Follow-ups
Cendant keeps expanding online operations
Cendant, the travel industry juggernaut, looks like it has won the bidding war for Europe's top Internet travel company, eBookers.com. That complements its other online travel services like recently purchased Orbitz and such sites hotels.com and cheaptickets.com
Constellation Brands buys into Italian wine leader
Wine giant Constellation Brands announced that it has bought a 30% share in Italian vintner Ruffino, producer of high-quality wines. The move will give distribution rights of Ruffino's popular brands in the US to Constellation. The move expands Constellation's portfolio and help increase its domination of the shelf space in the US wine market.
More gold mining consolidation
The gold mining market is in a tizzy. First there is the rise of gold prices. Then there are deals like Harmony Gold Mining's pending $7 billion attempt to take over rival Gold Fields. Gold Fields' attempt to take over Canadian Iamgold was recently rejected by a Gold Fields' stockholders, by a slim majority.
While that is being sorted, Canadian gold mining firm Goldcorp Inc. is buying Wheaton river Minerals, a Canadian copper and gold mining firm, for $2 billion in stock. That (friendly) offer comes after a failed hostile takeover of (a $1.8 billion bid) by US silver producer Coeur d'Alene Mine Corps. To confuse matters further, Iamgold Corp. tried earlier to merge with Wheaton River. Iamgold also had a proposed merger with US Golden Star when it got the Gold Fields offer.
