Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday November 3, 2014

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Monday October 31 through Sunday November 2, 2014:

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Aetna

announced Monday it will acquire privately-held bswift, for approximately $400 million. Bswift provides a technology platform for health insurance exchanges and employers. The deal is expected to close before the end of 2014. Aetna closed Monday at $82.25, a loss of $0.26.

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Publicis Groupe

and Sapient

announced Monday, that they have agreed that Publicis will acquire Sapient for $25.00 per share in cash. The agreement has been approved unanimously by the Management and Supervisory Boards of Publicis Groupe and the Board of Directors of Sapient. The deal is expected to close in Q1 of 2015. Shares of Sapient gained 42% Monday, to close at $24.60.

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Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings

and Covance Inc.

announced Monday, an agreement, under which LabCorp will acquire Covance for cash and stock valued at $105.12 per Covance share, for an equity value of approximately $6.1 billion. Covance shareholders will receive $75.76 in cash and 0.2686 LabCorp shares for each Covance share they own, and will own approximately 15.5% of the combined company. Covance closed Monday at $100.57, a gain of almost 26%, while LabCorp closed at $101.23, losing 7%.

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Allergan Inc.

confirmed Monday in 14A filing, that an un-named company, said to be Actavis PLC

, according to a source, approached Allergan regarding a deal to help it fight off a hostile takeover by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.

and investor Bill Ackman. Allergan stated in the filing: "We cannot provide assurance on the outcome of these contacts regarding transactions we have not announced and because our Board has determined that premature disclosure with respect to the possible terms of any transaction might jeopardize continuation of any discussions or negotiations, our Board has instructed management not to disclose the possible terms of any such transactions or proposals, or the parties thereto, unless and until an agreement in principle relating thereto has been reached or, upon the advice of counsel, as may otherwise be required by law." A combined Allergan-Actavis pairing would most likely be too large to be acquired by Valeant. Allergan shares gained 1.5% Monday, to close at $193.14, while Actavis gained almost 2%, to close at $193.14.