DealZone

Shares in reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings rose more than 8 percent on Monday despite broad and deep market declines, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made an unsolicited offer over the weekend to buy the company. The NYT looks at the chances of the deal getting done.

As broad economic worries pound the markets, a growing number of IPOs are being delayed or pulled. Tech IPOs, whose multibillion valuations recall the heady days of the dotcom boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, might fall the furthest.

Telmex, once the cornerstone of tycoon Carlos Slim’s empire, is set to delist from public markets as the world’s richest man, true to his style, shows his eye for a cheap deal, reports Cyntia Barrera Diaz and Tomas Sarmiento.

Hershey is still working on a bid for Cadbury that would top Kraft’s 10.5 billion pound bid for the British confectioner. As the clock ticks down for rivals to enter the fray, Hershey — the one remaining party to declare its hand — has still not decided if it will table a formal offer, but has authorized the drawing up of a bid. At the same, Kraft has stepped up the charm offensive with Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld visiting Cadbury shareholders in London. She has found some doors shut, however, indicating that investors find the bid too low.

First round bids for debt-ridden film studio MGM are due on Friday, with 12 companies having expressed an interest in the business, including rivals Time Warner and Lions Gate Entertainment, as well as Liberty Media, News Corp and private equity firms. Non-binding bids for the studio, controlled by a consortium of private equity and media firms, are expected to come in at $1.5 billion to $2 billion, way below $3.7 billion it owes its lenders.

Telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim has launched a $21 billion bid to unite Telmex and Telmex Internacional with Latin America’s top mobile phone provider America Movil. Slim, who controls all three companies, wants to create a leading fixed-line, mobile and internet services company to stave off competition from rivals.

The New York Times might not have figured out its long-term strategy to survive just yet, but Fortune columnist Allan Sloan discovered that someone working for the company is a genius when it comes to taxes.

The Times this week said it will borrow $250 million from companies controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, also the world's second-richest man. Slim also is getting warrants that he can convert into stock, something that will make him one of the company's largest shareholders. Aside from questions about whether he will take over the TImes, the aspect of the Slim deal that turned business reporters' heads was the crazy interest that the Times will pay -- 14 percent.

Sloan has a way of explaining how there is a way around this. Here are some excerpts, but for the full effect, go read his column. While Sloan is a master of converting complicated financial practice into plain English, this one is pretty tough for the layman.