Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Thursday November 1, 2012

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Thursday November 1, 2012:

:

reported Thursday that Advance Auto Parts

had hired Blackstone Group

to explore a possible sale, according to sources. Shares were briefly halted on a circuit breaker following the report. A spokesperson for the company did not yet have a response to the report of the Blackstone hiring. Advance Auto Parts closed at $81.00 Thursday, a gain of 14.18% on 4 times average volume.

:

RedPrairie and JDA Software

announced Thursday that JDA and affiliates of RedPrairie have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Under the terms of the merger agreement, entities affiliated with RedPrairie will effect a cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of JDA common stock for $45 per share. The $45 per share offer price represents a 33 percent premium to JDA's stock price on October 26, 2012. The offer price also represents a 16 percent premium to JDA's all-time high stock price. The transaction has a total enterprise value of approximately $1.9 billion. The Board of Directors of JDA has approved the transaction. JDA Software closed at $44.76 Thursday, a gain of 17.33% on 103 times average volume.

:

Dun & Bradstreet

reported in its 10-Q filing Thursday that it had bought back 435,733 shares in the quarter ending September 30, 2012.

, tweeted that this type of activity was not usual for a company that was contemplating a sale. On August 16, 2012, the

reported that D&B was in the early stages of a takeover process, while a

article in July said the company had hired JP Morgan and Credit Suisse to explore a possible sale of the company. Dun & Bradstreet closed at $81.16 Thursday, a gain of 0.15% on twice average volume.