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Mergers: August is the busiest month; Autos: General Motors prepares a public offering; Banking: Feds seize community lender; Pensions: New Jersey sued for disclosure dodge; Hedge funds: A stressed-out legend retires

Mergers: August is the busiest month

August, normally the slowest month for deal making, is “on course to be the busiest this year,” said Zachary Mider and Jeffrey McCracken in Bloomberg.com. More than $175 billion in deals have been announced, with mining company BHP Billiton’s $39 billion hostile bid for fertilizer maker Potash leading the way, followed by Intel’s $7.7 billion acquisition of computer-security specialist McAfee. Computer maker Hewlett-Packard and its archrival, Dell, are locked in a bidding war for 3Par, a maker of computer storage systems, and rumors are rumbling that brewers SAB Miller of South Africa and Japan’s Asahi will soon be sparring to gain control of Australia’s Foster’s.

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