Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Tuesday March 17, 2015

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Tuesday March 17, 2015:

:

The Macerich Company

announced that its Board of Directors, after consulting with its financial and legal advisors, unanimously determined that the unsolicited, conditional proposal from Simon Property Group, Inc.

to acquire the Company for $91.00 per share in cash and stock substantially undervalues Macerich and is not in the best interests of Macerich and its stockholders. Simon responded to the rejection by Macerich of Simon's proposal to acquire the outstanding shares of Macerich for $91.00 per share in cash and Simon shares, and Macerich's decision to classify its Board of Directors without a shareholder vote and adopt a poison pill. Macerich shares closed at $91.60 Tuesday, a loss of 3.5%.

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Shares of Whiting Petroleum Corp.

spiked higher Tuesday, on a unconfirmed market chatter that the company had cancelled out of a conference. There were reports late last week that several companies, including Hess Corporation

, Exxon Mobil Corporation

and Continental Resources, Inc.

, had expressed interest in acquiring all or part of Whiting. A spokesperson for the company told

Whiting had not cancelled out of any conference and next had planned to attend the Scotia Howard Weil Energy Conference, which takes place March 22-26. Whiting shares lost almost 3% Tuesday, closing at $37.62.

:

Shares of General Cable Corp.

spiked sharply higher Tuesday, prior to being halted on a circuit-breaker.

reported that Prysmian S.p.A.

had held preliminary talks with advisors about acquiring General Cable. Prysmian later told

they were evaluating opportunities, but there are no ongoing discussions with General Cable. General Cable shares gained 21% Tuesday, closing at $17.73.