Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Thursday January 31, 2013

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Thursday January 31, 2013:

:

The US Department of Justice is bringing suit in an attempt to block the sale of Grupo Modelo

to Anheuser-Busch InBev

. Anheuser-Busch InBev had agreed to sell Modelo's stake in Crown Imports in order to get the deal done, but the Justice Department did not feel this was enough to protect customers. Grupo Modelo owns Crown Imports jointly with Constellation Brands

. Shares of all three companies fell sharply on the news. Anheuser-Busch InBev and Constellation Brands both issued statements and indicated their dissatisfaction with the DOJ decision. Neither expects the deal to close in Q1 2013. Anheuser-Busch InBev closed at $88.60 Thursday, a loss of 6% on 15 times average volume. Constellation Brands closed at $32.36 Thursday, a losss of 17% on 20 times average volume.

:

Scientific Games Corporation

and WMS Industries

announced Thursday that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which Scientific Games has agreed to acquire WMS for $26.00 in cash per common share or approximately $1.5 billion. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. WMS Industries closed at $24.75 Thursday, a gain of 51% on 44 times average volume.