Is it a sign of recovery that cross-Pacific deals are making a comeback? Certainly the mighty dollar makes overseas assets cheap, and foreign governments are probably more willing to create less friction on inflows with investment markets quiet.

In a deal that only a month ago was dead in the water, with a big protectionist steak through the heart, Coca-Cola’s bid to get into the Chinese market appears to be coming back to life. The company is now reported to be holding informal talks with China Huiyuan Juice to weigh partnership options after the $2.4 billion deal — the largest-ever buyout of a Chinese company by a foreign rival – was scuppered.

In South Korea, antitrust officials have cleared the way for eBay to buy Gmarket, its key competitor in the country. The deal, worth up to $1.2 billion, is seen a key driver of growth in the region for eBay. Nasdaq-listed Gmarket is the biggest South Korean operator of customer-to-customer marketplaces and has more than 10 million registered users in the country. When combined, Gmarket and eBay’s South Korean unit will have an 87.5 percent share of the South Korean customer-to-customer market and 36.4 percent of the entire domestic online shopping market.

Both the Chinese and South Korean officials are, or appear to be requiring measures to protect fair trade. The Chinese deal may end up being for a minority stake and the South Koreans are requiring specific steps from eBay to protect smaller players. It’s hard to fathom why Coke would be interested in a minority stake now, after having been dissed a month ago. If anything cash-rich Coke could be considered to be in less dire economic straits than China. But the great pendulum that characterizes cross-border deal activity in the region may to be swinging back towards the foreign buyers.

Deals of the Day:

* Japanese brewer Kirin is seeking to buy out Australia’s No.2 brewer, Lion Nathan, in a deal shareholders said could be worth at least A$3.3 billion ($2.3 billion).

* A U.S. bankruptcy judge allowed U.S. copper miner Asarco LLC to proceed with a plan to sell itself to India’s Sterlite Industries for $1.7 billion, and for Sterlite to protect its bid from competing offers.]

* DONG Energy said its investment in a gas-fired power station project in the Netherlands would amount to around 2.5 billion Danish crowns ($437 million) including the acquisition of a 50 percent stake.

* Australia approved a revised $850 million Chinese bid for mines owned by OZ Minerals but demanded state-owned firm Minmetals try to keep loss-making operations open to save local jobs amid recession.

(PHOTO: A man walks on an overpass on Jianguo Road  near office buildings in Beijing’s central business district January 6, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Lee)

Lehman Brothers is looking for fresh capital in South Korea, the Wall Street Journal reports. If the investment bank does end up tapping South Korea, it will have taken slightly over a decade for the 1997 multibillion loan from the IMF, backed by Wall Street and the Federal Reserve, to come full circle. The Journal says Lehman is looking to state-run Korea Development Bank and Woori Financial Group as it searches for funds to ward off a Bear Stearnsian crisis of confidence. The IMF demanded strict economic reforms for its money. A South Korean lender, like the Chinese and Arab investors bailing out Citi and Merrill Lynch, might just want a juicier cut.

The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup — with a side of Smuckers jelly. The maker of Jif peanut butter and Crisco oil said it would buy Folgers from Procter & Gamble for stock valued at $2.95 billion plus the assumption of $350 million in debt. J.M. Smucker & Co also acquired Jif and Crisco from P&G.

Yahoo set its annual shareholder meeting for Aug. 1 in the heart of Silicon Valley, as it braced for a proxy showdown with billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn. Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Icahn would seek to remove Jerry Yang as Yahoo chief executive, citing the company’s failure to reach a merger or partnership deal with Microsoft. Icahn had proposed an alternate slate of directors for Yahoo’s board, but until now had not directly targeted Yang. “It’s no longer a mystery to me why Microsoft’s offer isn’t around,” the Journal quoted Icahn as saying. “How can Yahoo keep saying they’re willing to negotiate and sell the company on the one hand, while at the same time they’re completely sabotaging the process without telling anyone?”

Novartis has bought privately held biotech company Protez Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up to $400 million, giving it rights to an antibiotic which could be used to fight superbugs. Protez has a broad-spectrum antibiotic given by injection that is currently in mid-stage Phase II development against drug-resistant infections, and Novartis hopes to submit it for regulatory approval in 2012. The Swiss group will pay $100 million immediately for the business, with a potential for up to $300 million of additional payments depending on the future success of the new drug with the catchy code name: PZ-601.

Corporate Express will open its books to U.S. office supplies retailer Staples, which has made an unsolicited bid for the Dutch office goods wholesaler, Het Financieele Dagblad reports. On Tuesday, Staples raised its offer to 9.15 euros a share, or 1.7 billion euros ($2.65 billion), on the condition that Corporate Express shareholders reject the company’s plan to buy privately owned French peer Lyreco. The paper added that Corporate Express will probably give a neutral recommendation to its shareholders about the bid.

Other deals of the day:

* Australia’s Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory said it and National Foods, owned by Japan’s Kirin Holdings, would jointly pursue a bid for Australian dairy producer Dairy Farmers.

* Chinese metals trader Sinosteel said it has raised its stake in Midwest Corp to 28.37 percent from 19.89 percent as it seeks to take over the Australian iron ore prospector.

* AXA Asia Pacific, unit of French insurer AXA SA, said it would buy the financial planning business of Challenger Financial Group for A$100 million ($95 million) and in exchange for AXA’s annuity portfolio.