Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Tuesday November 1, 2016

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Tuesday November 1, 2016:

IBM Buys Expert Personal Shopper Unit of Fluid, No Terms Disclosed

The Deal:
IBM IBM announced Tuesday, it acquired the Expert Personal Shopper division of Fluid, including the dialogue-based product recommendation platform XPS solution. The XPS solution and several key members of the XPS team will become part of IBM iX.

Financial details were not disclosed.

IBM closed at $152.79 on Tuesday, down $0.90. 

Deal Reporter Says LPL Financial in Talks with PE Firms

The Rumor:
Shares of LPL Financial LPLA spiked to a high of $32.06 Tuesday, as DealReporter said that the company was in talks with private equity firms, according to sources. Reuters reported last month that LPL was working with Goldman Sachs to explore a potential sale.

LPL Financial closed at $31.49 on Monday, up 1.71%.

Intel Acquired Drone Software Co MAVinci for Undisclosed Price

The Deal:
Intel INTC has acquired MAVinci, a German commercial drone software startup, for an undisclosed price, according to an interview with Anil Nanduri by VentureBeat. Nanduri is head of Intel's drone business.

Nanduri said MAVinci has the best-in-class flight-planning software.

Intel closed  Tuesday at $34.52, down 1%. 

Crown Castle to Acquire FiberNet for $1.5B in Cash

The Deal:
Crown Castle International Corp. CCI announced Tuesday, that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire FPL FiberNet Holdings, LLC and certain other subsidiaries of NextEra Energy, Inc. NEE for approximately $1.5 billion in cash.

Crown Castle expects the acquisition to close in the first half of 2017.

Crown Castle closed  Tuesday at $89.84, down 1.15%. 

Pepsico Among Bidders for Stake in Africa's Promasidor

The Rumor:
PepsiCo PEP.N and Japan's Ajinomoto are said to be bidding for a stake in African beverage and food-products company Promasidor in a deal that could value Promasidor at approximatley $1 billion, according to sources as reported by Reuters on Tuesday.

Promasidor's flagship brand is Cowbell, which includes powdered milk and other dairy products. A deal could be announced this week, the sources said.

Pepsico closed  Tuesday at $106.71, down $0.49. 

Broadcom Said to be Near Deal to Acquire Brocade

The Rumor:
Broadcom Ltd AVGO is said to be near a deal to acquire Brocade Communications Systems Inc BRCD, according to sources as reported by Reuters on Tuesday. A deal could be announced this week, the sources said.

Bloomberg reported Monday that Brocade was in talks to sell itself.

Brocade closed  Tuesday at $11.24, up 6.04%.