DealZone

Warner Music Group is looking for potential buyers and Goldman Sachs is advising on the process, a source familiar with the matter said.

Rumbles of shareholder dissent show drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis is walking a tightrope as it enters the endgame in its drawn-out bid for biotech Genzyme.

A group of companies led by Brazilian beef processor JBS has arranged a financing package to bid for all or parts of Sara Lee, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

Success is bringing new headaches for small hedge funds, reports the NYT.

Morgan Stanley’s surge in fourth-quarter profit indicates its strategy of diversifying its businesses to reduce a reliance on traditional investment banking operations may be paying off.

Wendy’s/Arby’s Group plans to sell its struggling Arby’s roast beef sandwich chain to focus on the Wendy’s hamburger business. The move comes at a time when other fast-food companies are trying to shed assets or even sell themselves.

The Carlyle Group’s back-to-back sell-downs worth $2.6 billion of China Pacific Insurance, put the U.S. buyout fund on course for its best exit ever.

By Robert Cyran
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Is getting people to post goofy pictures of cats and bad English signage a better business than venture capital? Cheezburger Network, the profitable publisher of "I Can Has Cheezburger?" and other absurd websites, recently raised $30 million to expand its business. The fact that venture capitalists are skirmishing to fund oddball businesses that don't need their cash is a good illustration of the industry's problems.

Venture capital's best returns historically have come from the information technology industry -- in companies like Nvidia, Sun Microsystems and Oracle. The trouble is, traditional hot sectors like chip making, computer production, and traditional software have matured. And the hottest area of growth -- consumer Internet firms -- doesn't need much capital to thrive.

Watch Reuters Editor at Large Chrystia Freeland’s interview with General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Immelt met Chinese President Hu Jintao today and GE is reporting quarterly results this Friday. What’s Immelt’s vision for the manufacturing giant? See the discussion below.

Goldman’s decision to scale back a heavily publicized sale of shares in Facebook shows how the bank risks losing its edge as financial regulation intensifies, writes Dan Wilchins. Goldman posted a 53 percent decline in quarterly profit earlier today.

Agribusiness giant Cargill plans to spin off its $24 billion majority stake in fertilizer producer Mosaic. The move could put Mosaic in play, with global mining giants being the likely bidders.

The NYT’s Deal Professor asks, are the parts worth more than the whole?

A string of stake buys and takeover bids has shown how merger rules in the euro zone’s two biggest economies can be used to gain control of a target quietly or on the cheap.

Goldman Sachs said it will limit its private placement of shares of social networking site Facebook to investors outside the United States, citing “intense media coverage.”

Federal regulators could approve Comcast Corp’s purchase of NBC Universal as early as Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter said.

JPMorgan reports higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by narrowing losses on bad loans that allowed it to release $2 billion in reserves.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reckons the bank will generate up to $50 billion in excess capital over the next three years. The veteran dealmaker should resist the temptation to go on a spending spree, writes Breakingviews columnist Antony Currie.

Sanofi-Aventis hopes to reach a takeover deal that would value Genzyme at around $76 per share, or some $20 billion, the French newspaper Le Figaro said.

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

NEW YORK -- Jamie Dimon faces a luxury problem. The boss of JPMorgan, which reports earnings Friday, reckons the bank will generate up to $50 billion in excess capital over the next three years. The question is what should he do with such a windfall?

He already hopes to reinstate the dividend, cut during the financial crisis, and may even buy back shares, if regulators allow. But the veteran dealmaker must be sorely tempted to go on a spending spree. Analysts are already talking up the benefits of acquisitions both at home and abroad. But holding fire makes more sense.

Another breakup wave is hastening the end for some conglomerates. The financial benefits of specialization have long been in style, writes Breakingviews columnist Robert Cyran.

Banks will meet in New York City today to make their case for the right to sell the Treasury’s stake in AIG, three people familiar with the matter said.

Despite all the rhetoric about restricted lending, Chinese banks don’t seem to be listening.