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CenturyTel Inc. will buy Qwest Communications International Inc. for $10.6 billion in an all-stock deal. CenturyTel, which will be renamed CenturyLink, is offering 0.1664 share of its stock for every Qwest share. CenturyTel will also assume $11.8 billion of Qwest's debt.

After failing to turn its business around, hand-held device maker Palm Inc. has hired investment bankers to explore strategic options for the company - including its possible sale. Palm's shares, which have lost 35% of their value in the past year, rose 88 cents on Monday to close at $6.04, giving the company a market capitalization of about $1 billion.

Dow Jones & Co. is expected to announce the sale of its stock-indexing business to exchange operator CME Group Inc. for a price greater than $600 million. CME would continue to use the Down Jones name in its investment-information products.

Byline: DENNIS K. BERMAN, SHIRA OVIDE AND MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG; Jeffrey McCracken contributed to this article. Tribune Co. is preparing for a possible filing for bankruptcy court protection as soon as [...]

Byline: DAVID ENRICH AND DENNIS K. BERMAN Citigroup Inc., in the latest sign of bloodletting on Wall Street, is set this week to embark on an aggressive round of layoffs [...]

Australia's Rio Tinto Ltd. is in the final stages of negotiating an agreement to buy Canada's aluminum company Alcan Inc. Alcan is currently staving off a hostile takeover bid from US-based Alcoa Inc. The agreement is expected to be an all-cash deal valued at approximately $37 bil, or nearly $100 per share. The deal would top Alcoa's bid of $27.94 bil.

U.S. telecommunications equipment company Avaya Inc. is currently talking with strategic bidders and private equity firms regarding the sale of all or part of the company, a sign that the industry may undergo another round of acquisitions and mergers. Avaya's market capitalization is valued at $6.18 bil.

General Electric Co. is close to reaching a deal to sell its plastics unit to Saudi Basic Industries Corp., a deal valued at $11 bil. Sales for the plastics unit reached $6.6 bil last year; Sabic revenue for 2006 reached $23.06 bil.

DaimlerChrysler AG is expected to sell to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management L.P. a controlling stake in its U.S.-based Chrysler Group unit. The deal would enable Daimler to eliminate $18 bil in health care and retirement liabilities; implications for automobile industry union labor is discussed.

British defense contractor BAE Systems PLC has agreed to acquire US firm Armor Holdings Inc. for approximately $88 per share, a deal totaling $4.1 bil. The agreement strengthens BAE's presence in the US and bolsters its military ground vehicles segment.

Germany's Deutsche Borse AG has bid $67.50 per share for International Securities Exchange Holdings Inc. in a deal totaling $2.8 bil. The offer constitutes one of the first bids by a Europe-based exchange operator to obtain a major American operator.

Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. have made a $5 bil bid for newspaper publisher Dow Jones and Company Inc., at $60 a share in cash or a mix of cash and stock. Indications as to whether the Bancroft family, who holds the majority voting power for Down Jones, would accept or reject the offer.

Executive vice president Romeo Kreinberg and senior advisor J. Pedro Reinhard were fired from their positions at Dow Chemical Co. after it was discovered that the two, without the authorization of the company's board of directors, had been in talks with Oman investors regarding a leveraged buyout. The discovery came from information provided by a source at J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.

Blackstone Group's initial public offering statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission was a much anticipated event on Wall Street. The disclosure that its earnings over the past five years exceeded $6 billion, was significant for a private-equity fund which generally operates in relative obscurity.

IAC/InterActiveCorp. CEO Barry Diller says the company's planned acquisition of Ask Jeeves Inc. for about $2 billion in stock is near finalization. It would be the largest merger of Internet services in a long run of such deals.

Eni S.p.A. is considering a bid to acquire Unocal Corp., as is ChevronTexaco Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp..

Verizon Communications Inc. revises its $6.3 billion offer for MCI Inc. after Qwest Communications International Inc. increased its offer to $7.3 billion.

MCI Inc. is in initial merger talks with Verizon Communications Inc. but has not responded to a $6.3 billion offer from Qwest Communications International Inc..

China National Offshore Oil Corp., seeking to expand foreign operations, is looking carefully at possibly acquiring Unocal Corp., the ninth-largest oil company in the U.S.

Investment bank Lazard is planning an intial public offering and has therefore revealed its finances.

Michel David-Weill and Bruce Wasserstein are said to be approaching a compromise on Wasserstein's plan to float the historically private investment firm on the New York Stock Exchange. David-Weill, the chairman of the firm, approved the initial public offering in October, but only under the condition that Wasserstein, Lazard's operational head, should resign if the offer had not been made by the end of June 2005. It is expected that David-Weill is now readying to alter those conditions, pushing back the deadline to the end of March 2006.

Blockbuster Inc. has made a $700 million offer to acquire Hollywood Entertainment Corp. in a deal that would give it control of almost half of the video-rental market.

Credit Suisse Group has seen little interest generated in its Win terthur Insurance Co. unit after seeking bids from Wall Street and the European banking community.

Cendant Corp. plans to acquire Orbitz L.L.C. for $1.2 billion, greatly influencing the online travel business. The shares would be valued at $28. Its current market value is $20.77 a share.

Mylan Laboratories Inc. $4 billion acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals Inc. will give the generic drug firm a greater presence in the branded-name pharmaceutical market. About 1200 salepersons will be added to Mylan's already large group when the merger is complete.

Qwest Communications International Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission are discussing a possible settlement which would see the company pay huge penalties as a result of accounting irregularities. Some executives have agreed to pay penalties, while denying any wrongdoing.

Wachovia Corp. and SouthTrust Corp. discuss possible merger, following recent mergers in the industry, driven by competition for consumers. Wachovia's bid is in the $12 billion range and South Trust's stock has surged in response to the news.