NEW YORK (Reuters) – Travelzoo Inc (TZOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a publisher of travel newsletters and websites that has seen its shares plunge 75 percent since July last year, is planning to sell itself, three people familiar with the matter said.

The New York-based Internet company, which provides travel deals on flights, hotels, vacation packages and cruises, is in the process of hiring a financial adviser, the sources said. The company has a market value of $336.1 million.

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) – Travelzoo Inc (TZOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research), a
publisher of travel newsletters and websites that has seen its
shares plunge 75 percent since July last year, is planning to
sell itself, three people familiar with the matter said.

The New York-based Internet company, which provides travel
deals on flights, hotels, vacation packages and cruises, is in
the process of hiring a financial adviser, the sources said. The
company has a market value of $336.1 million.

By Nadia Damouni and Jennifer Saba

(Reuters) – AOL Inc’s months-long auction to sell the majority of its patent trove attracted interest from e-commerce giants Amazon and eBay, which have been largely absent from the recent patent wars.

AOL said it was selling more than 800 patents related to advertising, search, e-commerce and mobile to Microsoft Corp for just over $1 billion, surprising investors with the size of the deal and sending AOL shares up more than 40 percent.

NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) – Beauty company Coty Inc is
expected to start reaching out directly to Avon Products Inc’s
major shareholders next week to sell them on the merits
of its $10 billion bid to buy the world’s largest cosmetics
direct seller, sources close to the matter said on Thursday.

Privately held Coty, the company behind fragrances for such
stars as Lady Gaga, earlier this week offered to buy Avon, which
is facing declining sales in key markets like Brazil as well as
a bribery probe, for $23.25 a share. That is a 20 percent
premium over Avon’s stock price before the proposal was made
public.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chipmaker PMC-Sierra Inc (PMCS.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), under pressure from an activist investor, has held discussions with potential buyers in recent months, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Prospective suitors have been slow, however, to warm to PMC’s diverse portfolio, which straddles sectors as varied as wireless and optical networking, as well as storage technology, said the sources, who requested anonymity because the talks were private.

NEW YORK, MARCH 29 (Reuters)- Telecom equipment maker Avaya
Corp may have to push out its initial public offering to 2013
amid fierce competition for investor attention from hot
technology properties like Facebook Inc.

After almost five years of unprofitable private ownership
and nine months since it registered for a $1 billion IPO, Avaya,
owned by private equity firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital LP, is
sensing little appetite among potential investors, four sources
familiar with the matter told Reuters.

NEW YORK/BANGALORE, March 23 (Reuters) – IGate Corp’s
plan to delist its Indian subsidiary has set the stage
for a battle next week with shareholders, who fear that the
price being offered to sell their shares in Patni Computer
Systems is too low.

Among the investors is hedge fund Elliott Management Corp,
an activist shareholder that owns an 11 percent stake in Patni.
A representative for the fund declined to comment.

March 15 (Reuters) – Bidders are lining up in earnest
now that Eastman Kodak’s patent sale is set to
resume.

After being placed on hold so that the 130-year-old
photography pioneer could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection earlier this year, the auction for more than 1,000 of
Kodak’s digital imaging patents is ramping up again, according
to three sources close to the matter.

NEW YORK/HELSINKI, March 14 (Reuters) – ST-Ericsson is
preparing to unveil a major operations revamp within two weeks,
placing the troubled mobile chip venture on track for a takeover
by a peer or competitor that would create a formidable rival to
Qualcomm Inc.

ST-Ericsson, a 50-50 joint venture of Sweden’s Ericsson
and France’s STMicroelectronics, is seen as
a “strategic asset” for potential buyers. Those could include
Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Nvidia Corp, Intel
Corp and Texas Instruments Inc, three sources
familiar with the situation told Reuters.

NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) – Palo Alto Networks, a
security software maker, hired Morgan Stanley, Goldman
Sachs and Citigroup to lead its initial public
offering, which is expected this year, three sources close to
the matter said.

The technology company, which has about $700 million in
annual revenue, picked banks that are its largest financial
customers to underwrite its IPO, these sources said.