Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday November 19, 2012

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Monday November 19, 2012:

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Dish Network

bid $4B or $11 per share for MetroPCS in August, according to

. The deal was 30% cash and 70% Dish stock, according to sources. MetroPCS announced a merger with Deutsche Telekom's

T-Mobile unit in October. MetroPCS closed at $11.00 Monday, a gain of 2.14% on almost twice average volume.

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Alibaba is reportedly preparing to take a 15% to 20% stake in Sina.com's Weibo Microblogging Service, according to

. Alibaba declined comment on the report. A spokesperson for Sina.com was not available for comment. Sina.com closed at $48.59 Monday, a gain of almost 8% on more than 3 times average volume.

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Total

announces that it has finalized an agreement to sell its 20% contractor interest in OML 138 block to a wholly owned subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), for approximately $2.5 billion in cash (subject to post-closing adjustments). The agreement is subject to approval by the Nigerian authorities. The OML 138 block contains the Usan field which started production in February 2012. “The transaction is aligned with Total's active portfolio management. Usan accounts for less than 10% of the Group's equity production in Nigeria. This sale of an asset operated from a minority position will allow us to focus our resources on the material growth opportunities in Total's portfolio” said Yves-Louis Darricarrère, President Upstream at Total. Total closed at $21.66 Monday, a gain of 1.03% on higher than average volume.

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Research in Motion

was the subject of unconfirmed takeover chatter on Monday. A group led by Carl Icahn, Sequoia Capital and Bain Capital was rumored to be bidding $13 per share for RIMM. A spokesperson for Research in Motion was not aware of the report and declined comment. Spokespersons for Sequoia and Bain were not available for comment. Research in Motion closed at $9.59 Monday, a gain of 4.24% on almost twice average volume.

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Allscripts

cancelled out of the Piper Jaffray Healthcare Conference Monday. The conference is scheduled for November 27 and 28, 2012. A spokesperson for Allscripts told Benzinga "Allscripts is not attending any conferences in light of our disclosure to explore strategic alternatives." Allscripts disclosed that on November 8. On November 13, reports surfaced of bids from several private equity firms, including Carlyle Group

, Blackstone Group

and TPG Capital. Allscripts closed at $12.27 Monday, a gain of 0.90% on higher than average volume.