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FB Roundup: Busch, Eataly, and Axel Springer

By Michael Finnigan

Family-owned Busch buys stake in Pfeiffer Vacuum

German vacuum pump maker Busch, owned by the eponymous family, has bought a 15% stake in competitor Pfeiffer Vacuum for around €145 million ($161 million).

"As a long-term investor we see a financial investment in Pfeiffer Vacuum as an attractive opportunity to profit more from the potential of a market that we know well," second-gen Sami Busch, one of the company's five managing partners, said in a statement.

Shares in Pfeiffer have already increased by 45% this year as a result of comments made by the chief executive, which pointed to increased profits for the year.

Busch was founded in 1963 in Maulburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, where the main German manufacturing facility and the German sales organisation are located.

The company does not release revenue figures.

Former Luxottica CEO Andrea Guerra takes on Eataly

Andrea Guerra, the former chief executive of Italian family-owned eyewear group Luxottica, has been appointed executive chairman of food retailer Eataly, the family business founded by Oscar Farinetti, to prime it for IPO.

Eataly, which posted revenues of €350 million last year, is an international Italian food chain that has its best-performing store on New York's Fifth Avenue.

“We consumers take as given the functionality of products, and buy on emotions,” Mr Guerra says in a Financial Times article. “Oscar Farinetti was one of the few who understood that the world today moves on emotion.”

Farinetti's three children work in the family business.

Guerra, who is widely considered the reason why Luxottica is now the largest eyewear business in the world, stepped down from the eyewear group following a disagreement over the direction of the company.

For the past year he has served as senior adviser to Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.

Axel Springer to buy Business Insider for $343 million

German media giant Axel Springer, owned by the Springer family, has agreed to buy 88 percent of the Business Insider news website for $343 million.

Berlin-based Springer says the purchase, which values Business Insider's shares at nine times this year's projected revenues, will help it extend its reach in English speaking media. It will take an 88% stake in the financial publication.

Axel Springer's chief executive Mathias Doepfner said: "Henry Blodget's way of digital storytelling reaches the decision-makers of tomorrow. The transaction is an essential component of Axel Springer's strategy to grow with digital journalistic offerings in English-language geographies".

Axel Springer now owns 97% of Business Insider. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos holds the remaining shares through his personal investment company.

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