DealZone

George Soros must see something he likes in Lehman Brothers. Or maybe he just likes a good bargain. Or maybe he’s been talking to activist investor Carl Icahn. Either way, the billionaire financier hiked his stake in the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank to 9.5 million shares as of June 30 from just 10,000 shares, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. That’s about a 1.4 percent stake. Lehman’s shares are down 75 percent so far this year as it battles through the credit crisis that has battered the balance sheets of many top banks. There was no word from Soros’s Quantum Fund on why he upped the stake, while a Lehman spokesman declined to comment.

Boosting stakes seems to be the play du jour. Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Management has accumulated a 4.9 percent stake in Cablevision Systems Corp, The Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing regulatory filings. It’s unclear what Harbinger intends to do with its holding, but it may explain some uncharacteristic overtures that Cablevision has made to shareholders in recent months. In July it said it was willing to consider all options, including selling its Rainbow Media unit, home to cable TV networks like AMC and IFC, as well as MSG, which owns venues like Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. “Everybody was wondering why Jimmy got religion all of a sudden,” one analyst told the Journal.

And one from the trash talk department: Republic Services Inc, the third largest U.S. trash hauler, said on Thursday it had rejected Waste Management Inc‘s revised buyout offer. The new proposal continues to undervalue Republic, the company said in a statement. As a result, Republic will not furnish information to or discuss a combination with Waste Management, the biggest U.S. trash hauler. In other words: No thanks.

More deals of the day:

* Irish business services group DCC Plc said it would buy Chevron’s UK oil distribution business for 27.52 million euros ($41 million), in a move analysts saw as an attractive way of boosting earnings.

* Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is in talks to buy German generics drugmaker Stada, Israeli website Globes online reported, sending Stada shares up.

[Editor's note: This blog post originally referenced a Reuters article reporting that United Parcel Service had dismissed talk of a $15 billion takeover bid for Dutch rival TNT. That article is wrong and has been withdrawn. Reuters accepts that the UPS executive was not commenting specifically on reports that TNT and UPS were in talks.]

Waste Management Inc, the largest U.S. trash hauler, said on Monday it has raised its rejected bid for rival Republic Services Inc by nearly 10 percent, to $6.73 billion. Under the revised offer, Waste Management would acquire all outstanding shares of Republic for $37.00 each, a 32.6 percent premium to Republic’s share price prior to Waste’s first takeover bid. That’s not likely to bring a smile to the face of Bill Gates, a major Republic shareholder through his investment arm, BGI, who last month asked Waste Management to walk away. BGI didn’t mince words in its letter to Waste Management’s CEO and board: “We can only assume your ill-timed and poorly conceived pursuit of Republic is designed to disrupt what you perceive as a competitive threat to your position in the market.”

GATX Corp is offering more than $3 billion for General Electric Co‘s rail car leasing business, a source familiar with the discussions said. GATX is the leading bidder for the unit and negotiations are ongoing, the person said. A GE spokesman declined to comment. GATX was not immediately reachable for comment.

Republic Services and Allied Waste Industries are tying the bag. The $6.1 billion all-stock deal has been in the works for more than two years, and puts a serious competitor together for top trash company Waste Management by combining the second- and third-largest waste and environmental services companies. Allied Waste shareholders will receive what amounts to a 17 percent premium for their shares, and will end up with about 52 percent ownership of the combined company. Last week, analysts were talking about the potential for higher trash hauling industry prices in the wake of the merger; investors are worried about antitrust issues for the very same reason.

Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines, the world’s eighth-biggest container shipping firm, is looking to raise $5-$7 billion in loans, according to banking sources, the clearest sign yet it will bid for Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd. The merger of the two companies could potentially create the world’s number-three container shipping group, behind Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk and privately owned Mediterranean Shipping. The talks come as German tourism group TUI Chief Executive Michael Frenzel tours Asia to market Hapag-Lloyd, TUI’s container shipping business, which analysts value at around $7 billion, including debt.

U.S. fertilizer producer and oilseed processor Bunge has agreed to buy Corn Products International for $4.4 billion in stock. The company also raised its 2008 earnings forecast range by more than $2 a share. The deal, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, unites two of the oldest U.S. agricultural businesses and puts Bunge squarely in the business of finished corn products such as starches and sweeteners. It also expands Bunge’s operations in growth markets and diversifies its sources of revenue with a “solid cash-flow business,” Chief Executive Alberto Weisser said in a statement.