.”

WiseTech said that the purchase agreement was $3.30 per share in cash, for a total of $2.1 billion. The company added that bringing e2open into the fold helps it strategically on various fronts, like adding adjacent markets, customer bases, and product capabilities, enabling WiseTech to “create a global, multi-sided, trade, and logistics marketplace.”