A meeting between the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones (DJ) , and Rupert Murdoch, whose company News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) (NWS) made a $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, is scheduled to take place on Monday.
Palm (PALM) has agreed to sell 25% of the firm to a private-equity firm for $ 325 million. Palm will pay $940 million in cash, or about $9 a share, to existing shareholders whose ownership of the company will drop to 75% under the deal's terms. Palm shares rallied 12% in pre-open trading.
Dominion (D) agreed to sell some U.S. gas and oil operations to Loews (NYSE:LTR) (LTR) for $4 billion and other operations to XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO) (XTO) for $2.5 billion.
Avaya (NYSE:AV) (AV) rose over 3% after The Wall Street Journal reported it is close to a deal to be bought by TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners for $17 a share, the newspaper added, citing people familiar with the matter.
Health Care Properties (HCP) agreed to buy U.S. biotech real estate from Britain's Segro for $2.9 billion. Qiagen (QGEN) agreed to buy Digene (NASDAQ-NMS:DIGE) (DIGE) for $1.6 billion in cash and stock.
AXA (AXA) agreed to sell a Dutch unit for $2.35 billion to SNS Reaal of Holland.
Subprime mortgage firm Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (NASDAQ-NMS:LEND) (LEND) said it agreed to be acquired by Lone Star Fund V L.P. for about $400 million, or $15.10 a share, in an all-cash deal.
Corporate news
Investors in the pharmaceutical industry were paying close attention the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.
Roche (RHHBY) , the majority owner of Genentech (NYSE:DNA) (DNA) , fell in Swiss trading on concerns about Avastin's colorectal cancer performance as well as that a lower-dose Avastin version showed improved survival in lung cancer. Bayer (BAY) rose in Germany after it and Onyx (ONXX) reported improved survival from patients taking a liver cancer drug.
Onyx surged 8.8%.
Early-stage trials from Arqule (NASDAQ-NMS:ARQL) (ARQL) and Exelexis (EXEL) showed "impressive" response rates, according to analysts at Rodman & Renshaw.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires (NYSE:DJ) 06-04-07 1015 Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
