Business news with words acquire+plans+rival. 8 news.

South African media group Naspers has agreed to buy former dotcom darling QXL Ricardo, now known as Tradus, for £946m, as part of its strategy for internet expansion. Tradus, an online auctioneer which is principally based in Switzerland and Poland, first revealed it was in takeover talks on November 7, with US rival eBay and Chinese giant Alibaba.com tipped as mystery bidders. Naspers announced today that it plans to pay £18 a share for Tradus - a premium of just over 19pc to the group's closing share price on November 6. Tradus' shares jumped more than 9pc in early trading this morning,

AIR China Ltd has no plans to acquire China Eastern Airlines Corp and its recent stake increase in the domestic rival doesn't reflect such a move, company secretary Huang Bin said yesterday. Air China's parent recently increased its holding in China Eastern's H-shares, which triggered speculation that the country's flagship international carrier hasn't given up its plan to trump the deal between China Eastern and Singapore Airlines. China National Aviation Holding Co raised its stake in China Eastern to 12.07 percent from 11.02 percent on November 29 at HK$7.585 a share for 4.28 million shares. Huang said a Hong Kong-based investment arm under the parent company increased the shares on its own initiative. China Eastern's board secretary, Luo Zhuping, said they have no worries about Air China's share increase and will operate normally. Luo said in another report that Air China can hold as much as five percent of China Eastern's shares in the secondary market, which means

Vivendi SA said Sunday that it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Activision Inc. and combine the company with Vivendi Games in a deal that would create a rival to Electronic Arts Inc. as the world's largest video game publisher.

Shares of Vivendi SA rose Monday in the wake of its disclosure of plans to acquire a controlling stake in Activision Inc. in a deal that would create a rival to Electronic Arts Inc. as the world's largest video game publisher. Santa Monica-based...

VIVENDI SA said yesterday that it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Activision Inc. and combine the company with Vivendi Games in a deal that would create a rival to Electronic Arts Inc. as the world's largest video game publisher. The combination of Santa Monica-based Activision, whose titles include "Guitar Hero," "Call of Duty" and the "Tony Hawk" series, and Vivendi Games, which publishes "Crash Bandicoot" and owns the online role-playing franchise "World of Warcraft," would create the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher, the companies said. Vivendi Games will convert its equity into Activision shares valued at $8.1 billion, and Vivendi will buy an additional $1.7 billion of stock, for a total of $9.8 billion, giving Vivendi a 52 percent stake in a new company to be called Activision Blizzard. On that basis, Activision and Vivendi valued the combined company at $18.9 billion. "This

Vivendi SA said Sunday that it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Activision Inc. and combine the company with Vivendi Games in a deal that would create a rival to Electronic Arts Inc. as the world's largest video game publisher. The combination...

Vivendi SA said Sunday that it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Activision Inc. and combine the company with Vivendi Games in a deal that would create a rival to Electronic Arts Inc. as the world's largest video game publisher.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage insurer MGIC Investment Corp (MTG.N) scrapped plans on Wednesday to acquire rival Radian Group Inc (RDN.N), as the takeover became the latest casualty of turmoil in U.S. mortgage markets.