The pressure is now on brewers, such as Molson Coors and Foster’s, to perform better or look for deals after Denmark’s Carlsberg and Dutch brewer Heineken agreed a cash bid of 7.8 billion pounds ($15.3 billion) to buy and break up Britain’s Scottish and Newcastle. The bidders announced bigger projected cost savings than expected, with Heineken targeting annual synergy benefits of 120 million pounds by the fourth full year after the deal closes while Carlsberg looks for annual savings of 126 million pounds by year three. The deal values S&N at 14.3 times 2006 EBITDA for its mix of mature and fast-growing markets, well ahead of the last big deal in 2005 when SABMiller paid 10.6 times for Latin America’s Bavaria, but below the 14.7 times SABMiller agreed to pay for Dutch brewer Grolsch.

Google’s $3.1 billion takeover of ad firm DoubleClick is expected to get the go-ahead from European regulators, after it won U.S. approval in December. For 6 years it has given the green light to every all-U.S. merger that passed muster in Washington. A lawyer acting for a client concerned about the deal said it was “disappointing but true” that the Commission had not sent Google a “statement of objections” — a formal outline of its problems with the deal.

Billionaire Wilbur Ross is reportedly in serious talks to take over Ambac Financial Group Inc. Wilbur Ross said in December he was looking at investments in bond insurers. The U.K.’s Evening Standard reported on Thursday that he is in talks with Ambac that are “serious and progressing well.” New York’s insurance regulator said earlier that any plan to shore up the insurers that guarantee $2.5 trillion of bonds will take time because of the complexity of the issues and the number of parties involved.