DealZone

In an attempt to thwart a $39-billion hostile takeover bid by BHP Billiton, Potash Corp has turned to China to try to find a white knight, according to the Globe and Mail. The Canadian miner is hoping that China’s worries over BHP getting control over the global potash market will lead to a consortium of companies submitting a rival bid, said the Globe.

“It is a viable option,” an unnamed source close to Potash Corp told the Globe, adding the venture posed some significant challenges in finalizing a consortium’s structure. The bid being considered would include some major capital from a Chinese resource company or investment fund, with smaller contributions from international sovereign wealth funds and possibly Canadian players such as pension funds. *View article*

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Smartphone maker Motorola, looking to boost its social networking content, has acquired German software company Aloqa GmbH, according to Reuters. The privately held Aloqa, which has developed a location-based social software, has joined Motorola’s Mobility division, which comprises the company’s set-top box and cellphone businesses. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. *View article*

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In a move that may portend well for the passage of carbon emissions legislation in the U.S., power company NRG Energy said it would buy privately held cleantech company Green Mountain Energy for $350 million in cash, according to Reuters. *View article*

Nokia Siemens Networks is buying Motorola’s telecom network equipment business, boosting its position in North America and taking the number two spot in the cut-throat mobile gear market.  * View article * View factbox

Business Insider looks back at Nokia passing on a Palm deal and calls it possibly “one of the dumbest moves in handset history.” *  View article

Labored over for a year, the Wall Street reform bill may not allow President Barack Obama to reap political rewards – at least not in the near term. Some see the overhaul of the financial regulatory system as too complex to resonate with voters. *  View article

It is going to be tough for Agricultural Bank of China’s (AgBank) IPO to match the first-day jump in share price enjoyed by its rivals, analysts say. Institutions are expected help stabilize the stock price of the politically sensitive IPO but liquidity, the economy’s health and a flood of new share issues are seen as action against the company. *View article *More coverage *Asia’s top IPOs graphic

Shares in cellphone maker Nokia edged lower as analysts questioned the wisdom of its possible purchase of Motorola’s network equipment unit to boost its weak North American position. *View article

The board of American International Group is expected to meet to consider the future of its AIA unit, with a public float seen as the most likely outcome, sources say. *View article

British fashion retailer New Look scrapped its planned flotation. Blackstone dramatically pulled two IPOs this week, blaming weak markets. There has been a string of scrapped IPOs across Europe, involving Belgian, British and German companies.

Motorola wants to split into two companies in the first quarter of next year, one to focus on cellphones and TV set-top boxes, the other on enterprise networking. The plan should give it more focus in the two markets.

Camargo Correa buys an additional 6.5 percent of shares in Portuguese cement-maker Cimpor. It already had a 22 percent stake.  In Portugal, a company must make a takeover bid if it holds 33 percent or more in another company.

If you want to take a bite out of Apple’s piece of the staggeringly huge (but difficult to quantify in $$$ terms) smartphone market pie, you’d better either have the magical new “thing” or be willing to spend to buy it.

As Anupreeta Das reports, Palm – one of the stalwart originals in the mobile handset space — has remade itself into a terrific target with the success of its Pre. Palm’s stock got a jolt this week on talk that Nokia could be considering a bid. But as she explains, Palm may prove to be too pricey a purchase, even for those with deep pockets.

Since introducing the Pre, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia and Motorola have been mentioned as possible suitors. If one of these cash-rich companies was to bid for Palm today, it would be targeting a stock that has quadrupled this year. Complicating matters, “details on how many units it has sold are skimpy, making it difficult to value the success of Palm’s turnaround story,” she reports.