Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Friday February 17, 2012

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Friday February 17, 2012:

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TNT Express N.V. (

) announced Friday that it has received an unsolicited non-binding and conditional proposal from United Parcel Service, Inc.

for the acquisition of the whole of the issued capital of TNT Express at an indicative price of € 9 per ordinary share. The TNT Express Supervisory and Executive Boards have carefully considered the indicative proposal and explored its rationale, merits and risks for shareholders and all other stakeholders. The TNT Express boards have rejected the proposal. They have informed UPS accordingly, but continue to be in discussions. TNT Express closed at $12.57 Friday, a gain of 55% on 17 million shares.

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Bowleven (BWLVF) acknowledged the announcement made earlier Friday by Dragon Oil (DRAGF) that it is in the preliminary stages of exploring a possible offer for the company. Bowleven will make any further announcement as may be required in due course. Bowleven closed at $2.00 Friday, a gain of 66% for the day on 7 times the average daily volume.

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Openwave Systems

could be a takeover target of Acacia Research

, according to Wedbush. Openwave has valuable patents related to mobile and cloud computing. Representatives of Openwave and Acacia Research could not be reached for comment. Openwave closed at $2.52 Friday, a gain of 10% for the day on 7 times the average daily volume.

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According to sources, du Pont

has approached Polypore International

with an offer of $65 per share. A Polypore spokesperson was unaware of an offer from du Pont. A representative of du Pont would not comment on the rumor. Polypore is in a quiet period until Feb 23, when earnings are released. The company's share price plummeted on January 31, when one of its customers, Korea's LG Chem, said it would enter the battery separator business, thus becoming a competitor. Polypore International closed at $40.40 Friday, a gain of 1.13% for the day on 1.25 the average daily volume.

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Intel

and NetApp

are among companies rumored to be pursuing a possible takeover of Fusion-io

. A spokesperson for Fusion-io could not be reached for comment. An Intel spokesperson would not comment on the rumor. An analyst who covers NetApp, told Benzinga he heard the company had been in lengthy discussions with Fusion-io. Fusion-io closed at $28.30 Friday, a gain of 13.52% for the day on 4 times the average volume.

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NiSource

is rumored to have received and rejected an offer of $28.50, according to the energy publication

. A spokesperson for NiSource would not comment on the rumor. NiSource closed at $23.79 Friday, a gain of 2.99% for the day on 4 times the average volume.