DealZone

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

3M said it agreed to buy Cogent for more than $900 million, paying a nearly 18 percent premium for the biometric identification systems company. 3M estimates the $4 billion biometric market will grow by 20 percent a year. *View article

Agrium said it would be interested in Potash Corp’s nitrogen and phosphates business, worth an estimated $12 billion, if miner BHP Billiton secures its $39 billion Potash takeover and decides to sell the assets. BHP Billiton says they have no plans to sell any Potash Corp assets. *View article *View article on BHP’s top deal maker, Alberto Calderon *View analysis on China’s growing appetite

Genzyme may be holding out for more money from suitor Sanofi-Aventis, but will find it difficult to persuade investors it is better off on its own.  *View article *View Genzyme timeline

When GM filed for bankruptcy last summer, the automaker wiped out creditors, and critics warned that Wall Street investors would have a long memory. What a difference a year makes. *View article

What’s better than an angel investor? That would be a super-angel investor, of course. This new breed is shaking up the venture-capital industry. *View WSJ article

Chances are, every big pharmaceutical company is running the numbers and weighing the pros and cons of acquiring Genzyme, but the focus is on French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, which has yet to deliver a bid. Citi expects a Genzyme deal to be worth $19.7-20.5 billion. * View article * More coverage

The merger market is crawling at its slowest pace ever, with deals taking longer to close as players at every step move with extra caution amid fluctuating stock prices. * View article

WSJ takes a look at Goldman and its dealings with AIG. * View WSJ article

From Acquisitions Monthly

Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceuticals company, is lining up Turkey’s largest drugs company, Abdi Ibrahim, for a deal, according to an M&A banking source.

There are no talks so far, and what form a potential tie-up would take is not yet known.

Only last month the president of Pfizer’s emerging markets business unit revealed that the drugs company was considering new acquisitions.

Marc Cluzel, head of research at French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, talks to Reuters’ Ben Hirschler about the outlook for the company’s pipeline of new drugs.

The group had a major setback last June when U.S. experts recommended against approving its weight-loss drug Acomplia, also known as Zimulti, because of worries it might give some patients suicidal thoughts.But Cluzel says there are other exciting drugs in development, with half a dozen new products set to be submitted to regulators for approval this year.

The company has been stepping up its deals with biotech recently, clinching a major tie-up with Regeneron and signing a cancer vaccine deal with Oxford BioMedica that some analysts believe might eventually lead to a takeover.