Valassis to buy ADVO for $1.2 bln; lawsuits dropped
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Valassis Communications Inc.  said on Tuesday it would buy fellow direct marketer ADVO Inc.  for $1.2 billion, as the two companies agreed on a lower price for a disputed takeover and dropped lawsuits against one another.
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Pharmacy-benefits manager Medco  Health Solutions Inc.  said on Tuesday it agreed to buy  PolyMedica Corp.  for $1.2 billion, in a move to expand  its diabetes care services.
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The asset management firm Legg Mason said on Monday that it had sold $1.25 billion in convertible senior notes to an affiliate of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company.
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Avaya Inc.  on Monday said it  agreed to be acquired by private equity firms TPG Capital and  Silver Lake for $8.2 billion, the latest in a string of mergers  in the telecommunications-equipment industry.
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NEW YORK, November 15  - Dow Jones &amp; Company (DJ.NYS) has reached an agreement to buy the internet news site, MarketWatch Inc, for about $519 million.
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Shares of Motley Fool Hidden Gems selection Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE: FDP) are down 6% to $25 after the company cut its full-year 2004 earnings forecast by almost 20%.
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PARIS/NEW YORK  - French oilfield services group   Compagnie Generale de Geophysique is to buy Texas-based Veritas   DGC Inc. in a $3.1 billion deal to merge their seismic   businesses, the companies said on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday curbed investor lawsuits against businesses accused of scheming to inflate stock prices.
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Sallie Mae said it sold $2 billion of common stock and $1 billion of convertible securities Thursday in a deal that would help pay off bad derivatives bets.
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AXA Advisors, the United States brokerage unit of AXA of France, agreed to pay a $1.2 million fine and reimburse 1,800 clients after offering them fee-based accounts that did not fit their needs.
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Verizon Communications Inc. said today it has signed a deal to sell its Canadian directory operations to investment firm Bain Capital in a deal worth $1.
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A group of private equity firms is  courting bankrupt cable firm Adelphia Communications Corp.  ADELQ.PK with a view to making a joint bid for its assets,  the New York Times reported on Friday, citing executives  involved in the auction.
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U.S. apartment owner Archstone-Smith  Trust  will have to pay a $235 million break-up fee plus  expenses to end a proposed deal to be acquired by affiliates of  Lehman Brothers  and Tishman Speyer for a total of $22.2  billion, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.
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An agreement has been reached on the sale of Cheyne Finance, a structured investment vehicle now known as S.I.V. Portfolio, to bidders including Goldman Sachs, the fundâs receivers, Deloitte & Touche said. The $7 billion S.I.V. Portfolio, managed by the hedge fund Cheyne Capital Management, went into receivership in September. The agreement comes after talks with a number of bidders over the last few weeks and consultation with the informal creditorsâ committees, Deloitte said. Under the deal, certain reinvestment opportunities will be offered to some existing creditors of the company. S.I.V.âs, held by banks, hedge funds or other institutions, issue a mixture of short-term debt and capital and buy longer-term assets, which may pay more interest than the amount they pay on their notes. The vehicles encountered trouble in August when liquidity in the credit markets dried up as investors faced exposure to the subprime market.
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The two companies came to terms after the board of Advo agreed late Monday to drop its asking price to $33 a share from $37.
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Real estate investment trust Archstone-Smith  has agreed to be acquired by Tishman Speyer and Lehman Brothers Holdings  for $22.2 billion, including debt, the companies said on Tuesday.
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Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP, a London-based buyout firm, agreed to buy UK vacation and insurance company Saga Ltd. for 1.35 billion pounds ($2.