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Exxon Mobil has agreed to buy natural-gas producer XTO Energy for $51.69 a share in an all-stock deal valued at $31 billion. Separately, Russia's Digital Sky Technologies will buy a stake in online-gaming company Zynga for $180 million.

In an all-stock $5-billion transaction, CenturyTel Inc. will combine with rival telecom Embarq Corp. to create a company with a combined 7.9 million subscribers and operations in 33 states. Under terms of the agreement, Embarq shareholders will receive 1.37 shares of CenturyTel for each Embarq share. CenturyTel will also assume $5.8 billion of Embarq's debt. The combined company expects savings of $400 million annually in the first three years through personnel reduction and the restructuring of operations. On Monday, CenturyTel's shares dropped 13% to close at $25.62 on New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Boosted by strong sales in its wireless business, telecommunications company AT&T posts a second-quarter net income growth of 30% to $2.90 billion while revenue rose 4.7% to $30.87 billion. Article discusses AT&T's sales by division, subscriber losses in its landline business, stock value, and revenue prospects for the rest of 2008.

Verizon Wireless has agreed to purchase wireless carrier Alltel Corp. for $28.1 billion which includes $22.2 billion in assumed debt. The deal will make Verizon the largest cellphone carrier in the U.S. by number of subscribers.