Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday Aug 3, 2015

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Monday August 3, 2015:

:

EXOR S.p.A.

announced Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of PartnerRe

for $137.50 per share in cash plus a $3.00 per share special dividend, for a total consideration of $140.50 per share. The deal is valued at approximately $6.9 billion. The deal is expected to close no later than Q1 of 2016. PartnerRe closed at $139.20 on Monday, up more than 2%.

:

Shire plc

announced Monday that it has privately held Foresight Biotherapeutics Inc. for $300 million. As part of the deal, Shire acquires the global rights to FST-100 , a therapy in late-stage development for the treatment of infectious conjunctivitis, or pink eye. Shire closed at $268.08 Monday, a gain of $1.27.

:

Shares of Syngenta

spiked higher Monday, on a report from

, that BASF

has financing in place for a potential takeover offer of the Swiss agribusiness company, according to sources. Those sources say BASF may wait for Monsanto to make a new offer. Syngenta has rejected a $45 billion bid from Monsanto twice; the first time in May and the second time in June. The second offer included a $2-billion reverse break-up fee. BASF and Syngenta declined comment on the rumor. Syngenta closed at $83.59 Monday, a gain of 1.5%.

:

Shares of VMWare

surged higher Monday, following a report from

, that EMC

could acquire the remaining shares it does not already own, rather than spinoff their existing stake. EMC has been pressured by investor Elliott Management to spinoff its 80% VMW stake. VMWare closed Monday at $91.14, a gain of more than 2%.

:

Global-Tech Advanced Innovations Inc.

announced Monday, that its Board of Directors has received an unsolicited preliminary non-binding proposal letter, dated August 1, 2015, from President and CEO John C.K. Sham and certain of his entities, to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of GAI not already beneficially owned or controlled by the acquirer for $8.75 in cash per share. Global-Tech Advanced Innovations Board of Directors will form a special committee to consider the proposal. GAI closed Monday at $6.45, a gain of 115%.

:

Nokia

announced Monday, an agreement to sell its HERE digital mapping and location services business to a consortium of German automotive companies, including AUDI AG

, BMW Group and Daimler AG

. The deal, which values HERE at $3.2 billion, is expected to close in Q1 of 2016. Nokia closed Monday at $6.93, down $.12.