Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Wednesday July 23, 2014

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Wednesday July 23, 2014:

:

Algonquin Power & Utilities

announced Wednesday, that it sent a letter to the Gas Natural

Board of Directors, urging shareholders to insist on a sale of the company. Algonquin said, over the past seven months, the company has sent three letters and reached out numerous times, to discuss a potential acquisition of Gas Natural, by subsidiary Liberty Utilities. Liberty's most recent offer to Gas Natural was $13.00 per share on May 7, 2014. Gas Natural's response was that the company is "Not for Sale" and refused to discuss the proposed transaction. Gas Natural shares closed Wednesday at $12.68, a gain of almost 2%.

:

Shares of Talisman Energy

spiked higher Wednesday, ahead of a press release confirming they have been approached by Spain's Repsol

, "with regards to various transactions."

reported Tuesday that Repsol might explore a bid for the Canadian oil and gas company. Repsol also confirmed Wednesday, that the two companies had discussed potential transactions and that Talisman was among potential buyout targets. Talisman Energy closed Wednesday at $11.17, a gain of more than 13%.

:

Shares of Yahoo

spiked higher Wednesday, on

, that it could be a takeover target for Alibaba

or Softbank

. The article's author, Eric Jackson, who is long Yahoo, said a large shareholder was preparing a presentation mentioning why such an acquisition would be attractive. Yahoo shares closed Wednesday at $34.71, a gain of more than 3%.

:

Shares of Ariad Pharmaceuticals

surged higher Wednesday, apparently on a

, claiming to be a Deutsche Bank trader. The fake tweets mentioned Shire

would be announcing a deal with Ariad on Thursday. Benzinga's requests for a comment from Ariad were not immediately answered. Ariad Pharmaceuticals closed Wednesday at $5.88, a gain of 15%. Ariad rose another 7% after-hours.