DealZone

Wednesday’s highlights:

* More on Kraft-Cadbury: Why Hershey will have to return to a strategy of expanding internationally through joint ventures and small acquisitions. And Agnes Crane of Reuters Breakingviews says though Kraft will have to raise more money to fund its final deal to buy Cadbury, that’s become easier and cheaper since the cheese and crackers conglomerate launched its bid.

* MetLife Inc is in talks to buy AIG’s American Life Insurance Co (Alico) unit in a deal that could be valued between $14 billion and $15 billion, a source familiar with the matter says.

* A U.S. bankruptcy judge gives bankrupt chemicals company Lyondell Chemical Co more time to exclusively file a plan of reorganization, and denied a creditors’ motion to expand a probe into some of the company’s restructuring methods.

* Alan Wheatley, China Economics Editor for Reuters, looks at the “immense” obstacles facing Chinese firms as they gear up for overseas acquisitions.

For more on these and the rest of the latest deal-related news from Reuters, click here.

And elsewhere (some external links may require subscriptions):

* European antitrust regulators should approve software maker Oracle Corp.’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. by next week, paving the way for the companies to complete their long-delayed deal, the WSJ says, citing people close to the companies.