**Microsoft beat Google in a battle to invest in socializing Web site Facebook, agreeing to pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake — a poke that values the Web phenomenon at $15 billion, on par with the market cap of retailer Gap and hotel chain Marriott.

Microsoft also clinched exclusive rights to sell ads on Facebook outside of the U.S. as part of the investment, but analysts said it paid a steep price on a bet that the three-year-old company would be able to transform itself into a hub for all sorts of Web activity.
 
**In the biggest foreign investment ever in Africa, China’s ICBC is spending $5.6 billion in cash on a 20 percent stake of South Africa’s Standard Bank. The move by China’s biggest lender is also the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese commercial bank — coming as Beijing encourages major state firms to expand abroad, particularly in developing countries and on the heels of a deal between China’s CITIC and Bear Stearns.
 
**The Federal Trade Commission is trying to disrupt a merger between the largest natural-foods grocers in the U.S. after the deal has already been completed, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the unusual move, the FTC is asking an appellate court to overturn a ruling in August that allowed Whole Foods to acquire rival Wild Oats for $565 million. The agency opposes the deal on antitrust grounds and is asking for a review — but that’s considered a long shot, the Journal says. 

** The New York Times’ DealBook links to a New York Post article citing unnamed sources as saying high-level merger talks are underway between American Media and Ron Burkle’s Source Interlink Companies. The merger would “combine American Media’s titles, which include Star, the National Enquirer and Men’s Fitness, with Source Interlink’s magazine titles, which range from Motor Trend to Soap Opera Digest,” the Post says.

** BEA Systems said it would be willing to begin discussing a sale for $21 per share, setting a deal value well in excess of an offer from Oracle Corp. BEA said Oracle has been after the company over the last several weeks for a price. Oracle has set a Sunday deadline for BEA to accept its offer of $17 per share, but BEA has so far rejected the approach. BEA sells programs that help connect business computer systems.

** The Deal.com says Sam Zell’s $8.2 billion deal for Tribune is on track. Citing Private Equity Industry watchers as saying the publisher should be able to meet Zell’s requirements. But two U.S. senators have threatened to introduce bipartisan legislation that would block the FCC from acting quickly to ease rules governing media ownership, which could throw a spanner in the works for Zell. Consumer groups and Democrats on the FCC have expressed reservations about easing ownership rules, fearing that more consolidation in the industry would eliminate independent voices and degrade local news coverage.

(Image: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Reuters file)