AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) is buying privately-held Guangdong BeiKang Pharmaceutical. It is a Chinese maker of generic injectable antibiotics, for an undisclosed sum. The purchase consolidates AZN’s No. 2 position in China (behind Pfizer) as the company increasingly turns to emerging markets for growth.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) buys DemandTec (NASDAQ:DMAN) for $440M. This marks a 57% premium to DMAN’s closing price yesterday and ending a month-long period of speculation about a purchaser to buy the provider of cloud-based analytics.

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Dresser-Rand Group (NYSE:DRC) an oilfield-equipment manufacturer, bought privately held Synchrony for $50M which adds a portfolio of advanced bearings, high-speed motors and generators to its stable of products.

China’s Global Education and Technology Group (NASDAQ:GEDU) was called-out in a critical report by Abrsaroka, highlighting that SEC allegations against GEDU management aren’t going away and could cripple an offer at $11/share from Pearson (NYSE:PSO) to buy the firm.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings (NYSE:BRKB) has agreed to buy First Solar’s (NASDAQ:FSLR) 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm power plant in California, say sources. The price negotiated has not been disclosed. The plant, is expected to cost more than $2B to build; it’ll be one of the largest ever.

J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) is expected to announce today that it’s buying a 16.6% stake in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE:MSO), which will give it two seats on the board. The $3.50/share price tag is a 12% premium.

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Deutsche Boerse (DBOEY.PK) and NYSE (NYSE:NYX) are considering the spin off of parts of their derivatives arms to create a 2nd player in the space and ease anti-trust concerns about the $9B merger, according to sources. The deal is set to be blocked without further asset sales, so it’s been said.

Lloyds (NYSE:LYG) continues to make progress in reducing £23.6B ($36.9B) of troubled loans. Reports say the bank has chosen P-E firm Lone Star as the preferred bidder for a £1B ($1.6B) portfolio of U.K. commercial-property debt. Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) are backing the bid with £300M of debt.

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Alliant Energy’s (NYSE:LNT) has recently moved to revise provisions for executive pay and employee retirement plans in case of a takeover. The move has sparked speculation that the operator of power plants in Wisconsin and Iowa could sell itself to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKA) or Wisconsin Energy (NYSE:WEC).

Talbots (NYSE:TLB) shares are soaring. The $3/share price of the Sycamore takeover offer is not much however, as investors may lack faith in Talbots – which put in place measures to prevent unwanted takeovers – to negotiate a sale. Talbots shares have lost more 80% YTD as the retailer consistently raises concerns about lagging sales or profit margins.

European Goldfields, a developer of mines in Greece, skyrockets after a report of it being approached by Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) about a takeover. The move could throw into question plans by Qatar Holding, LLC to buy a stake in Goldfields.

Electronics For Imaging (NASDAQ:EFII) acquires privately-held Alphagraph Team, a provider of management information systems and enterprise resource planning software products for the printing industry. The acquisition is for an undisclosed sum.

First American Financial (NYSE:FAF) says it will no longer pursue an acquisition of CoreLogic (NYSE:CLGX), according to an SEC filing. FAF had suggested CLGX sell certain non-core businesses, which it offered to purchase. It said it could purchase the company if the real estate processor and data service provider deemed it best to sell itself entirely.

Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC) is still outperforming thanks to talks of a takeover.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) receives a $1.73B bid to buy from Carl Icahn. Icahn goes hostile with his bid saying he intends to initiate a tender offer for all the company’s outstanding common shares at $15 a piece. The move comes a day after the metals recycler rejected Icahn’s advances.

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Comstock Resources (NYSE:CRK) which is purchasing the land with the goal or developing two shale oil deposits rises slightly after announcing it will purchase 68K gross acres of land in West Texas from Eagle Oil & Gas for $332.7M.

NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) and Deutsche Boerse (DBOEY.PK): Unless the companies agree to further asset sales, Le Monde reports, European regulators are set to block the merger between the two. The competition authorities believe the merger would lead to a double monopoly on the European derivatives market and in the clearing business.

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SuccessFactors might be being bought by SAP (NYSE:SAP) for $3.4B but that isn’t stopping it from making its own acquisitions, with the company saying it will pay $110M to purchase privately held jobs2web, which provides online job marketing and advertising services to employers.

Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX) and Medco Health (NYSE:MHS) funded a study that concluded a merger between the two PBM giants would save tens of billions of dollars in annual drug costs and therefore went on the offensive in advance of today’s grilling in front of Senators. Unfortunately for the firms, antitrust attorneys and consumer groups are shredding the report before the ink is even dry. They note that it uses stale data and government reports from 2002 and 2003 to draw on in its analysis.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:HOT) announces it acquired a 49.8% stake in longtime partner Design Hotels AG. The deal is for an undisclosed amount in a deal expected to close in Q1. The Berlin-based firm owns 200 member hotels in 40 countries.

H-P (NYSE:HPQ) acquires HIFLEX, a German web-to-print software solutions company. The purchase is part of H-P’s push into cloud printing. The amount was undisclosed.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) rejects Icahn’s unsolicited $15/share offer. CMC is saying the $1.73B bid is opportunistic and fails to reflect its true value. Icahn’s company said it would take action if CMC failed to respond by today.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) is down and SuccessFactors (NASDAQ:SFSF) is up 52%. Matt Marshall gives 9 reasons why the deal is a smart one for SAP; the deal to acquire SuccessFactors. One reason is the quality of SuccessFactors’ products and management. Another is the growth of the talent management software market and complementary customer bases as well as the potential for integration with SAP’s back-end software.

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IBM (NYSE:IBM) looks like it may be orchestrating another deal after news that it is buying Cúram Software, a provider of organizational software for government projects. This is the third of the recent small software company acquisitions for IBM.

Equity Residential’s (NYSE:EQR) Sam Zell agreed to buy a 26.5% stake in apartment owner Archstone, the estate of Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ.PK), which owns 47% of Archstone, is looking to rasie money for a counter offer and is in talks with Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and Brookfield (NYSE:BAM) Bloomberg reports. The EQR bid may be the beginning to a potentially very long bidding process, some analysts say.

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Telular (NASDAQ:WRLS) soars after agreeing to acquire mobile resource management provider SkyBitz for $42M in cash and stock. After this purchase it will be the world’s largest asset tracking and mobile resource management company.

Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) says it’s acquired Pikewerks, a privately held company that provides cybersecurity solutions focusing on insider threat protection, software protection and forensics.

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