People have been expecting greater consolidation among studios for some time now, as movie studios struggle to combat falling DVD sales and figure how how to make money off consumers watching their entertainment online or on mobile devices.

Apart from cutting costs on film production and financing, studios could potentially get greater pricing control over their content if they team up, goes the thinking. And it's not just studios that want to own content. U.S. cable operator Comcast is hoping to get access to cable programming and a movie library through its proposed acquisition of NBC Universal.

Still, the value of the company's movie library -- thought by many to be its crown jewel -- is up in the air. With movies on demand and digital downloading taking a bite out of DVD sales, it will be interesting to see how much MGM can pull in for that asset.

(Reporting by Anupreeta Das and Michael Erman)

"The board, by unanimous vote of the directors whose terms do not expire this year, has taken steps to expand to eleven members, to be effective at that time, so that Terra's three highly-qualified and experienced independent directors, Martha O. Hesse, Dennis McGlone and Henry R. Slack, will continue to serve on the board," Terra wrote near the bottom of its Sunday night statement. "The board believes that Terra's shareholders will benefit the most by combining this experience with the new perspective of the three additions to the board."

The move -- although possibly dilutive to shareholder democracy -- was not necessarily unexpected.

CF Industries CEO Steve WIlson sent a letter to Terra shareholders earlier this month saying that Terra, a Maryland company, could reappoint the directors under the state's laws.

"If the Terra board decided to take such action in the exercise of its fiduciary duties (without disenfranchising stockholders through increasing the size of the board beyond what would result from reappointing those directors), we would not be in a position to object," Wilson wrote in the letter.

Just last week, Ropes & Gray partner Christopher Conniff talked with the New York Times for an article about the Galleon insider trading case, discussing the statue of limitations for these cases.

Today, nine more people were arrested in the Galleon Group insider-trading scandal, including Arthur Cutillo, a former associate at the tony, Boston-based law firm.

Ropes & Gray said in a statement that it was deeply disappointed to learn of the insider trading allegations, and the firm was moving quickly to protect its clients.

Conniff will not likely be publicly discussing the Galleon case any more.

"The only discussion was a brief phone call from Steve Wilson saying, 'My shareholders have asked me to engage, so I am phoning you. What do you want Mike?'"

"I said, 'I would like to meet with you, Steve, and talk about valuation.' And he said, 'I don't want to meet with you, there is no reason to meet.'"

"My response was: '62 percent of your shareholders feel differently.' And he said, 'As far as we are concerned, there is no need to meet. So this phone call is what we consider engagement."

CF raised its hostile bid for competitor Terra Industries on Wednesday, but several of CF's shareholders took issue with the Terra bid on a CF conference call.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha in Toronto)

Duquesne, which is run by financier Stanley Druckenmiller, has already said it believes the proposed deal will hurt Alpha shareholders financially. It believes the merged company would lower Alpha's relative exposure to more profitable metallurgical coal and international thermal coal markets.

Now, it raises the issueof the payout and the fact that Quillen , who will be staying on as chairman of the merged company, would be treated as if he had been terminated without cause.

Duquesne says Quillen would receive close to $15 million in shares and cash if the deal were to go through, based on sttock prices at Wednesday's close. But Alpha says that Duquesne has exaggerated the payout.

"We view the Duquesne statements regarding Mr. Quillen's compensation as misleading," an Alpha   spokesman said. "The compensation arrangements are fully disclosed in the proxy on page 78.  Duquesne seems to imply that all compensation is payable upon consummation of the merger.  In fact, as described in the proxy, the vast majority of compensation will be dependent upon Mr. Quillen's continued employment with the Company and with the Company meeting performance goals over the next three years.‬‪"

We'll find out tomorrow whether Duquesne has been able to gain any traction with other shareholders.

Now, Alpha has run into problems in its own all-stock bid for rival Foundation Coal. Duquesne Capital Management, Alpha's largest shareholder, said in a filing on Thursday that it has concerns about the deal, but gave no further details. Duquesne said it holds 8.31 percent of Alpha's shares.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I'm sure Alpha is hoping the similarities to its previous deal end here.

If thise deals would happen, it would follow Suncor Energy's $20 billion takeover of rival Petro Canada, announced earlier this year.

So is M&A in the oil sector heating up? Maybe, but insiders warn that the fluctuations in oil and gas prices could slow the flow of deals.

Historically,  crude oil has tended to trade between 9 to 11 times natural gas prices.  But with crude at around $60 a barrel and natural gas at around $3.35 per million british thermal units, that ratio is currently 18 times natural gas prices.

That suggests gas prices will go up or crude prices will go down. If oil prices drop, then assets that on the market could be pulled, and the M&A market could cool fast.

Here are some other highlights from the interview that didn't make it into the story:

ON EXELON'S NEW SYNERGY ESTIMATES

"If you're only going to give our shareholders 18 percent of those synergies, that's not so exciting. In most combinations, the synergies (are divided) more in the 50-50 range of whatever number... They claim there are like $3.2 billion of synergies. This is not a gotcha game. I'm not saying let me sit down with you and if you only prove $3 billion, I'll say 'Aha! You're $200 million short.' Fifty percent of $3 billion is much more than 18 percent of $3.2 billion."

ON EXELON'S "BEST AND FINAL OFFER"

"What makes this deal unusual is that this is all a negotiation that is occurring in public. People making best and final offers and then coming back happens all the time in private negotiations."

ON EXELON PLANS TO CUT NRG JOBS

"We have made it clear to every employee that this is a consolidating industry, we have a fiduciary duty to NRG shareholders, and that there is not a guarantee of permanent employment. Having said that ... I definitely have concern about value creation tied with elimination of NRG jobs. People are not all fungible. The people that have created all this value at NRG and the people that are currently creating value in terms of the nuclear development and things like that are the very people that Exelon proposes to wipe out. You really can't have it both ways. You can't have full cost synergies by wiping out all of NRG's corporate capabilities, but then say you're going to take advantage of NRG's growth opportunities. The people are the ones creating the growth opportunities and Exelon has a different type of person working there than the type of person working at NRG."

This is not the first time UBS has gone to court to make sure its employment contracts are honored. The Swiss bank sought an injunction against rival Vestra Wealth last year in London, after 75 of its wealth managers left for the start-up.

The order against Jefferies and the bankers is posted below.

UBS/Jefferies order