DealZone

For a self-described nerdy accountant who shuns attention, Express Scripts chief George Paz just thrust himself into the limelight, reports Lewis Krauskopf. The company’s planned buy of Medco Health Solutions  met with swift opposition from consumer advocates and drug stores, signaling the beginning of what could be an ugly fight for antitrust approval.

Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group are among the music companies and private equity firms interested in buying EMI Group, people familiar with the situation said.

Apple is in early talks to join the bidding for Hulu, the online video site that Walt Disney Co, News Corp and its other owners have put up for sale, Bloomberg cited two unidentified sources as saying.

“A wave of multibillion-dollar deals by major oil companies has swept the North American shale oil-and-gas sector during the last few years. The rising tide is expected to continue to surge,” reports the WSJ.

Bank of Communications’ efforts to buy Shanghai Securities Co would, if successful, underline Beijing’s desire to build full-service financial giants and could trigger a wave of similar acquisitions by rival lenders.

BHP Billiton will buy U.S. gas producer Petrohawk Energy for $12.1 billion, ramping up its bets on the booming but environmentally controversial shale gas industry. The FT also takes a look at the deal.

Carl Icahn offered to buy Clorox in a $10.2 billion deal, but also invited the household products maker to solicit rival bids, which he said would yield much higher offers for the company.

They were just a few brief comments at an investor conference but they were enough to set the health insurance industry abuzz: Could Aetna buy Cigna?

While Royal Dutch Shell could well have been working on its $4.7 billion cash deal to buy privately held East Resources before the BP blowout on April 20, the deal could become a beacon for others looking trying to figure out how to expand away from sucking crude through deepwater rigs and towards natural gas and solid land.

The deal raise Shell’s daily gas production in North America by about 7.5 percent and give it access to a swathe of the Marcellus Shale (pictured left), the northeastern U.S. rock formation that is a crucial source of future U.S. gas production.

Shale gas accounts for between 15 percent and 20 percent of U.S. gas production, but is expected to quadruple in coming years, touching off a scramble among producers large and small for access to resources.