Triad near deal for private equity buyout: WSJ
89969
Triad Hospitals Inc.  was expected to announce as early as Monday morning that it was selling itself to private-equity buyers for about $4.4 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
346127
A consortium of investment firms was  near a deal late Sunday to acquire Freescale Semiconductor Inc.   for more than $16 billion, the New York Times reported  on Monday.
708310
Private equity suitors are close to arranging a deal to buy casino giant Harrah's Entertainment Inc. , The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
160603
(InfoWorld) - Intuit's move to acquire financial services vendor Digital InsightÂ this week, Â and 3Com Corp.'s deal to buy out Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd's stake in their joint venture are signs that mergers and acquisitions activity continues unabated. The question is what this means for technology generally. M&A activity is being seen as a healthy sign for technology. Mergers and acquisitions, however, can be a sign of consolidation in a mature market sector with slowing demand -- in cases where there are too many suppliers for aging technology. Or it can be a sign of a vital, competitive sector and positive macroeconomic conditions such as a liberal lending environment and a healthy stock market. In terms of transactions, 2006 is expected to yield 3,945 M&A deals, up from 3,455 in 2005 and the highest number ever, according to Eric Gebaide, managing director of Investment Advisors, a New York investment firm. The M&A market is more global than ever, according to Investment Advisors, which calculates that in terms of transactions, U.S. deals will account for 53.9 percent of all M&A activity in 2006, down from 57.9 percent in 2005. In the Internet market, M&A activity is a sign of a vibrant sector. October's announcement that Google Inc. would buy the video-sharing site YouTube Inc. in a $1.65 billion deal underscored competition to jump on exciting trends revolving around how Web sites are adopting technology that allows for user-generated content. Tuesday's announcement that 3Com would pay $882 million to buy out Huawei's stake in Huawei-3Com was met with some trepidation. Shares (COMS) closed Wednesday at $4.02, down $0.47 for the day. Much of the concerns centered around the fear that 3Com will find it tough to hang on to the local Chinese management talent, and that it's hard to analyze whether 3Com is spending too much. Local regulations and the companies' prior agreements allowed financial details to remain undisclosed. Brokerage Bear Stearns downgraded 3Com stock from "outperform" to "peer perform." But other analysts were more upbeat. The joint venture is a high-end manufacturing facility in the bustling technology center of Shenzhen. It connects 3Com with an operation that can make products for the upper end of the enterprise arena at reasonable cost, according to Citigroup. Thursday, 3Com shares started climbing back up. Meanwhile, the financial-services sector has been consolidating, but Intuit's $1.35 billion deal to buy Web financial services outsourcer Digital Insight stirred things up to the benefit of at least some companies in that market. In afternoon trading, Intuit (INTU) slipped by $0.24 to $31.65, but that was to be expected: in the short term the acquisition will have a negative effect on profit. Digital Insight (DGIN), however, jumped $5.17 in afternoon trading to $38.17, and Online Resources rose by $0.53 to $10.66 in afternoon trading. For next year, Intuit expects the deal to add to profits. It is a mistake to paint the M&A scene with too broad a brush. But as the year draws to a close, the deals, taken sector by sector, point toward a general, healthy optimism in technology. Â
418270
Clothing retailer American Apparel  Inc. is close to a deal to be bought by Endeavor Acquisition  Corp.  for $244 million, the Wall Street Journal  reported on its Web site on Monday.
694285
An investor group led by two  well-known Philadelphia-area executives could seal a deal this  week to buy the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News newspapers  for up to &#36;600 million, a source close to the matter said on  Monday.
595946
Hedge fund Appaloosa Management may be  near an agreement that could give it up to a one-third stake in  bankrupt auto parts maker Delphi Corp.  when it  emerges from court protection, The Wall Street Journal reported  on Saturday.
655084
Triad Hospitals Inc.  said on Monday it had accepted a takeover bid from affiliates of CCMP Capital Advisors and GS Capital Partners in a deal worth about $6.4 billion, including about $1.7 billion of debt.
180461
Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. are close to a deal to acquire the real estate investment trust Archstone-Smith Trust , the online edition of The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
401503
MEDIA giant News Corp and its secondbiggest shareholder, Liberty Media, are reportedly close to a share swap deal that would shore up Rupert Murdoch's control of his company.
227869
Ritchie Capital Management is said to be close to an agreement to sell the assets in its flagship multi-strategy fund for about $1 billion.
604643
Clothing retailer American Apparel Inc. is close to a deal to be bought by Endeavor Acquisition Corp.  for $244 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Monday.
377809
Rupert Murdoch&#39;s News Corp. (NWSa.N)  has reached a tentative deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc.   for $5 billion, though its controlling Bancroft family remained  divided on the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
626521
Global miner Rio Tinto was near a deal to buy Canadian aluminum giant Alcan Inc. for about $100 per share, or $37 billion, The Wall Street Journal Online reported on Thursday.
540563
Exelon Corp. is close to a deal to buy New Jersey-based electric utility Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), people familiar with the talks say.
290429
AMR Corp.  , parent company of  American Airlines, might be a buyout target of a group  including Goldman Sachs  and British Airways ,  according to the February 26 edition of BusinessWeek magazine.
260638
Dow Jones & Co.&#39;s  board and  Rupert Murdoch&#39;s News Corp. (NWSa.N) have completed talks on a  $5 billion buyout of Dow Jones and are expected to announce a  deal next week, London&#39;s The Business weekly magazine reported  on Friday.