DealZone

Mobile network equipment maker Ericsson said it would spend $1.15 billion in cash to buy U.S. group Telcordia to boost its presence in the operations and business support sector.

KKR’s planned $1.6 billion buyout of Taiwan electronics components maker Yageo came under a cloud after a source with direct knowledge of the matter said the island’s financial regulator expressed concern over minority shareholders’ rights.

Mid-sized lender China Everbright Bank  plans to raise about $6 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering, Asia’s biggest so far this year, braving choppy equity markets that have dampened demand for new issuances.

VF Corp, owner of clothing brands such as The North Face and Wrangler jeans, said it would buy Timberland for $2 billion. The deal values the shoemaker at $43 a share, a 43 percent premium to Friday’s closing price of $29.99 on the New York Stock Exchange.

For many potential investors Russia is synonymous with corruption, weak rule of law and political risk, its reputation hurt by events such as the jailing of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Vladimir Putin is trying to turn that image around by telling investors to invest in Russia, and have Russia invest in you.

Maple Group launched a $3.8 billion hostile bid for Toronto Stock Exchange operator TMX Group, an all-Canadian challenge to the London Stock Exchange’s agreed bid.

The head of TMX Group said on Friday a hostile bid could come “any day now,” as a consortium of banks and pension funds prepares to take their approximately $3.7 billion offer for the Canadian exchange operator straight to its shareholders.

Live Nation Entertainment is in talks with its largest shareholder Liberty Media on taking the concert promoter and ticketing company private, the New York Post reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Nokia said it was still in talks with “multiple parties” about its stake in Nokia Siemens Networks, after a report that U.S. private equity firms had backed away from bidding for a majority stake.

Nokia’s plunging share price and persistent speculation it might be a takeover target is far from attracting real suitors interested in saving the struggling mobile phone company, write Victoria Howley and Tarmo Virki.

General Motors is considering putting Opel up for sale again as management is losing confidence that the European arm will return to profitability, two German magazines reported.  Here’s a timeline of the twists and turns in Opel’s ownership.

Former BP  boss Tony Hayward and financier Nathaniel Rothschild aim to raise around $1.6 billion with a June listing of an acquisition vehicle that will target oil assets.

Stephen Feinberg, one of the best-known private equity financiers in the world, admitted that the industry is radically overpaid. The stunning admission was followed by another one: some private equity firms were increasing their fund size too much — potentially hitting the returns for their investors.

Barnes & Noble’s third-largest shareholder, money manager Aletheia Research and Management, reported a reduced stake in the company, weeks after John Malone’s Liberty Media offered to buy the bookstore chain for $1 billion.

Citigroup has agreed to sell a portfolio of private equity assets to AXA Private Equity for $1.7 billion, the French insurer said on Wednesday, the latest move by the U.S. bank to unload non-core assets.

General Electric and Capital One have submitted bids for ING’s U.S. online banking operations in a deal worth about $9 billion, Bloomberg reports.

The frothy market for Internet IPOs is raising the specter of a bubble, underscoring how little has changed despite lawsuits and investigations in the wake of the 1990s dot-com craze.

Maple Group Acquisition Corp, which has gone hostile with its $3.7 billion offer for Toronto Stock Exchange operator TMX Group , is in talks to add at least three other financial-services companies to its consortium, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources.

Prada is pricing its initial public offering in Hong Kong to raise up to $2.6 billion and give the maker of luxury bags and Miu Miu dresses a value higher than its European peers, a source said.

With Europe’s market for new stock market listings in the doldrums, some bankers and investors say larger IPO discounts are the answer. Easier said than done, write Kylie MacLellan and Tommy Wilkes.

Daimler and Rolls-Royce have secured a 60 percent stake in engine maker Tognum with a sweetened takeover bid, expanding their presence in higher margin industrial diesel engines.

Molson and Mexico’s Grupo Modelo are exploring a joint bid for Australia’s Foster’s Group, a source says, amid talk further suitors may emerge for the maker of VB and Cascade beer.

Italian fashion house Prada, which is preparing for an IPO of about $2 billion in Hong Kong, says it expects profit to rise as it widens its foothold in Asia. Here are some facts about Prada’s business history and a snapshot of the luxury fashion sector.

Japan Inc’s latest mantra is, with the domestic market shrinking, companies must hurry to make acquisitions abroad. But they should resist the temptation of international M&A adventurism, writes Breakingviews columnist Rob Cox.

Private equity firm Gores Group is in talks to buy more than half of bankrupt bookseller Borders Group’s remaining stores, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur is shaping up as a hot, if somewhat unlikely, deal-making destination this summer, with investment bankers jostling for at least four plum advisory roles.

The NYT’s DealBook details the high price whistle-blowers pay for telling the truth.

The Smart Money 30 group of top hedge funds spent the first quarter unwinding positions in major banks, one of their most successful bets of 2010, and shifting toward investments that can prosper in weaker economic times, like deep discount retailers. Find Reuters’ quarterly package of Smart Money stories here.

Carlyle Group is looking to pick banks to underwrite its planned IPO in the coming month, four sources familiar with the situation said, making it the latest buyout firm to tap the public markets.

Apartment building owner Archstone, whose $22 billion buyout in 2007 exemplified the excesses of the housing boom and helped bankrupt Lehman Brothers, is coming back to the market.