Mergers and Acquisitions

Waste Management is selling a subsidiary to Energy Capital Partners for $1.94 billion as part of its effort to focus on its core business.

Duke Energy Progress has agreed to purchase the generating capacity of ElectriCities in a $1.2 billion deal expected to translate into lower power bills for thousands of eastern North Carolina residents.

Tyson Foods says it will sell its poultry businesses in Mexico and Brazil for $575 million in cash to help pay debt tied to its acquisition of Hillshire Brands.

Duke Energy Progress has agreed to purchase the generating capacity of ElectriCities in a $1.2 billion deal expected to translate into lower power bills for thousands of eastern North Carolina residents.

Breitburn Energy is buying QR Energy LP in a deal worth about $1.46 billion.

The parent company of Gatehouse Media has announced an agreement to buy The Providence Journal and related print and digital assets from A.H.

Botox-maker Allergan says it is cutting about 13 percent of its workforce, or roughly 1,500 employees, as part of a push to become more efficient and productive.

A Canadian company is buying PBS Coals Inc. and plans to merge it with another subsidiary the Canadian company already has in southwestern Pennsylvania.

U.S. drugmaker AbbVie has finally reached an agreement valued at around $55 billion to combine with Shire after its British counterpart rebuffed several takeover attempts.

Diamondback Energy will spend about $538 million to acquire drilling interests in Texas' Midland Basin.

3M will take full control of its Sumitomo subsidiary by acquiring the 25 percent of the company that it doesn't already own for $885 million.

The Italian lottery operator Gtech is buying slot machine maker International Game Technology for $4.7 billion in cash and stock.

Specialty chemicals company Albemarle is buying counterpart Rockwood Holdings Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $6.2 billion.

A growing number of U.S. companies are looking to trim their tax bills by combining operations with foreign businesses in a trend that may eventually cost the federal government billions of dollars in revenue.

Drugmakers AbbVie and Shire are in detailed talks about a possible combination after AbbVie once again raised the deal price and gave Shire shareholders a bigger stake in the new company.

Engineering design company Aecom Technology Corp. says it is buying URS Corp. for $4 billion in cash and stock, or about $56.31 per URS share.

Cigarette makers Reynolds American Inc. and Lorillard Inc. on Friday said they are in talks of a possible merger that would combine two of the nation's oldest and biggest tobacco companies.

Whirlpool will pay more than $1 billion for a controlling stake in Indesit, the appliance maker's counterpart in Italy.

A leading U.S. coal company is suing a rival with which it shared confidential business plans during a deal that later fizzled, saying the competitor used the proprietary details to buy up land in southern Illinois to thwart the accuser's expansion plans.