DealZone

Goldman Sachs is betting big on the word’s largest insurance market with its purchase of a 12 percent stake in China’s Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd. Goldman’s deal could pave the way for Taikang’s planned initial public offering next year. Credit Suisse estimates China’s life insurance market –which generated $124 billion premium income in 2009 — will grow more than 20 percent per annum for the next decade.

BP’s proposed $16 billion share swap with Rosneft received a stay of execution when an arbitration panel gave it time to try to extend its April 14 deadline for the deal. The co-owners of BP’s Russian venture TNK-BP are trying to block the deal with Rosneft arguing that it violates TNK-BP’s shareholder agreement.  By not killing the deal outright, the panel has given BP time to either persuade TNK-BP to drop its case or cut them in on the deal.

U.S. securities regulators may ease constraints on share issues by private companies, making it easier for start-ups like Facebook, Twitter and Zynga to raise money, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Wall Street Journal’s Mike Spector provides an inside look at the intense bidding that took place for the Blockbuster chain on Wednesday night. A person who was at the auction says it “was at times like a ‘cage match’.”

De Wolfe and Murdoch in happier times (Photo: Reuters)

Chinese Internet holding company Tencent, Myspace founder Chris De Wolfe and Myspace's current management team are among the 20 odd names kicking the tires at the once might social network to see whether it's worth buying outright or partnering in some sort of spin-out with current owner News Corp.

Tencent has previously said it is interested in possible US acquisitions.

The names come up in Reuters' Special Report on 'How News Corp got lost in Myspace',  a behind the scenes tale on how the focused Facebook beat the partying Myspace. (We have the story in a handy PDF format here)

In the story, we highlight some of the key problems Myspace faced,  some well-known and some not often mentioned:

Bankers said Sprint had a handful of options after AT&T swooped in to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, but none of them would give it the clout to compete in a market dominated by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which would collectively hold an almost 80 percent market share. Verizon Wireless CEO Daniel Mead said he had no interest in buying Sprint.

Charles Schwab will buy online brokerage optionsXpress Holdings in a $1 billion deal that gives Schwab a stable of the most active retail traders, as options continue to boom.

Shutterfly said it agreed to buy privately held card design company Tiny Prints in a $333 million cash-and-stock deal, as the photo-sharing service tries to win back customers in a market increasingly dominated by social networking sites like Facebook.

AT&T’s surprise $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom will create a new leader in the U.S. mobile sector and likely draw scrutiny. The regulatory challenge will be predicting what the dominant form of communication will be 3 to 5 years from now, analyst Evan Stewart said. The deal will take a year to close, in which time customers are expected to see improved network quality, according to AT&T.

Sprint Nextel risks being further eclipsed by Verizon and the new AT&T, which together would boast 230.3 million customers in the U.S., compared to Sprint’s less than 50 million, writes Michael J. de la Merced and Jenna Wortham of The New York Times.

Citigroup plans to slash the number of common shares outstanding and reintroduce a dividend after suspending payouts two years ago, taking another step in its long recovery from the brink of failure during the financial crisis.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext’s plan to create the world’s largest exchange has sent competitors around the world scurrying to find partners, accelerating an industry shake-up.     The Wall Street Journal looks at the how stock exchanges make money and what it means for investors.

Google and Facebook, plus others, have held low level takeover talks with Twitter that give the Internet sensation a value as high as $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

News Corp may have to raise its BSkyB bid as much as 20 percent as its 7-month-old offer gets tied down in a phone-hacking scandal that may undermine the deal. The deal will likely overshadow the company’s quarterly earnings, which are due after the market closes on Wednesday.

Russian companies could have mere weeks to seize a short window to launch IPOs as investor confidence remains fragile and the state mulls a privatization plan that could swamp capital markets.

“If anyone needs proof the tech sector has entered extra-frothy, double-latte territory, it’s best to look past the immense valuations discussed for Groupon or Facebook,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

Dealmaking is back on the agenda as CEOs step up the hunt for ways to put a multitrillion-dollar cash pile to work, triggering the busiest January for M&A in 11 years.

If ProLogis and AMB Property’s recently announced talks on a “merger of equals” pan out, AMB Property is likely to be the real buyer and ProLogis the target, investors and Wall Street analysts said.

Sara Lee plans to split into two separate public companies focusing on North American meats and international coffee after takeover bids it received were not enough to entice it to sell the company.

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.

LinkedIn plans to go public in 2011 and has selected its financial underwriters, three sources familiar with the process told Reuters.

Interest in Facebook shares is so strong that Goldman Sachs plans to stop soliciting interest from potential investors on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Felix Salmon lists reasons why Facebook won’t go public.

TechCrunch rebuts some recent themes surrounding Facebook in the blogosphere.