DealZone

At Sun Valley, so far, it’s the fabricated deals that are getting the headlines. News Corp is not in talks to sell MySpace, despite the rumors. View article Read More

BP boss Tony Hayward is in the Middle East in a quest for cash to ward off takeovers. What’s in it for sovereign wealth funds in the oil-rich area? Diversity, says Reuters reporter Natsuko Waki. View article

The hedge fund industry has seen inflows of roughly $30 billion since last summer but British firm Man Group is not following the trend. Outflows from institutions have shrunk from year-ago levels but private investors are now pulling money out. View article

Now that the “world’s largest IPO” headlines  have been written about Agbank,  do the big numbers add up? View FT article

WSJ has some interesting predictions on who will be cutting steak with Warren Buffett this year. No one has  admitted yet to paying $2.6 million for a lunch date with the Oracle of Omaha.  View WSJ article

Biotechnology company Celgene has agreed to acquire Abraxis BioScience for $2.9 billion in cash and stock. Abraxis shared are up 20 percent on the news and that’s got to make Abraxis Chairman Patrick Soon-Shiong happy, he owns over 80 percent of the company’s outstanding shares.

Activity in the red-hot potash sector: the Belorussian government hopes to raise up to $7 billion from the sale of a minority stake in potash producer Belaruskali to help replenish state coffers.

Shares in BP jumped 8 percent today, helped by bid talk and optimism that the worst may be over for the stock as the company comes closer to halting the massive oil leak from its Gulf of Mexico well. Read about the fantasy M&A story here.

When at first you don’t succeed, raise, raise again. Another upped bid from Staples convinced Corporate Express management to back the unsolicited offer. The resweetened bid for the Dutch firm was 1.7 billion euros ($2.65 billion), or 9.25 euros per share, from the 9.15 euros it offered last week and a fair bit above the 7.25 euros it offered in February. Corporate Express’s defensive play for French competitor Lyreco has been scrapped (for a tidy 30 million euro breakup fee).

Oil major BP accused its Russian partners of staging a boardroom coup at their 50-50 Russian oil joint venture TNK-BP, as the two sides prepared to re-enter negotiations on the future of the company. The Wall Street Journal cites people close to the discussions as saying the talks have already broken down. BP and its Russian partners, a group of four billionaires united in the Alfa-Access-Renova consortium, have been locked in a long-running conflict over strategy and ownership at the company. Mounting pressure over recent months on the troubled oil firm, including tax probes, raids on offices and the arrest of an employee, have led analysts to speculate that a state-controlled energy giant will soon muscle in on TNK-BP.

Sovereign funds may not be thrilled with their investments in beleagured US banks, but they don’t seem too put off by the battered property market. The New York Post reports that the Abu Dhabi Investment Council is negotiating to buy a 75 percent stake in New York City’s landmark Chrysler Building for $800 million. The paper cited sources as saying the assets would be purchased from TMW, the German arm of an Atlanta-based investment fund. This follows last month’s deal in which a group led by Boston Properties is buying the GM Building and three others from Macklowe Properties for $3.45 billion. The Post said investors in that deal included the wealth funds of Kuwait and Qatar.