Aviva may announce AmerUs takeover: source
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Aviva Plc, Britain&#039;s  biggest insurer, is expected to announce a deal to buy U.S.  insurer AmerUs Group Co.  for about &#36;2.9 billion in cash  as early as Thursday, a source close to the situation said.
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Manchester United Plc, the world&#39;s biggest soccer club by revenue, said it may receive a takeover offer from an unidentified bidder.
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A European banking consortium, led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, said on Friday that it would reveal next Tuesday whether it would launch a formal takeover bid for Dutch giant ABN Amro.
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British estate agency firm Countrywide Plc  is in talks to be acquired by U.S. buyout group Apollo Management, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday.
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Nasdaq  may sell its stake in  the London Stock Exchange  to Borse Dubai and make a  joint bid with the Gulf exchange for Nordic exchange owner OMX  , The Daily Telegraph said on Monday.
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Asda, the British grocer of Wal-Mart  Stores Inc., could counterbid for J. Sainsbury  should  a private equity consortium launch an offer for Britain's  number three supermarket owner, Citigroup analysts believe.
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LONDON/ZURICH  - Barclays  has not ruled out adding cash to the terms its ABN AMRO offer should it need to boost its bid to fight off a rival offer from a consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
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Insurance giant Aviva said Thursday that net profit leapt by a quarter in 2006, boosted by sales growth in its home market and the purchase of US life assurer AmerUs.
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A European banking consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland will present a formal takeover offer for Dutch bank ABN Amro on Monday, the chairman of ABN said on Friday.
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(InfoWorld) - British insurance company Aviva plans to reduce its U.K. staff by 4,000 by 2008, and move 1,500 IT and BPO (business process outsourcing) jobs to India in a bid to save Â£250 million ($468.6 million) annually. The company is moving 1,000 BPO jobs to its Indian subsidiary Aviva Global Services in Pune and another 500 IT jobs to Indian outsourcers Wipro Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a spokeswoman for Aviva Global Services said. Aviva's U.K. business Norwich Union plans to save Â£250 million yearly starting in 2008, and the moves will initially cost it Â£250 million by the end of 2007. The savings will come primarily from the company operating more efficiently and reducing duplication in marketing, human resources, finance, and information technology, as well as applying a single approach to procurement and supplier management, the company said. Aviva currently has about 6,000 BPO employees in India and Sri Lanka, including staff of Aviva Global Services and Indian BPO companies working for Aviva. The company also has 1,500 IT staff working on its projects at Wipro and TCS, the spokeswoman said. The addition to BPO staff is part of a plan announced by Aviva in 2004 to have 7,800 BPO jobs in India and Sri Lanka by the end of next year, the spokeswoman said. The number of IT staff working on Aviva projects with outsourcers will also go up to 2,000 during the same period, she added. Aviva announced last month that it was moving over 5,000 BPO staff from third-party providers to its Indian subsidiary. Three Indian BPO companies set up facilities for Aviva on condition that the staff doing Aviva work and the facilities would be moved to Aviva at a later date. Aviva will continue to outsource to third-party BPO and IT services providers even after the transfer of 5,000 BPO staff is complete by January 2008, the spokeswoman said.
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British estate agency firm Countrywide  Plc  is in talks to be acquired by U.S. buyout group  Apollo Management, a source familiar with the situation said on  Sunday.
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Nordic and Baltic bourse group OMX   OMX.ST is holding exploratory talks about being acquired by   New York-based exchange operator Nasdaq Stock Market   Inc.NDAQ.O, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
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NEW YORK/SYDNEY  - NYSE Euronext  and Australia's ASX Ltd  may be interested in buying part of Nasdaq Stock Market Inc's  31 percent stake in London Stock Exchange Plc , a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.
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BERLIN/STUTTGART/FRANKFURT  - DaimlerChrysler  could announce the transfer of shares in European aerospace group EADS   to a financial consortium as soon as Friday, industry sources said.
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Multiplex, the developer of the troubled Wembley Stadium project, is being eyed as a takeover target.
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Wireless telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc  has been considering a $160 billion takeover bid of Verizon Communications , the Financial Times reported on Monday on its Alphaville site.
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The London Stock Exchange was considering making a bid of $2 billion to acquire Borsa Italiana, the operator of the stock exchange in Milan, two people close to the companies said. The two exchanges discussed a potential merger and were set to continue discussions today, a spokesman for Borsa Italiana said. The spokesman, Alessandro Pavesi, said the proposal from the London exchange is the only one being considered. Both exchanges have fended off takeover approaches in the last year, and a merger might help them avoid a takeover in the future, said Rupak Ghose, an analyst at Credit Suisse in London. âIt is not surprising that the L.S.E. is looking at different alternatives to become larger and hence avoid becoming acquired,â Mr. Ghose said in a note to investors.