Business news with words agreed+deal. 60 or more news.

Transmeridian Exploration agreed to be acquired by its chief executive's Trans Meridian International in a deal that values the energy company at $350 million.

Merrill Lynch's sale of two life-insurance units to Dutch insurance and investment-products provider Aegon has closed, with the $1.25 billion pricetag being $50 million less than the two parties agreed to in August.

Vonage and Nortel agreed to settle their patent litigation in a deal that allows for cross-licensing of technology and does not require any cash payments.

CHINA'S securities watchdog has rejected Microsoft Corp's plan to acquire a stake in Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. Changhong, China's second-largest television set maker, told the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday that the China Securities Regulatory Commission had blocked its plan to sell new shares to investors, including Microsoft. The plan was submitted to the regulator on Thursday. Shanghai Daily's calls to Changhong for comment were not answered. Microsoft has agreed pay 94 million yuan (US$12.84 million) for a stake in Changhong after the Chinese company revealed the plan to sell 400 million shares at 6.27 yuan to 10 institutional investors in April. Under the deal, the world's biggest software maker will buy 15 million newly issued Changhong shares at 6.27 yuan for a one percent-stake in the TV maker in Sichuan Province. Both companies will join a Media Galaxy project to develop, produce and market TVs, computers, and other digital entertainment products that would

DRUG delivery specialist The Medical House (TMH) has agreed to sell its loss-making sub-contract engineering subsidiary Eurocut in a deal worth £3.7m.

Warner Music Group, a major holdout on selling music online without copy protection, caved in to the growing trend Thursday and agreed to sell its tunes on Amazon.com Inc.'s digital music store.

SEATTLE - Warner Music Group, a major holdout on selling music online without copy protection, caved in to the growing trend Thursday and agreed to sell its tunes on Amazon.

SHANGHAI Automotive Industry Corp and Yuejin Motor Group yesterday created the biggest merger in the history of China's automobile industry. The signing ceremony was held in Beijing for the merger between SAIC and Yuejin's Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corp. Analysts were quick to say that more mergers are likely in the auto industry. "Compared with the cooperation agreement, the integration of human resources, products and planning should be more important to the merger of Chinese auto giants," said Jia Xinguang, former analyst at the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Guotai Junan Securities' Zhang Xin also agreed. "This is just a start, not the end of mergers in the industry," Zhang said. With government encouragement, it didn't take long for the former competitors to reach common ground and sign a deal. The merger will lead to a series of changes in business strategy for the auto maker. For starters, it cleared the way for SAIC and

Warner Music Group, a major holdout on selling music online without copy protection, caved in to the growing trend Thursday and agreed to sell its tunes on Amazon.com's digital music store.

SHANGHAI Automotive Industry Corp (Group) today signed a deal to buy Nanjing Automobile Group Corp's auto-assembly and component-making businesses and become China's biggest auto maker. SAIC Motor Corp, the listed unit of Shanghai Auto, gave 320 million shares of SAIC Motor and 2.1 billion yuan (US$286 million) to buy the assets, the two companies said in a signing ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The 320 million shares account for 4.88 percent of SAIC's total shares. The duo also agreed to set up a joint venture to oversee other businesses of Nanjing Auto, including services, trade and assets, the two companies said in a statement. Nanjing Auto will own 25 percent of the joint venture Dong Hua Co, according to the statement. "Both sides will complement each other as well as share their resources in terms of funding, research and development, marketing, manufacturing and procurement,'' the statement said. The deal will boost the combined sales of

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway agreed to pay $4.5 billion to buy 60% of industrial conglomerate Marmon Holdings from Chicago's Pritzker family. Berkshire will buy the rest of the company in stages by 2014.

Warren E. Buffett agreed on Tuesday to buy a 60 percent stake in Marmon Holdings, the industrial holding firm owned by the wealthy Pritzker family, for $4.5 billion with the goal of eventually owning the entire firm. As part of the deal, Mr. Buffett, through his Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle, will gradually increase his stake in [...]

DELEK Real Estate Ltd, the Israeli company that backed out of a US$2.9-billion deal with Jelmoli AG, has agreed to buy 12 Frankfurt-area supermarkets from Metro AG, Germany's biggest retailer, for 243 million euros (US$349 million), Bloomberg News reported on Sunday. Delek, through its Delek Global Real Estate unit, will acquire the buildings from the Real supermarket chain, a subsidiary of Metro, the Netanya, Israel-based company said in an e-mailed statement to the stock exchange. Real will rent 10 of the supermarkets from Delek through 2022, and the other two through 2020, beginning at 16 million euros annually for all the properties. The rent will increase 6.7 percent every five years. "DGRE has again purchased a property with a quality tenant for a long period in a central area, and proved that even in these times it can use its connections to close deals and get good financing," Chief Executive Officer Ilik Rozanski said in the statement. Delek Real Estate, a

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Ampal-American Israel Corp., the Tel Aviv investment firm, took an option to acquire a 35% interest in a project to produce ethanol from sugarcane from a company controlled by Ampal's chairman, president and chief executive officer. Separately, that company, Merhav, agreed to sell 25% to 35% of the project to Ecopetrol SA of Colombia. Terms of both deals weren't disclosed. Ampal said the move will add to its interests in clean energy and in the broader energy industry. As part of the option deal, Ampal has loaned Merhav $10 million to buy 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) in Colombia for growing sugarcane and to build the ethanol facility. And Ampal agreed to advance as much as $10 million more to fund the project, it said in a Tuesday statement. Yosef Maiman, who holds the top three posts at Ampal, is sole owner of Merhav. A panel made up of Ampal's independent directors approved the deal. Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin advised the board committeee, Ampal said.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- W&T Offshore Inc. agreed to acquire the interest it doesn't own in Ship Shoal 349 field, located offshore Louisiana and covering two federal lease blocks, for $116 million from Apache Corp. W&T and Apache, both Houston energy companies, expect to close the deal by April 30. W&T said in a Monday statement that it would finance the deal from cash on hand.

CANADA'S non-bank asset-backed commercial paper market will start trading for the first time in four months after a deal was struck between investors holding about C$33 billion (US$33.3 billion) of the short-term debt. The group, led by Toronto lawyer Purdy Crawford, agreed yesterday to swap the commercial paper for longer-term notes, ending a suspension in trading prompted by investor concern about ties to US subprime mortgages. "I am confident that this plan will provide most holders of outstanding commercial paper with the opportunity to receive the full repayment of principal by holding restructured notes to maturity," Crawford said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News yesterday. The Canadian market for asset-backed commercial paper sold by non-bank dealers ground to a halt in August after Coventree Inc and other trusts failed to renew maturing debt. Banks refused to provide backup financing, freezing the market and putting funds at risk of collapsing, even

Merrill Lynch & Co, the world's biggest brokerage, agreed to sell most of its commercial finance business to General Electric Co's finance arm for an undisclosed price to free up capital after subprime losses. The sale of Merrill Lynch Capital's corporate, equipment, energy and healthcare finance units is expected to be completed in the first-quarter, the companies said yesterday in a Business Wire statement. The deal will add more than US$10 billion in assets to GE Capital. The transaction is part of New York-based Merrill Lynch's "strategic focus on divesting non-core assets," and will release about US$1.3 billion of capital to be redeployed elsewhere, said Chief Executive Officer John Thain in the statement. Merrill, on October 24, announced US$8.4 billion of writedowns on mortgage-related investments and corporate loans. The firm, which ousted Stan O'Neal as CEO in October, may report an additional US$8.6-billion writedown for the fourth quarter, according to David

Cerberus Capital Management L.P. agreed Monday to pay United Rentals Inc. a $100 million breakup fee for dropping its $4 billion purchase of the equipment-rental company.

GE Capital agreed to acquire most of Merrill Lynch Capital, in a deal that will allow Merrill to raise about $1.3 billion for other parts of its business.

Merrill Lynch, in an effort to raise cash amid mounting mortgage losses, agreed Monday to sell the majority of its capital finance business to General Electric for an undisclosed amount. The deal will allow Merrill to reallocate about $1.3 billion of capital into other parts of its business, John A. Thain, the investment bank’s chief executive, [...]