DealZone

Express Scripts will buy rival Medco Health Solutions for $29.1 billion in cash and stock to create a powerhouse in managing prescription drug benefits in the United States, the companies said on Thursday. The WSJ live blogged the companies’ conference call on the merger.

Two Chinese Internet firms have postponed their U.S. fundraising plans due to volatile global markets and after a series of accounting scandals tarnished the reputation of overseas-listed Chinese companies.

Shares of real estate site Zillow skyrocketed in their market debut on Wednesday, the latest to ride a wave of dotcom exuberance while stoking fears of lofty Internet valuations.

AT&T’s second-quarter revenue beat Wall Street expectations but the strong results could be overshadowed by growing opposition to AT&T’s controversial plan to buy T-Mobile USA. The WSJ asks readers if the  merger is good for consumers and the Free Press has created some satirical videos on the topic.

The Dubai government unveiled plans to recapitalise its indebted Dubai World flagship and repay Nakheel bonds in full, injecting what it said was $9.5 billion in new funding, but without new aid from Abu Dhabi. Read the Reuters story here.

Bharti Airtel looked set to wrap up its $9 billion deal to buy most of Kuwaiti telecom group Zain’s African assets, giving India’s top mobile operator a foothold in the frontier market after two failed attempts to buy South Africa’s MTN. Read the Reuters story here.

For more on these and the rest of the latest deal-related news from Reuters, click here.

U.S. drugstore operator Walgreen is to buy rival Duane Reed for $618 million from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, giving the company the market lead in New York. The acquisition brings the company 257 new stores in the city and has prompted analysts to think that struggling chain Rite Aid might make an attractive target for Walgreen rival CVS Caremark as it looks to catch up.

Britain’s Babcock International has increased a proposed offer to buy defence firm VT Group to as much as 1.29 billion pounds, but its advances have again been rejected.

For more Reuters deals stories, click here.

In other media:

Beijing’s sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp, is investing $1.5 billion with three private equity secondary specialists – firms that buy positions in buyout funds from other investors – the FT reported. CIC will put $500 million with each of Lexington Partners, Goldman Sachs and Pantheon Ventures in special accounts that will be kept separate from the firms’ main funds.

U.S. network equipment maker Cisco systems offers to buy Norwegian video-conferencing equipment maker Tandberg ASA for $3 billion in cash. The offer price of NOK 153.5 per share represents a premium of 11 percent to Tandberg’s closing price on Wednesday.

Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) says it has acquired privately-held Fovea, a privately-held firm specialised in eye diseases, for up to 370 million euros.

For these stories and more deals-related news from Reuters, click here.

And here’s what we found in Thursday’s papers: 

* ViaSat Inc (VSAT.O), which provides satellite and other wireless networking systems, has agreed to buy Wild Blue Communications Inc for more than $565 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal is a combination of $440 million in cash and $125 million in new Viasat shares. Wild Blue is owned by Liberty Media Corp (LINTA.O).

Portugal Telecom <PTC.LS> and Spanish firm Telefonica <TEF.MC> have both agreed to sell their 32.2 percent stakes in Moroccan telecoms firm Meditel to local investors in a deal likely to be closed by the end of the year

Reports suggest that online telephony firm Skype is set to be sold to private investors by its current owner eBay, with further details likely to be announced today. Sources indicated to the New York Times that co-founder of Netscape, Marc Andreessen is among the group of investors.

For the latest news from Reuters on mergers and acquisitions click here.

Here are some of the stories reported in today’s press (some external websites may require subscriptions):

Reliance Communications is one of the bidders for Zain’s African operations, two banking sources with knowledge of the situation have told us. Talks over the deal — reported to be worth $10 billion — are preliminary. 

There is a queue of banks for the other big telecoms deal in the works, willing to fund Bharti Airtel’s acquisition of a stake in South Africa’s MTN, says the Economic Times. The two are in exclusive merger talks till Aug. 31.

For an overview of other stories in the papers, click here.

Wall Street banks and lawyers could collect nearly $1 billion in fees from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and American International Group to help manage and break apart the insurer, the Wall Street Journal said, citing its own analysis.

The following M&A related stories were reported by Reuters and other media on Thursday:

Jewelry retailer Finlay Enterprises filed for Chapter 11 protection and said it would sell its assets in an auction supervised by the bankruptcy court. The company listed assets and debt in the range of $500 million to $1 billion in its filing, Reuters reported.

Citigroup plans to sell 20 businesses in consumer finance, many of them located in Europe, its chief executive Vikram Pandit said in an interview with Singapore’s Business Times. 

He said the move was due to the shift in the consumer finance market where “there is less funding availability and they are probably less robust as businesses.”

Pandit also said that the group’s capital position following the completion of the exchange of preferred shares for common equity in July, reflected an “incredible financial strength.”

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd will likely clinch a deal this week to buy some Asian assets from British lender Royal Bank of Scotland Group for about $775 million, a source briefed on the situation told Reuters, marking it the Australian bank’s biggest overseas purchase.

In other M&A related stories reported by other media on Monday:

British-based, US-listed cable operator Virgin Media is considering a secondary listing of its shares in London to attract UK-based investors, according to a report in the Times newspaper. Virgin will make an announcement about its decision at its second-quarter results this month, the report said.

The biggest private equity groups are sitting on $400 billion of debt that needs to be repaid over the next five years, putting the future of some of the largest buyouts in doubt, the Financial Times said, citing data from S&P LCD.

Ford Motor Co has slowed the sale of its Volvo car unit as it plans to open up the auction to losing bidders for General Motors’ Opel, the Wall Street Journal cited a person close to the company as saying.

In other M&A related stories reported by Reuters and other media on Friday:

Russian mobile network Mobile TeleSystems (MBT.N) is set to pay $1.28 billion, or $5.98 per share, for a 51 percent stake in fixed line carrier Comstar (CMSTq.L), newspaper Kommersant reported.

Low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines is preparing a bid to acquire bankrupt Frontier Airlines for a minimum of $113.6 million, exceeding the $108.8 million bid from Republic Airways Holdings. For the Reuters story, click here.