Linux e Google: Deals Today

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Good Morning Postlinuxeg,

FRI 28 May 2010

While Royal Dutch Shell could well have been working on its $4.7 billion cash deal to buy privately held East Resources before the BP blowout on April 20, the deal could become a beacon for others trying to figure out how to expand away from sucking crude through deepwater rigs and towards natural gas and solid land.

The deal raises Shell's daily gas production in North America by about 7.5 percent and give it access to a swathe of the Marcellus Shale (pictured left), the northeastern U.S. rock formation that is a crucial source of future U.S. gas production.

Shale gas accounts for between 15 percent and 20 percent of U.S. gas production, but is expected to quadruple in coming years, touching off a scramble among producers large and small for access to resources.

Analysts said the deal would put pressure on Shell's balance sheet, which is already stressed with other projects. If that's true, and Shell saw a need to move quickly, perhaps environmentalists worried about what shale projects mean to the land will have another thing to blame on BP's disaster in the gulf.
--Chris Kaufman

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Loopholes hard to find in U.S. fund tax battle

May 28, 2010 12:07 PM ET

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers have given the investment fund industry an uphill task to try to find any loopholes in a proposal to raise taxes on the profits made on investments.

Full Article

World's investment banks checked by debt crisis

May 28, 2010 09:40 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's government-debt crisis has choked off a 14-month surge in sales of new bonds and shares, while mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are at a nine-month low, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Full Article

Delay in AXA Asia foray undercuts growth plans

May 28, 2010 09:20 AM ET

PARIS/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Growing doubts over AXA SA's ability to close a $12 billion deal to buy out minority shareholders of AXA Asia Pacific is creating uncertainty over the company's growth strategy and drawing unwelcome parallels with Prudential's own faltering Asian foray.