NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) – Roche Holding AG
teamed up with Sigma-Aldrich Corp to make an
unsuccessful bid for Life Technologies Corp earlier
this year, people familiar with the matter said.

Life Tech, the genetic testing equipment maker that
announced a $13.6 billion sale to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc
in April, also received a rival bid from “strategic
party A,” according to Life Tech’s filings with regulators on
Tuesday that detailed how the merger came together.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An activist investor in Alere Inc (ALR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) wants the health diagnostics and services company to explore a sale of its drug testing business, which it believes could fetch as much as $2.5 billion and help Alere pay down debt, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Alere, which has a $2.1 billion market value but has nearly $3.8 billion in long-term debt, has come under pressure from investment firm Coppersmith Capital Management, which disclosed a 5.8 percent stake earlier in May and urged the company to restructure its portfolio to boost shareholder value.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Onex Corp (OCX.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has called off its auction of medical imaging firm Carestream Health Inc after failing to find a buyer that was willing to meet its price expectation of as much as $3.5 billion, three people familiar with the matter said this week.

Bain Capital LLC, the last remaining private equity firm that was talking to Onex about a possible deal, dropped out of the auction this week, the people said. Another interested party, Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, exited the process earlier, they added.

NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) – Onex Corp has called
off its auction of medical imaging firm Carestream Health Inc
after failing to find a buyer that was willing to meet its price
expectation of as much as $3.5 billion, three people familiar
with the matter said this week.

Bain Capital LLC, the last remaining private equity firm
that was talking to Onex about a possible deal, dropped out of
the auction this week, the people said. Another interested
party, Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, exited the process earlier,
they added.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dish Network Corp has lined up four banks to finance its $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel Corp, escalating the bidding war against Japanese telecom company SoftBank Corp, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Dish, run by billionaire founder Charlie Ergen, is working with Barclays Plc, Macquarie Group, Jefferies and the Royal Bank of Canada to help finance around $9 billion in debt needed for the offer, the people said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actavis Inc (ACT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) received and rejected a takeover offer from Mylan Inc (MYL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) last week that valued the generic drugmaker at more than $15 billion, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters on Tuesday.

Mylan’s cash and stock bid for its larger rival, which came in early last week, valued Actavis at $120 per share, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter is not public.

NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) – The $23 billion sale of ketchup
maker H.J.Heinz Co to Berkshire Hathaway Inc
and buyout firm 3G Capital, Avis Budget Group’s takeover
of Zipcar, and the $6.9 billion leveraged buyout of BMC Software
, have one common link: Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

The law firm, which served as a legal adviser on those deals
as well as several other of the largest transactions of the
year, with a combined deal value of $56.6 billion, has jumped to
ninth place in the ranking of merger advisers, up from 18th in
2012, according to Thomson Reuters data released on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – SoftBank Corp is playing it rough in its attempt to keep Dish Network Corp from breaking up its $20.1 billion deal to take control of Sprint Nextel Corp.

The Japanese telecom company, which owns 33 percent of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, has told banks that their financing of Dish’s $25.5 billion rival offer for Sprint could hurt their chances of landing a role in a highly anticipated public offering of the Chinese e-commerce giant, two sources familiar with the situation said.

NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) – SoftBank Corp is
playing it rough in its attempt to keep Dish Network Corp
from breaking up its $20.1 billion deal to take control
of Sprint Nextel Corp.

The Japanese telecom company, which owns 33 percent of
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, has told banks that their
financing of Dish’s $25.5 billion rival offer for Sprint could
hurt their chances of landing a role in a highly anticipated
public offering of the Chinese e-commerce giant, two sources
familiar with the situation said.

By Soyoung Kim and Olivia Oran

(Reuters) – SoftBank Corp has asked investment banks not to finance a rival bid for Sprint Nextel Corp by Dish Network Corp, saying this could hurt the banks’ chances of gaining a role in the highly anticipated public offering of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Japanese telecom company SoftBank, which is a big shareholder in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba with a 33 percent stake, is locked in an escalating bidding war with Dish, after the U.S. satellite TV provider made a $25.5 billion proposal for Sprint in April.