DealZone

General Motors has increased the preferred stock on offer by 25 percent and raised the price for common stock in its landmark IPO, bringing the U.S. government closer to break-even on a still-controversial bailout of the automaker. NYT’s Andrew Ross Sorkin looks into who should get the credit for GM’s IPO and Dow Jones Newswires cautions investors with a look back to Blackstone’s IPO.

BHP Billiton is still interested in big acquisitions and does not regret spending $875 million pursuing three major deals that collapsed in the past two years, its chairman said.

If two’s a trend, expect more management/private equity buyouts of U.S.-listed Chinese companies — taking advantage of big discounts to peers on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock markets.

BHP Billiton’s boss is likely to face calls next week for a massive share buyback when he faces shareholders in Australia after his third straight failure to pull off a major acquisition.

Investment bankers are pitching to advise Symantec on strategic options as some shareholders push to break up the company, but the software maker has not made a decision to hire bankers and remains on track with its own strategy, sources said.

General Motors is in the final stage of talks to sell equity to Chinese partner SAIC as part of its landmark initial public offering, two people familiar with the matter said.

Australia’s farm sector would have too much of an advantage if BHP Billiton was allowed to buy Potash Corp, argued Canada’s farm minister. While Canada’s decision to block the deal stunned many, most Potash Corp investors seem unperturbed, eying its long-term growth prospects.

Alastair Sharp looks at what Ottawa’s market-rattling decision could mean for Canadian tech giant Research In Motion.

The terms of GM’s upcoming share sale show that, once public, the stock will have to as much as double before its biggest shareholder, the U.S. government, gets close to breaking even, writes columnist Antony Currie.

By blocking BHP Billiton’s $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, Canada reveals it’s not entirely “open for business.” Like many countries, it has become more wary about allowing foreign investors to gain control of companies that hold strategic resources. Reuters takes a look at BHP’s tenacious CEO, what’s next for the company and if other Canada-Australia deals can expect some backlash.

U.S. regulators have quietly been warming to the idea of private equity playing a bigger role in rescuing banks, as they deal with hundreds of institutions that are hurting for capital, writes Paritosh Bansal.

Private equity firms are on the prowl for more technology targets, said several senior sector bankers, but investors should not expect a mad rush of deals before the end of the year, writes Nadia Damouni.

Canada insisted it had made no decision yet on what to do about BHP Billiton’s $39 billion offer to buy Potash Corp, even as two newspapers reported that bureaucrats were advising that the bid should go ahead. A decision by the Canadian government is due by the end of Wednesday.

General Motors plans to sell just over $13 billion of shares in its IPO, people familiar with the matter said. GM could file an updated prospectus for its IPO today.

Spanish bank BBVA has bought joint control of Turkish peer Garanti Bank in a $5.8 billion deal to escape a price war for deposits and high funding costs in its sluggish home economy.

Communications cable maker CommScope said it agreed to be bought out by The Carlyle Group in a $3.9 billion deal. It’s the latest sign of a resurgence of acquisitions by private equity firms, which are under pressure to invest billions of dollars of capital raised in the past few years. *View article *View preview of Blackstone and KKR’s results

Green Mountain’s near-monopoly in single-cup brewing, just 4 years after it bought coffee machine maker Keurig, makes it a compelling target for food or consumer products giants seeking entry to a fast-growth part of the U.S. beverages market, writes Mihir Dalal. *View article

Private equity is testing the regulatory waters with a rare bank takeover, reports Bloomberg. *View article

BHP is offering more concessions to Canada’s Saskatchewan province to get a $39 billion deal for Potash Corp approved. “I think it’s wrangling rather than anything more serious. There’s a lot that BHP is willing to do in order to ensure that this deal is a success,” said analyst Charles Kernot at Evolution Securities in London. *View article *View timeline *View scenarios for Potash

“General Electric, Honeywell International and United Technologies are among the suitors for BAE Systems’ aerospace unit that could fetch up to $2 billion for Europe’s top defense group, people familiar with the matter said,” writes Soyoung Kim. *View exclusive *View analysis on defense stocks

Sanofi has received the green light from U.S. antitrust regulators to take-over Genzyme. *View article *View analysis on how  Sanofi could raise bid *View article on Genzyme earnings

Northeast Utilities will buy peer NSTAR in a $4.17 billion all-stock deal to create one of the largest U.S. utilities. *View article

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto scrapped a plan for a $116 billion iron ore joint venture. The announcement was widely expected and could result in both miners stepping up competing expansions. *View article *View reaction

“The strong interest from traditional funds and high-profile Chinese investors in the sale of the unit of American International Group comes amid a flood of Asian IPOs that have cemented the region’s dominance in initial public offerings this year,” reports Denny Thomas and Kennix Chim. *View AIA article *View article on the IPO fee bonanza

Groupon’s valuation has been growing fast but don’t expect the company to have the same success as Ebay, writes TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington. *View article

As regulators mull over BHP Billiton’s bid for Potash, China’s Sinochem has hired banks to advise it on how to foil the deal, two sources told Reuters. *View article *View article on the politics of the deal

The New York Times takes a look at vulture investor Randall D. Smith as he circles the newspaper industry. *View NYT article

Tech companies are flush with cash and on the hunt for growth, reports Forbes. Here are some deal predictions in the sector. *View Forbes article

BHP Billiton’s $39 billion battle to take control of Potash is expected to drag on into next year after it failed to win immediate backing from Canadian authorities.

“To some extent the longer it drags on, it might be better for BHP because it reduces the tension, although if someone else comes in like the Chinese it is another game,” said Peter Chilton, an analyst at Constellation Capital Management. *View article *View article on the possibility of a counter bid

“In the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley innovation, Google’s chief dealmaker David Lawee puts many a youthful engineer to shame,” writes Alexei Oreskovic. *View article