Merger talks between U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines Inc and Northwest Airlines Corp may be off course. A deal between the two remains elusive, Delta’s  Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson said in a memo to employees, adding the airline “has a strong stand-alone plan.” Industry and other sources have said the two were close to a merger agreement but that labor issues were holding up a formal proposal. Industry consultant Mike Boyd said the Delta memo “underscores again” that neither airline needs to do a merger. The two airlines came out of bankruptcy protection last year with lower costs and cash on hand.

Cash was on the mind of Marcel Ospel, chairman of Swiss bank UBS. Ospel told an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting that it was “absolutely necessary” for shareholders to back a 13 billion Swiss franc ($11.94) capital injection from Singapore and an unidentified Middle East investor. The chairman was braving investor fury after UBS chalked up $18 billion in charges following disastrous investments in U.S. subprime mortgages.

Dubai, however, has no problem with cash, expect perhaps with how to spend it. Sovereign wealth fund Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) has made a conditional offer for Spain’s Colonial, valuing the struggling real estate firm at 3.03 billion euros ($4.56 billion). And yes, it’s a cash offer. ICD said it would offer 1.85 euros a share to shareholders to gain control of at least 50.1 percent of the firm, or 2.25 euros in “financial instruments”. The offer represents an 8.8 percent premium to Colonial’s closing price of 1.70 euros on Tuesday. Former chairman Luis Portillo and the Nozaleda family, who together own about 52 percent of the company, had already agreed to sell their stock to the $82 billion fund in the event of a bid.

With all this money flying around, are things looking up in the buyout business? Carlyle Group founder and managing director David Rubenstein said private equity had not reached the “high-water mark” and would emerge stronger from the global economic downturn. In the summer, the subprime loans turmoil brought an abrupt halt to a buyout boom that broke deal records. Although leverage might not be back for quite awhile, Rubenstein told the 11th Super Return private equity and venture capital conference in Munich that, for now, buyout firms would pursue investments in emerging markets, make minority investments in developed markets and commit more capital to distressed companies.