DealZone

China’s state-owned chemicals group Sinochem has approached Singapore state investor Temasek to join a consortium that may bid for Potash, sources said. It was unclear if this potential consortium will bid to buy a blocking stake or make a full counter offer. *View article

Air Products raised its bid for Airgas to $5.5 billion, the latest salvo in its hostile move on the rival company. *View article

The Justice department is looking into Google’s takeover of airline ticketing software firm ITA Software Inc, to determine whether the deal would exert too much influence on the online travel industry. *View WSJ article *View scores.org graphic on Google’s acquisitions

The WSJ takes a look at Berkshire Hathaway’s bid for Wesco Financial. “This begins as a Warren Buffett love story. The intriguing question is whether it ends that way,” reports the WSJ. *View WSJ article *View additional article on the deal

Chinese and other investors have approached at least one big Canadian pension manager about a bid for Canada’s Potash Corp to rival BHP Billiton’s hostile offer. This is one of the first pieces of hard evidence to back up speculation that China is looking for a way to derail a takeover of Potash Corp by the powerful Anglo-Australian miner. *View article *View analysis on possible regulatory action from China *View Globe and Mail article on the concern about jobs and revenue in Saskatchewan

The recent M&A binge certainly suggests corporate treasurers are confident that whatever the near term may bring now is the time to expand. Are we headed for a recovery or is the buying spree just a case of too much money needing a place to go? *View analysis

Genzyme rejected an all-cash $18.5 billion offer from Sanofi-Aventis this week. Will the deal go hostile? Take a look at how events could unfold. *View article

Burger King agreed to be bought by investment firm 3G Capital for $3.26 billion. The deal represents a 46 percent premium to Burger King’s share price before news of the deal talks emerged on Wednesday. *View article *View WSJ article on how tasty a Burger King deal is

Hewlett-Packard raised its offer by $3 to $33 per share for 3Par. Shortly after, Dell announced it is bowing out of the bidding war for the data storage company. *View article

China is stepping up attempts to hamper BHP Billiton’s $39 billion hostile offer for Potash Corp, amid worries about future supplies of fertilizer it needs to rapidly boost food production. There is a report that China’s state-run Sinochem has hired HSBC to advise it on options and another which says China is considering launching an anti-monopoly investigation into the deal. *View article *View factbox on Potash supply and demand

Burger King,which has underperformed rivals and has forecast weak demand, is considering a sale, a source familiar with the situation said. One potentially interested party is 3i Group, a source told Reuters.  *View article

August’s unseasonable burst of dealmaking — the busiest in over a decade — could herald a wider rebound in M&A for the remainder of the year as low interest rates, record cash piles and low stock-market values encourage chief executives to strike deals. *View article *View Seeking Alpha article on how the deals boom means trouble ahead

Regulators did not grant Lehman Brothers the same assistance as its competitors and thereby aggravated the global crisis, former Lehman Chief Executive Dick Fuld will tell a “too big to fail” commission. *View article *Full coverage

Dell is expected to soon give up its pursuit of 3PAR, either ceding to HP’s last offer of $30 per share or giving up at a few dollars higher, according to a Reuters survey of eight technology investors and analysts. * View article *Columnist Robert Cyran asks: Is 3PAR an overpriced bauble for HP?  * An MSN article makes the case that both Dell and HP are certifiable.

AIG faces the prospect of looking for another buyer for its Taiwan unit after regulators threw out its proposed $2.2 billion sale of Nan Shan Life to China Strategic.  There have been suspicions in Taiwan about the connections of China Strategic with political foe China, and concern it did not have the experience to run an insurance business.  * View article

Some high-profile IPO’s are under water and this is not sitting well. “Investors are sick to the back teeth of being treated like idiots,” Dan Nickols, at Old Mutual Asset Managers, tells the Financial Times. *View FT article

Genzyme broke its five-week silence to reject an $18.5 billion takeover proposal by French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, dismissing it as opportunistic and too low. *View article *View Genzyme’s letter to Sanofi-Aventis

Intel will buy Infineon’s wireless unit for $1.4 billion, enabling the chipmaker to boost its presence in the smartphone market. This is the second major deal for Intel within two weeks after the company announced its $7.7 billion offer for McAfee on Aug 19. *View article

Is Cisco in deal talks with Skype? A TechCrunch source says Cisco has made an offer for the Internet phone services provider. Earlier this month, Skype filed for an IPO. *View article

Trumping HP’s bid by 30 cents a share, Dell offered, and 3PAR accepted, $1.6 billion for the data storage company. *View article *View analysis on valuations taking a back seat to egos

Fast money is building in Potash Corp after BHP Billiton’s hostile bid, but the sheer size of the potential deal could limit the sway arbitrageurs and hedge funds have on the outcome, writes Michael Erman. *View article *Full coverage *View WSJ’s blog on how to say “Potash”

Take a look at what could be Phil Falcone’s riskiest trade ever in a special report on the hedge fund manager’s wireless broadband technology bet. *View article

BHP Billiton tried to dampen expectations it would substantially raise its hostile $39 billion bid for Potash Corp as bumper results showed it has plenty of firepower. *View article *View reaction from analysts and investors *View Potash Corp deal scenarios

Dubai World believes it can raise as much as $19.4 billion from selling key assets over eight years, if creditors back its restructuring, a document obtained by Reuters showed. *View article *View reaction from analysts and investors

Dell and Hewlett-Packard are expected to raise their bids for 3PAR, but technology investors and analysts warn of valuations taking a back seat to egos. *View article

Foster’s said the split of its beer and wine divisions was on track for next year, but was silent on growing takeover talk for its profitable beer unit. Foster’s share price has been on a roller coaster ride on the takeover talk, surging 7 percent on Monday and sliding 4.5 percent on Tuesday. *View article

BHP Billiton’s monster earnings expected on Wednesday could strengthen its hand in its bid for Potash Corp and intimidate any rival bidders. *View article

*View analysis on China’s reaction to a possible BHP deal

*View Bloomberg article on the downside of mining mergers

The recent rush of M&A activity is a result of idle cash and not a sign of a stable rising market. *View Barron’s article *View NYT blog pouring more cold water on the boom in deals.

Hewlett-Packard launched a $1.6 billion bid for data storage company 3PAR, topping an offer by technology rival Dell by about 33 percent. The competing bids for 3PAR come as technology heavyweights have been boosting investment in cloud computing and virtualization technology. *View article

Potash Corp has held discussions with China’s Sinochem Group, said a source close to the matter, as the fertilizer producer looks for options to BHP Billiton’s $38.6 billion hostile bid. Media reports have also mentioned Brazil’s Vale and Chinese private equity fund Hopu Investment Management.  *View article
*View graphic on potash and BHP Billiton and Potash Corp.

SABMiller and Asahi Breweries are looking at Foster’s Group’s beer operations, valued at more than $10 billion, but have not yet made any formal offers, sources said. Foster’s said in May it would split the beer unit from its ailing wine business. Analysts expect suitors will only emerge after Foster’s splits its business in early 2011 when complex debt and structural issues are resolved. *View article