Reuters reports that Bank of America is buying Countrywide for $4 billion.
The purchase marks another acquisition for Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, who has spent more than $100 billion since 2004 to create the second-largest U.S. bank and the nation's largest consumer bank.
It also provide's a lifeline for Countrywide, which became a poster child for what critics say were lending excesses that fueled the housing and credit meltdown.
The largest U.S. mortgage lender has been convulsed by mounting losses and defaults, a loss of access to credit markets, and a slew of lawsuits and regulatory probes into its lending practices and Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo's pay. On Tuesday, it denied rumors that it might go bankrupt.
Countrywide has been hit very hard by the housing and credit problems. The deal is a big save for them and their shareholders but there are questions about what it means for Bank of America. SeekingAlpha says Bank of America will lose billions in the deal to acquire Countrywide. The Economist calls BofA's purchase a big gamble. Time will tell but it does sound like a risky acquisition.
Bloomberg reports that the larger organic food retailer Whole Foods is buying smaller organic food retailer Wild Oats.
Whole Foods Market Inc., the largest U.S. natural-foods grocer, said it agreed to buy rival Wild Oats Markets Inc. for $565 million after reporting its first profit decline in five quarters.
Whole Foods will pay $18.50 in cash for each share of Boulder, Colorado-based Wild Oats, 18 percent higher than its closing price today. First-quarter net income fell 7.8 percent to $53.8 million, or 38 cents a share, Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods said today. Earnings missed analysts' estimates.
Buying Wild Oats will help counter slowing growth at Whole Foods, which faced competition from Safeway Inc., Trader Joe's and other grocery stores selling organic and prepared food. First-quarter sales at Whole Foods stores open at least a year rose 7 percent, down from 13 percent a year earlier.
"Whole Foods had won the size game and was able to call the shots," said Matt Patsky, portfolio manager at Boston-based Winslow Management Co. which overseas $350 million, including Whole Foods shares.
Wild Oats posted a loss in two of the past five years and its sales climbed 26 percent over the period to $1.12 billion, while Whole Foods doubled profit and sales.
Here are a few other details:
Whole Foods will add 110 stores in 24 states and Canada and close a few Wild Oats stores that overlap with Whole Foods stores.
Whole Foods says the integration will take them two years.
The deal could help Whole Foods cut costs as they face rising competition from regular grocery stores adding organic food aisles and sections.
Another article on the merger can be found here in the Denver Post. Wild Oats is based in Denver.
The two companies that helped revolution radio and launch the ad free satellite radio industry are merging. The merger between Sirius Sattelite Radio and XM Satellite Radio is a $13 billion deal. There is one big possible wrench in the XM-Sirius merger plan and according to the Hollywood Reporter that wrench is regulator approval.
Experts have been saying for months that approval of a combined XM-Sirius depends on how the FCC and anti-trust regulators view the industry. If considered broadly, with digital music players and the Internet thought of as competition, then approval ought to be granted. However, if the government sees competition for XM and Sirius stemming only from each other and from free radio, then approval isn't likely.
Sirius and XM said Monday that they're confident they will be a single company by the end of the year. What they haven't yet decided is what their new company will be called and where it will be headquartered. Sirius is based in New York and XM in Washington, D.C.
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin and XM chairman Gary Parsons will have those titles at the combined company, while a role for XM CEO Hugh Panero -- if there is to be one -- is unclear, except that he will remain CEO of XM until the merger is consummated.
We don't know what the name of the new company will be if they get regulator approval but we do know the company will have a huge subscriber base of 14 million listeners.
Bloomberg 
The two companies that helped revolution radio and launch the ad free satellite radio industry are merging. The 