Jui Chakravorty

Mark Cuban lost out in the fight for the Chicago Cubs. But that didn't get him down -- he told the Los Angeles Times on Monday he would consider buying the Los Angeles Dodgers if the terms were right.

Now the Dodgers are not on the block, but a divorce proceeding between the owners -- Frank McCourt and his wife Jamie -- has sparked speculation about the team's future.

McCourt says a post-nuptial agreement gives him sole ownership and that the team is not for sale. But his wife says she is a co-owner and lawyer said she has lined up financing to buy out McCourt's stake. While the two go at it, Cuban not-so-quietly told the newspaper he has received requests from fans asking him to buy the team.

“I’m not a fan of debt-driven acquisitions,” Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks wrote to the newspaper. “If a unique situation came up where I could contribute capital to buy out a majority shareholder and gain control, with existing shareholders or note holders staying in place, I would consider it.”

The McCourts announced their separation last month, after her husband fired her as chief executive of the team. Her husband claimed she was having an affair with her bodyguard-driver and was doing a poor job in her role as chief executive.

The Dodgers won't be cheap. In April, Forbes magazine valued the Dodgers as the fourth most valuable team in baseball at $722 million. A 95 percent stake in the Chicago Cubs, ranked No. 5, just sold for a record $845 million.  Cuban didn't make it to fourth base with the Cubs, but could he hit a home-run on this one?

We'll have to wait and see. A December 15 hearing will decide the validity of the post-nuptial agreement between the McCourts.

'Tis the season for unbridgeable gaps.

NRG Energy rejected Exelon's sweetened (and hostile) bid on Wednesday, saying the $6.9 billion offer was still too low.   

Exelon raised its all-stock offer for NRG by more than 12 percent last week, but investors have not been swayed by the increased price. NRG shares have lost more than 15 percent of their value since Exelon bumped up its bid.   

Exelon has said its increased bid of 0.545 of its shares for every NRG share is its best and final offer. 
Still, NRG called the revised Exelon bid a step in the right direction.  "If you would properly recognize the value created by NRG itself, you would be able to increase your current 0.545 offer by a substantial amount," NRG wrote in its letter.   

Next stop on this long road: NRG's annual meeting on July 21. Exelon has nominated a slate of directors to stand for election; shareholders will vote.

The two companies are part of a long list of running hostiles, including Broadcom/Emulex, Agirum/CF/Terra, Xstrata/Anglo American, Validus/IPC and EMC/Data Domain. Some of those offers are "unsolicited" and not "hostile" yet. But let's face it -- a bid that is unsolicited and perceived to be undervalued might not be "hostile," but it isn't considered particularly friendly.

Expect more unfriendly approaches as depressed stock prices and lack of long-term visibility continue to create wide - and often unbridegable - gaps between buyers and sellers.

EMC on Monday increased its offer for Data Domain by 12 percent to $33.50 a share, valuing the specialty storage maker at $2.4 billion and raising stakes in a bidding war against rival NetApp.

EMC also removed a breakup fee from its offer for Data Domain and said it was ready to complete a deal within two weeks.

The battle for Data Domain, which began with an offer of $25 a share from NetApp,  has grown increasingly acrimonious. Last month, EMC took out a full-page ad in The San Jose Mercury News explaining to Data Domain’s employees why a deal with EMC is better than one with NetApp.

Data Domain, for its part, has maintained that a deal with NetApp makes more sense and raised questions about EMC’s motives. In an interview with The Mercury News, NetApp’s chief marketing officer called EMC’s bid a "defensive move to try to limit Data Domain’s growth."

In an environment where getting any deal done is proving to be very difficult, this is a rare bidding war. And given the shaky markets, investors might prefer a cash bid.

Additionally, as the amount of data that companies store -- and the cost to store it -- is on the rise, demand for data-reduction technology, which boosts the efficiency of data storage equipment by deleting duplicate pieces of information, is likely to increase as well. This bidding war could drag on.

A U.S. federal judge has authrorized the sale of General Motors' most profitable assets to a "new GM," backed by the government, in a move seen as crucial for the automaker to exit bankruptcy protection.

The decision by Judge Robert Gerber of the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan came after three days of hearings to address the 850 objections to the restructuring plan. In his 95-page opinion, Judge Gerber wrote that the sale would "prevent the death of the patient on the operating table."

Under the terms of the revised deal, G.M. would sell its best assets, including the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC brands, to a new company owned largely by the American and Canadian governments and a health care trust for the United Automobile Workers union.

That still leaves the question of the "old GM," which includes Opel, Vauxhall and Hummer. Just as people thought that GM's plan to sell Opel and Vauxhall to Canadian auto supplier Magna International was a done deal, China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding made a concrete offer to buy both brands for $924 million. That leaves the future of Opel uncertain for now.

Also not a done deal: GM's plan to sell Hummer to China's Sichuan Tengzhong. The potential buyer is in talks with Chinese regulators to win approval for its acqusition, but there are no guarantees it will get the green light.

Germany's Opel might have a Canadian owner soon.

With its current owner, General Motors, facing a very-likely bankruptcy, Germany desperately wanted a new owner for Opel to save it from insolvency, save thousands of workers from unemployment and save the politicians from failing in re-elections.

After hours of talks with Italian automaker Fiat and Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International, GM has reached an agreement, in principle, to rescue the German unit.

The two sides have been trying to agree on a memorandum of understanding that would serve as the basis for bridge financing of 1.5 billion euros ($2.1 billion) as well as a trustee solution that would protect Opel from creditors in case GM files for Chapter 11.

A framework agreement has been reached, per sources, but the MOU has not been signed yet. Fiat, which wanted to create a global auto empire after buying a stake in Chrysler, doesn't look like it's going to get very far in that goal any time soon. With Magna in, Fiat is out. Stay tuned for the final details on the fate of Opel.

What's surprising: Talks for General Motors Corp's Opel failed to yield a deal.

What's not-so-surprising: GM needs cash. Again.

Talks that ran all through Wednesday night to sell Opel to one of four final bidders narrowed the race to two but failed in sealing a deal. German ministers, emerging in the early hours of Thursday morning after more than 12 hours of talks, blamed GM and the U.S. Treasury for the failure.

Why? Because GM, the ministers say, shocked participants by announcing it needed 300 million euros ($415 million) more in short-term cash from the German government to  keep Opel operating.

Italian automaker Fiat and Canadian auto parts supplier Magna remain in the race to buy Opel. Belgian private equity firm RHJ International is out. China's Beijing Automotive Industry Corp was not present at the meeting but the option for it to return with a more detailed offer remained open.

Meanwhile, GM, which has lost $82 billion in the past four years and has received $19.4 billion in government funding since the beginning of this year.  It has also said it would likely need $7.6 billion from the U.S. Treasury after June 1. Buy GM cars or not, they sure are getting your money.

The modern shopping mall is the cathedral of consumer prosperity, so news that U.S. shopping mall owner General Growth Properties sought bankruptcy protection, capping a months-long effort to cope with a $27 billion debt load, is something of a seminal event in the global economic crisis.

The story of the second-largest U.S. mall owner reflects the larger trend in today's credit-stifled economy: companies that loaded up on debt in better times and have been struggling to refinance so they can cover their payments. Many have succumbed to Chapter 11 after frequent negotiations with lenders, and many more are expected to.

It's even worse for shopping malls. Commercial-property values have sunk, and the U.S. retail market is hurting. Many analysts say General Growth could survive a lengthy bankruptcy without resorting to a liquidation, but would have to sell off some properties. That could consolidate power in the mall industry if major players like Simon Property Group, Westfield Group and Taubman Centers could cherry-pick some of the assets.

Deals of the Day:

* EBay Inc offered to buy South Korean online retailer Gmarket Inc for up to $1.2 billion through a cash tender offer and already secured 67 percent of Gmarket, as Yahoo Inc and Interpark had agreed to the tender offer.

* Japanese chipmakers NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology are in the final stage of merger talks, four sources said, the latest shakeout in an industry wracked by a huge chip glut and a slump in prices.

* American International Group Inc is close to a deal to sell its U.S. auto insurance business to Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services for roughly $1.5 billion, a source familiar with the matter said.

* Software maker Macrovision Solutions Corp agreed to buy Muze Inc for $16.5 million in cash to boost its entertainment-information products portfolio, and it raised its 2009 revenue outlook to reflect the deal.

* British renewable energy company Novera Energy Plc said it sold its East London Sustainable Energy Facility (ELSEF) to Biossence Ltd for 1.25 million pounds ($1.87 million) to focus on onshore wind energy projects.

* Aderans Holdings first traded 10.6 percent higher after the Nikkei business daily reported Japanese private equity fund Unison Capital is set to bid for a stake of at least one-third of the wig maker.

* PICC Property & Casualty, China's top non-life insurer, said on Thursday American International Group has no intention of selling its stake in the Chinese insurer.

* India's Company Law Board (CLB) approved the takeover of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd by mid-sized outsourcer Tech Mahindra Ltd, as had been expected.

* The chairman of Spain's Telecinco has said the company was holding informal merger talks with rivals Cuatro and La Sexta, local media reported.

* Japanese chipmakers NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology are in the final stage of merger talks, four sources said, the latest shakeout in an industry wracked by a huge chip glut and a slump in prices.

* Loss-making General Motors unit Saab Automobile said on it had signed confidentiality agreements with 27 potential suitors in its efforts to find a new owner to help it survive the downturn.

* British stockbroker Blue Oar Plc said it was considering making a cash offer for financial services group Dowgate Capital Plc.

* China-focused Prosperity Minerals Holdings Ltd said its Chief Executive David Wong had signed a memorandum of understanding to transfer his 53 percent stake in the company to Prosperity International Holdings Ltd in a stock deal.

As dealmakers everywhere struggle to get deals done, the healthcare industry seals yet another one.

Express Scripts has agreed to buy health insurer WellPoint's prescription business for $4.68 billion in a significant expansion for the U.S. pharmacy beenfit manager. The deal will be a concoction of cash and up to $1.4 billion in common stock, and will generate more than $1 billion of incremental EBITDA.

This comes on the heels of Pfizer's $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth, Merck's $41.1 billion takeover of Schering Plough and Roche Holding's $46.8 billion buyout of Genentech. Granted, this isn't a pharma deal, but it still falls under the umbrella of the healthcare sector.

And in a market where deals aren't getting done -- mainly due to tight credit conditions and partly due to value gaps between buyers and sellers (due to the huge declines in stocks late last year) -- you've gotta ask: what's the magic pill?

Deals of the day:

* Indian mid-sized IT outsourcer Tech Mahindra won a bidding auction for a majority stake in fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd, edging out Larsen & Toubro, seen by some analysts as the favourite bidder. 
    
* India's Larsen & Toubro, which has built up a 12 percent stake in Satyam Computer Services, plans to hold on to the stake, its chief financial officer said on television channel NDTV Profit. 
    
* Pakistan's Habib Bank Ltd. (HBL) and MCB Bank are interested in buying the operations of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in the South Asian nation, the two banks said in separate statements on Monday. 
    
* A bid by Japan's Mitsubishi Rayon Co for unlisted British chemicals maker Lucite International has hit a hurdle in China where regulators have delayed the acquisition, two sources briefed on the matter said. 

* Orascom Telecom said on Monday it was proposing to extend the deadline to April 15 for implementing a court order for the Egyptian firm to sell its shares in mobile firm Mobinil to France Telecom.

As mergers and acquisitions activity reaches record lows amid tight credit conditions and a weak economy,  there appears to be one bright spot for dealmakers: the bad economy is pushing companies into bankruptcy, and those companies are being forced into deals.

The number of bankruptcy-related M&A reached a record 34 deals in March, the highest such monthly statistic since August 2004, when there were 38 bankruptcy-related deals, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Thank goodness for the distressed.

Disclosed deal volume for the same period is at a low -- $698 million for March, compared with $2.2 billion for August 2004, when the number of deals was comparable.  But only 11 of the bankruptcy-related deals in March disclosed their value, leaving it unclear if distressed valuations are lower now.

Deutsche Bank's new head of the Americas of rmergers and acquisitions told Reuters that distressed companies would be one of the driving factors for deals in 2009, as overall M&A activity remains subdued.

The activity in March was driven by Deloitte & Touche's acquisition of bankrupt BearingPoint's Public Services practice. MI Developments's purchase of some assets from bankrupt Magna Entertainment, and Gibraltar Life Insurance's acquisition of bankrupt Yamato Life Insurance Co.

There were 16 such deals in Jan and 13 in February.  In March of last year, there were 20 such deals.

European airline mergers, long expected, are now taking wing.

Air France-KLM in January bought a 25-percent stake in Alitalia after a failed attempt at buying the entire carrier last year. The airline fought it out with Lufthansa, which lost the battle but didn't sit around moping. It quickly launched Lufthansa Italia, which took its maiden flight a few days ago.

Ryanair, Europe's largest discount airline, has withdrawn its bid for Aer Lingus after the irish government rejected the $1 billion deal. Ryanair is now expected to look for alternative targets.

British Airways remains in merger talks with Spain's Iberia. Those talks have become complicated by the pound's recent slide against the euro, making Iberia's market capitalization now higher than BA's.

It's not just European airlines engaging in merger talks. Australia's native carrier -- Qantas Airways -- is looking at merger opportunities in Asia.

The question now is - when will U.S. airline merger talks take off again?  The Delta-Northwest merger last year led to a slew of other merger talks that yeilded no deals. But competing with the giant has become even more difficult as airlines struggle with a travel slump caused by a weak economy. And it's not just leisure travelers that are pulling back: corporate travel, the main backbone for profits, is on a decline as well.

Last year, U.S. airlines were raising prices. This year, they are cutting prices to lure more travelers. With overcapacity and lower prices, U.S. airlines could probably sit up straight, tighten their seatbelts and brace themselves for another round of talks.