Lone Star Funds, which has been seeking to abandon its purchase of Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co, is set to buy the struggling subprime mortgage lender for a reduced price of $8.50 a share. Accredited shares closed on the Nasdaq at $6.31 on Thursday.
***
Vivendi dismissed recent speculation it was interested in buying German Pay TV broadcaster Premiere.
***

Big U.S. and Canadian investors are set to push for the merger of TSX Group Inc and Montreal Exchange Inc. The exchanges have been in serious talks since this summer, the Globe and Mail reports.
***
Nortel has joined the line of interested suitors in Tellabs Inc, according to a report in Web site Light Reading. Citing an unnamed Wall Street source, the telecom-industry focused Web site said Nortel is prepared to pay as much as $7.4-billion.
***
With some deals looking shaky, the Deal Journal reports that peddlers of M&A rumors are starting to rear their heads again, noting that shares of Newmont Mining soared on rumors it would be bought by Barrick Gold for as much as $25 billion.
***
China’s economic boom is driving up prices for bilingual bankers. Hedge funds and private equity firms, which are starting to source deals in China, are poaching bankers from Wall Street firms, making the hunt for already scarce talent even tougher.
***
Thailand is pressuring Exxon and Chevron to make good on a pledge made 15 years ago to float shares in their local oil refineries in Bangkok next year. Many foreign investors are wary about Thailand after last year’s military coup.
***
The storm in global credit markets has stalled Japanese leveraged buyouts and left banks exposed to unwanted risk, although deep-pocketed and conservative local banks are expected to act as a buffer. Deals disrupted by the credit squeeze include the syndication of buyout debt for MBK Partners’ acquisition of software firm Yayoi, Advantage Partners’ purchase of Tokyo Star Bank Ltd and Liberty Global Inc’s capital-raising, according to financial sources.
***
Gottschalks Inc said it ended a strategic review that included a possible sale of the company, and decided to focus on a revised business plan to improve sales and operating performance as it posted a quarterly loss significantly wider than what analysts expected.