Microsoft's so-far cordial $31 per share bid for Yahoo may not be dead yet, but there are some worrying signs that the current offer may be pulled off life support. On Saturday, Microsoft said Yahoo had 3 weeks to accept its terms or it would come back with a lower bid directly to shareholders. Today Yahoo issued a statement implying it was not about to settle for less, confirming a Reuters report over the weekend. The Sunday New York Times covered Microsoft's deadline in the literal sense: the ultimatum ended up on the obituary page in some editions.

Washington Mutual's stock jumped 10 percent in pre-market trade after the Wall Street Journal reported that private equity firm TPG and other investors are close to investing $5 billion in the battered savings and loan. The U.S. government was not directly involved in shaping the deal, but regulators were likely made aware of WaMu's plans, the Journal said, citing sources familiar with the matter. The deal comes after JPMorgan made a preliminary offer for Wamu, after studying its financial state since March, the Journal said, adding that talks between JPMorgan and Wamu stopped last week.

Nestle has bulked up its takeover coffers after agreeing to sell its stake in U.S. eyecare firm Alcon for up to $39 billion. Nestle said it was now open to making big acquisitions -- above its previous, self-imposed ceiling of around $2 billion annually -- in nutrition and health foods. French cosmetics giant L'Oreal was at the top of Nestle's possible takeover list, with baby food firms like Mead Johnson also likely in the running, market participants said.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit has hived off another chunk of the bulging bank, agreeing to sell its Diners Club International operations to Discover Financial Services for $165 million. The network generates more than $30 billion of annual card volume outside North America.

Deals of the day:
* Private equity firm Industri Kapital said it had signed a deal to buy German component maker Flabeg from EquiVest/CBR for an undisclosed sum.
* ICAP agrees to acquire voice and electronic interdealer broker Link for an initial consideration of 135 million pounds.
* Angle confirmed that it received an approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company The indicative proposal letter envisages a price of 60.0 pence for each Angle share.
* Suez Environnement, the water and waste arm of France's Suez, said it and New World Services would buy a 15 percent stake in China's Chongqing Water Group for around 140 million euros ($219.9 million).
* Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs and Chinese private equity firm Whitesun Equity Partners have agreed to invest a combined $30 million in Chinese coffee shop chain operator C.straits Cafe to help it expand.
* Mid-sized Chinese lender Bank of Beijing said it agreed to pay 127.5 million yuan ($18.2 million) for a 19.99 percent stake in smaller Langfang City Commercial Bank.
* Hibernian Group, the Irish arm of Britain's biggest insurer Aviva, said it planned to enter Ireland's health insurance market by buying 70 percent of Vivas Group.
* The Netherlands' biggest insurer Eureko, partly owned by unlisted Rabobank, has made a takeover approach for Ireland's FBD Holdings, a Eureko representative said.
* French national railways SNCF announced plans to bring the country's biggest freight firm, Geodis, back under state control in an effort a create a major European transport and logistics company.
* Oil and gas firm Sterling Energy plans to sell its U.S. business to focus on top exploration prospects in Africa and northern Iraq and possible takeovers, the firm said.
* Landry's Restaurants CEO Tilman Fertitta cut his offer to buy the company by about 11 percent to $21 a share as rising credit woes squeeze financing options for a possible $1.3 billion deal.
* Japanese office equipment maker Konica Minolta Holdings said it would develop and market office-use printers and production print systems with Dutch firm Oce NV.

The Bear Stearns meltdown is providing new fodder for the war between Fox Business Channel and CNBC, with Fox taking out ads in the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal to attack the credibility of CNBC star Jim Cramer.On March 11, Cramer proclaimed the brokerage was "fine" and "not in trouble": seemingly the perfect "gotcha" quote in the wake of the stock's collapse and subsequent takeover by JPMorgan.

Cramer has since argued -- rather convincingly, if you watch the video -- that he was referring to the safety of keeping money in Bear Stearns accounts and investments, not to the relative merits of buying Bear Stearns shares. But that didn't stop Fox Business Channel from running an ad in the Journal and other newspapers on Monday that listed Cramer's quotes under "famous last words" from the likes of UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. (President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner didn't make an appearance.)

This isn't the first time the News Corp empire has taken on the king of business TV booyah. Late in 2000, it settled a lawsuit against Cramer, after TheStreet.com, which Cramer helped to create, canceled a program on the network. Cramer was accused to touting shares in his own company, in which he owned a 13 percent stake. The fracas led to TheStreet.com pulling out of a TV deal with Fox News, and Fox News suing to try to force Cramer to continue appearing on the network.

The half-page ad in the Journal probably caught a lot more eyeballs than Fox Business did this morning. As of January, with only a few months of broadcasting under its belt, early estimates showed Fox Business Network drawing an estimated 6,000 average weekday viewers. Twenty-year old CNBC had 283,000 on an average weekday in the same period.

After JPMorgan raised its offer for Bear on Monday, Cramer opined that "the worst is over." Will the usually optimistic Fox Business Channel now counter with "the worst is yet to come?"

Photo: Actress Queen Latifah jokes around with CNBC analyst Jim Cramer during an interview at the NASDAQ Marketsite in New York.

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.
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Vivendi dismissed recent speculation it was interested in buying German Pay TV broadcaster Premiere.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.