Basell to buy Lyondell for almost $13 billion

(Reuters) - Dutch-based Basell is owned by billionaire industrialist Len Blavatnik's Access Industries, which has been on the prowl for acquisitions in the chemical sector and recently lost out in bids to acquire Huntsman Corp. and General Electric Co.'s GE Plastics.




The all-cash deal for $48 a share offers shareholders of Lyondell a 19.6 percent premium to Monday's closing price of $40.12 and a 45 percent premium to Lyondell's closing price on May 10, when Access acquired the right to buy an 8 percent stake in Lyondell and said it might seek to buy the whole company.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 2-GE profit meets forecast, to sell subprime unit

(Reuters) - BOSTON, July 13 - General Electric Co.
reported earnings in line with Wall Street's expectations on
Friday, citing strong demand for jet engines, gas turbines and
other heavy equipment, as well as solid results at its
commercial finance unit.




Those businesses helped offset weakness at the company's
WMC Mortgage subprime lending unit, which recorded a loss. GE
said it would sell that unit.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Moody's Says Loans From Washington Mutual, GE Helped Prompt Downgrades

(Bloomberg) -- Units of Washington Mutual Inc. and
General Electric Co. were among four subprime lenders whose loans
helped prompt Moody's Investors Service to downgrade 399 mortgage
bonds, the ratings company said.

Washington Mutual's Long Beach Mortgage, GE's WMC Mortgage,
New Century Financial Corp. and Fremont General Corp. made loans
that backed about 60 percent of the $5 billion bonds that were
downgraded, Nicolas Weill, Moody's chief credit officer for asset
finance, said today on a conference call. Their loans accounted for
30 percent of subprime-mortgage bonds issued last year, Weill said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Halliburton, MedQuist, Motorola and Ruby Tuesday: U.S. Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares may have unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges
today. This preview includes news that broke after exchanges
closed yesterday. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company
names.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT US) lost $2.01, or 3.8 percent, to
$51.20 in trading yesterday after the close of U.S. exchanges.
The drugmaker and General Electric Co. have broken off an
agreement to sell Abbott's core laboratory and point-of-care
diagnostics businesses to GE. The decision has no impact on
Abbott's forecast earnings, excluding items, for 2007 and 2008,
the company said in a statement.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

GE, Pearson drop Dow Jones takeover pursuit

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, June 21 - General Electric Co. and Pearson Plc said on Thursday they will not pursue a joint offer for publisher Dow Jones & Co. Inc. , removing a potential challenge to a $5-billion bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. .



GE, the world's second-largest company by market capitalization, and Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, said they had held exploratory talks over combining their financial news outlets with Dow Jones, home to the Wall Street Journal.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

GE Shares Rise the Most in Three Years Following Upbeat Paris Airshow

(Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. shares surged
the most since January 2004 amid expectations that profit from
selling commercial jet engines will increase because of plane
orders announced this week at the Paris Air Show.

Airbus SAS, the world's largest commercial-aircraft maker,
yesterday won $42.6 billion in contracts. Boeing Co., Airbus's
nearest rival, today announced an $8.8 billion order from
International Lease Finance Corp. GE is the world's largest
maker of jet engines.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Most U.S. Stocks Climb on Takeovers; General Electric, Exxon Mobil Advance

(Bloomberg) -- Most U.S. stocks rose, extending a
seven-week advance, after $43.2 billion of announced deals added
to this year's record pace of mergers and acquisitions.

General Electric Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Merck & Co.
briefly led the S&P 500 above its March 24, 2000, peak. Alltel
Corp. rallied to its highest in almost eight years after Goldman
Sachs Group Inc. and TPG Inc. agreed to buy the fifth-biggest
U.S. wireless company for $24.7 billion.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News