** In another sign dealmakers are getting anxious about completing deals, leading bidders in the world’s biggest bank deal said they could drop the minimum acceptance level to 50 percent from 80 percent. The consortium of banks, led by Royal Bank of Scotland, is set to win the long-running takeover battle for ABN AMRO with their offer of about 70 billion euros ($99 billion). But still, it’s reserving the right to lower the minimum acceptance threshold for its offer to a majority of the issued shares. The consortium’s offer is currently worth about 37.85 euros per ABN share, 20 percent higher than the value of a rival offer from Britain’s Barclays.  

** Telecommunications equipment company 3Com plans to announce it is being acquired by Bain Capital and Huawei Technologies for more than $2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal values 3Com at more than $5 per share, the Journal said. Huawei is China’s largest communications equipment maker. 3Com agreed last year to buy Huawei Technologies’ 49 percent stake in H3C, a joint venture between the companies, for $882 million. That deal gave 3Com full ownership of H3C. 
   
** Citigroup and Merrill Lynch have bought 5 percent stakes in India’s top commodities exchange, the Multi Commodity Exchange, valuing it at up to $1.1 billion. That’s more than the Bombay Stock Exchange, which sold stakes earlier this year. Total proceeds from the deals would be $150 million to $165 million. A spokesman for the exchange  said Indian authorities had approved the stake sale, which is a big first, as foreigners were previously not allowed to hold stakes in commodity exchanges.
 
** Also in India, top U.S. phone company AT&T is eyeing a wireless acquisition, the Wall Street Journal reported. The report, citing people familiar with the situation, said AT&T was also looking to significantly expand its Internet and phone services to businesses in India. AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson was quoted as saying he saw the country as a “multibillion-dollar revenue opportunity.” Stephenson also said he is seeking partnerships in Dubai and plans to bid on wireless spectrum in an upcoming auction in Qatar.
    
** Anglo-Swedish drug company AstraZeneca has appointed a deal-making outsider as its chief financial officer. Simon Lowth, a former finance chief at Scottish Power and executive at McKinsey & Co, replaces Jon Symonds, who quit this summer to join investment bank Goldman Sachs. “The CEO (David Brennan) is a pharma man, so I don’t think it is necessary for the finance director to be one,” Paul Diggle of Nomura Code Securities commented.
    
** Mark Mobius, the executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd, is backing a takeover bid by Austrian oil and gas group OMV for Hungarian peer MOL, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site. The emerging-market guru said OMV’s informal $20 billion bid “makes a lot of sense”. Mobius declined to disclose the size of his stakes in the companies, but his support could encourage other investment funds to follow his lead, the report said. OMV told MOL shareholders on Tuesday it would offer $20 billion if MOL’s board agreed to negotiate. Templeton spokespeople could not immediately be reached for comment.
    
** As U.S. leveraged buyouts and multibillion dollar mergers fell off in the third quarter amid a major credit crunch, mid-market deals of up to $1 billion held up remarkably well.  Data provider Dealogic said mid-market U.S. deals valued at between $100 million and $1 billion totaled almost $82 billion in the third quarter, down only slightly from $83 billion for the same period in 2006. 
        
** Shares in British reinsurance broker Benfield jumped 10 percent after a newspaper report it received a 700 million pound ($1.42 billion) approach from Goldman Sachs. The Daily Telegraph reported Benfield directors and the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs were in talks for weeks but talks broke down at the start of last week. A Benfield spokesman said the group did not comment on market rumor and speculation but pointed out it had been buying back shares on the market at 269.7 pence — below the level of the reported Goldman approach.