Glance-UPDATE 3-Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

(Adds XO Holdings, Porsche) July 10 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday. (For Reuters columns on deals, click on) ** General Motors Corp signed a deal to sell its best assets to a new company that will be majority owned by the U.S. government, essentially taking the vast majority of the company out of bankruptcy, a source familiar with the matter said. To read more, please double click on ** XO Holdings Inc Chairman and billionaire investor Carl Icahn offered to buy the shares in the communications company that he does not already own for 55 cents each. ** Two rival factions that control indebted automotive holding group Porsche SE are set for a showdown that could decide on the planned merger with majority-owned Volkswagen. ** Philip Morris International Inc said it has agreed to buy Colombia's second-largest cigarette maker for $452 million, expanding the world's largest non-state-owned tobacco company's presence in Latin America. ** China's top offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC is in discussions to support China National Petroleum Corp's (CNPC) expected $14.5 billion bid for Spanish oil major Repsol's Argentine unit YPF, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. ** Lufthansa is unlikely to win European Union regulatory approval this month for its plan to buy Austrian Airlines (AUA) despite an informal offer of new remedies to address competition concerns. ** U.S. firm T. Rowe Price may buy a 26 percent stake in India's UTI Asset Management for 6.5-7 billion rupees ($134million-$144 million), the Economic Times newspaper said, citing two unnamed sources it said were familiar with the development. ** Security software maker Entrust Inc said private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC raised its cash offer to buy the company by 8 percent to $2 per share, or $124 million. ** Celesio AG's supervisory board gave the green light for the German drug distributor's contested takeover of a Brazilian peer, which had exposed a rift between its management and main shareholder. ** Caledon Resources Plc, the coking coal company, is in advanced takeover talks with two possible buyers from China and India, a person familiar with the matter, lifting its shares. ** Germany's RWE can not acquire Essent's 50 percent stake in the Netherland's only nuclear power plant, a Dutch court ruled on Friday, saying that the stake would have to remain in public hands. ** Italian broadcaster Telecom Italia Media has no plan to sell its La7 TV channel but is looking at possible options for unspecified assets, the company said. ** Zijin Mining, China's largest listed gold company, on Friday said it has terminated share acquisition talks with a Kazakhstan gold company. ** Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co Ltd said it has scrapped a plan to buy privately held Victory Pharma of the United States. ** Japanese housing fixtures maker JS Group Corp said it will offer 0.283 euros ($0.396) for each share of A-S China Plumbing Products . ** UK-based private equity group Silverfleet Capital has begun exclusive talks to buy German sausage casing maker Kalle Nalo from rival group Montagu Private Equity, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Friday in an unsourced story. (Compiled by Tina Kwan in Singapore, Manasi Phadke and Sakshi A Mattoo in Bangalore) (([e-mail]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail] [phone])) Keywords: MERGERS/DEALS ** Zijin Mining, China's largest listed gold company, on Friday said it has terminated share acquisition talks with a Kazakhstan gold company. ** Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co Ltd said it has scrapped a plan to buy privately held Victory Pharma of the United States. ** Japanese housing fixtures maker JS Group Corp said it will offer 0.283 euros ($0.396) for each share of A-S China Plumbing Products . ** UK-based private equity group Silverfleet Capital has begun exclusive talks to buy German sausage casing maker Kalle Nalo from rival group Montagu Private Equity, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Friday in an unsourced story. (Compiled by Tina Kwan in Singapore, Manasi Phadke and Sakshi A Mattoo in Bangalore) Keywords: MERGERS/DEALS ([e-mail]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail] [phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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