Acquisition, Billion | featured news

Aetna will buy Coventry Health Care for $5.7 billion as the insurance industry realigns itself to better navigate the massive government health care overhaul....

The Carlyle Group announced on Wednesday that it had reached a deal to acquire Getty Images, the well-known distributor of photography, video and multimedia products, from Hellman & Friedman for $3.3 billion.

Kevin Systrom's smartest move was to sell Instagram to Facebook early, before having to deliver even an iota of revenue. My prediction is that we’ll look back on Facebook's acquisition of Instagram as a bust—much in the same way we now view News Corp.’s purchase of Myspace, AOL’s purchase of Bebo, and Excite@Home’s purchase of Blue Mountain Arts.

China's top offshore oil producer CNOOC Ltd has entered into an agreement to buy Canada's Nexen Inc for about $15.1 billion, the Chinese company said on Monday.

GlaxoSmithKline is expected to announce a deal to buy Human Genome Sciences for about $2.8 billion as soon as Monday, ending a three-month hostile pursuit of the U.S. biotech company on friendly terms after sweetening its offer.

Health insurer WellPoint Inc will buy rival Amerigroup Corp for $4.46 billion in a major bet on the expansion of the U.S. government's Medicaid health plans for the poor.

Dell is buying Quest Software for $2.4 billion to expand its offerings as its personal computer business weakens in an era of smartphones and sleeker devices like the iPad. The deal announced Monday capped off a bidding war that began last month when Quest revealed a mystery suitor had made an offer trumping a $2 billion sale that had been worked out with Insight Venture Partners in March. The secret bidder turned out to be Dell Inc., the second largest PC maker in the U.S. behind Hewlett-Packard Co.

Microsoft agreed to buy online social network firm Yammer for $1.2 billion in cash, which will allow the software company to offer a service like Facebook's to corporate customers.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn offered to buy Clorox Co in a $10.2 billion deal, but also invited the household products maker to hold a "go shop" sale, which he said should yield a higher bid for the company.

The parent company of GoDaddy.com, a top registrar of Internet domain names, has been sold to a group of private investment firms for $2.25 billion, a person familiar with the transaction told The Associated Press.