DealZone

Merger Monday at long last? Spearheaded by British inusrer Prudential buying American International Group’s Asian life insurance unit for about $35.5 billion, the start of the week sees a swathe of deals announced.

Prudential confirms it is in advanced talks to buy the Asian arm of American International Group. The sides are finalizing the terms and financing, which will see Pru launch a $20 billion rights offer.

And others:

German pharmaceutical company Merck KGAA agrees to buy Millipore for around $7.2 billion, including net debt.

Oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell is selling a number of assets, including its European liquid petroleum gas businesses, to fund a 28 billion pound capital spending programme, the FT reports, citing unnamed sources.

U.S. private equity firm TPG has emerged as a front runner to buy Dow Chemical’s Styron plastics business, the Wall Street Journal says, citing several people familiar with the matter.

Richard Bove at Rochdale says JPMorgan is in pole position to benefit from a surge in dealmaking:

“A core theme in our banking thesis is that “Merger Monday” is back.

“There could be a surge in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity that may last two to three years. The dollar is weakening, the yield on junk bonds has plummeted, and the stock market is quite strong. The money is available. No company is better positioned to take advantage of this development than J.P. Morgan.”

Bove says JPM has tens of thousands of middle-market clients as well as long-standing relationships with the biggest U.S. companies, such as Mars and Black and Decker.

With Merger Mondays back in fashion, could “Freaky (Rumor) Fridays” be far behind, as Eric Savitz over at Barron’s Tech Trader Daily blog writes? Since this morning, there has been a steady stream of rumors — most of them originating in the options market — about who might buy whom. Not surprisingly, these are all tech companies, since tech is the one sector that has seen a flurry of recent deals, including Dell buying Perot Systems, Cisco buying Tandberg and Brocade shopping itself. A quick roundup:

Blue Coat Systems option volume is up after Deal Reporter suggested Cisco might bid for it. NCR calls are up on rumors of a takeover bid, although it has not been linked to any company. American Superconductor jumps on rumors of an ABB bid. Riverbed Technologies could be acquired by Juniper Networks.

Another old favorite among tech gossips is also doing the rounds today — the idea of Microsoft buying Research in Motion. That one came from Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget (seems like he suggested the same thing in February too).

But as my colleague Wojtek Dabrowski, who covers tech, media and telecoms companies out of Toronto, says: “Microsoft could have bought RIM at $35, because that’s the low the stock hit in March of this year. The stock is now at $70 and RIM is under pressure from the iPhone. Such a deal makes no sense, though it could have in the past, especially given Microsoft’s continued commitment to Windows Mobile.”