Mergers and Acquisitions Recap: Leap Wireless Needs A SUITOR, BB&T Needs More ACQUISITIONS

Here are Tuesday’s top stories:

Both U.S. political parties now have members who oppose China’s Cnooc Limited (NYSE:CEO) proposed purchase of Nexen Inc. (NYSE:NXY), as Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), who was a leading critic of Cnooc’s 2005 attempt to acquire Unocal, now says that the current agreement should be heavily scrutinized by the Committee On Foreign Investments in the United States which is an inter-agency board that evaluates deals for national security implications.

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Comments from the earnings call of Leap Wireless International, Inc.(NASDAQ:LEAP) are fueling speculation by SA’s Helix Investment that the company might be getting ready to put itself on sale, perhaps hoping that some large carrier might offer a tidy sum for its lucrative spectrum. In the meantime, Leap shares crater as Baird downgrades the firm in response to its weak second quarter results that posted ugly subscriber figures. To make matters even worse, Canaccord calls the carrier “dead money at best” for the second half. However, peer MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE:PCS) is only slightly nicked by the bullets, which implies that investors see Leap’s problems as for the most part company-specific, rather than industry-wide.

BB&T Corporation’s (NYSE:BBT) chief of South Florida operations comments that “We still have an eye on acquisition possibilities”, only a few days after the bank closed its buyout of BankAtlantic. The just-finished purchase gave BB&T an additional 78 branches and $3 billion in core deposits.

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