Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Thursday March 29, 2012

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Thursday March 29, 2012:

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Sears Holdings

is seeking a buyer for its Lands' End brand, according to the

. Sears paid $1.86 billion for Lands' End in 2002. Chairman Eddie Lampert, who took control of the company in 2005, is looking to get as much as $2 billion in a sale of the brand. Sears Holdings closed at $67.55 Thursday, a loss of 2.09% on 67% of the average daily volume.

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HeartWare International

and World Heart Corporation

announced Wednesday that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which HeartWare will acquire WorldHeart for consideration of $8 million, which will be paid in shares of HeartWare common stock or cash, at HeartWare's election. Under the merger agreement, each share of WorldHeart common stock will either be converted into the right to receive the number of shares of HeartWare common stock equal to the quotient determined by dividing per share merger consideration by the average of the per share closing prices of HeartWare common stock on NASDAQ during the ten consecutive trading days ending on (and including) the trading day that is one calendar day prior to the date of the closing of the transaction or cash equal to the per share merger consideration at HeartWare's election. The per share merger consideration will be determined by dividing $8 million by the number of shares of WorldHeart common stock outstanding on a fully diluted basis (excluding out of the money options and warrants and warrants subject to a put right), or approximately $0.29 per share at today's fully diluted WorldHeart common stock outstanding. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the transaction. The transaction is subject to the approval of WorldHeart's stockholders and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. HeartWare stockholder approval is not required. World Heart closed at $0.27 Thursday, a gain of 1.48% on light volume. HeartWare closed at $66.72 Thursday, a gain of 0.17% on average volume.

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Fusion-IO

has hired Morgan Stanley as an adviser to explore strategic alternatives, according to sources. Fusion-IO has been the subject of frequent takeover chatter involving companies which include Intel

and Apple

. A spokesperson for Fusion-IO was not available for comment. Fusion-IO closed at $29.09 Thursday, a gain of 0.03% on slightly more than half the average daily volume.

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KIT digital

is reportedly in the process of selling itself, according to a note Thursday from Roth Capital. A KIT digital spokesperson was aware of the Roth report, but would not comment on the sale rumor. He did tell Benzinga, "as a management team our focus and energy is on our 2500 customers and our almost 1500 employees around the globe". KIT digital closed at $7.20 Thursday, a gain of 10.6% on 3 times the average daily volume.