Thomson's bid for Reuters put at $17.6 bn
London: Canadian company Thomson Corp is in talks to buy Reuters Group Plc for about 8.8 billion pounds (USD 17.6 billion). A merger if it happens would create the world's biggest news and financial data company in the world.

In a joint statement, the two firms said Reuters shareholders would get 352-1/2 pence in cash and 0.1600 Thomson shares for each share, worth an equivalent of 697 pence a share based on Monday's closing prices.

That would be 42 per cent above Reuters closing share price on Thursday, the day before it announced a bid approach. The enlarged, dual-listed group will be called Thomson-Reuters and the combined Thomson Financial unit and Reuters financial and media businesses will be called Reuters.

The combined group will also adopt Reuters trust principles aimed at safeguarding the independence of Reuters' news, the joint statement said. The Reuters trustees have a "golden share" capable of blocking a takeover of the company.
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Mittal eyes AK Steel deal: FT
New York: The world's largest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal, is looking to acquire Ohio-based AK Steel according to a report in the Financial Times on its Alphaville Web site.

Shares of Ohio-based AK Steel rose to $39 before the closing bell in New York from a close at $32.06 on Monday.

FT Alphaville confirmed the report and said a deal could value AK at up to $40 per share, or just under $4.5 billion.

Arcelor Mittal shares fell 2.2 per cent to 41.50 euros in Paris by 1235 GMT.

AK Steel reported more than $6 billion in sales in 2006.
In its first-quarter earnings release, AK Steel had net earnings of $62.7 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with $6.2 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.
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