Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday November 12, 2012

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Monday November 12, 2012:

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Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE:

) and Jefferies Group (NYSE:

) announced Monday that the Boards of Directors of both companies have approved a definitive merger agreement under which Jefferies' shareholders (other than Leucadia, which currently owns approximately 28.6% of the Jefferies outstanding shares) will receive 0.81 of a share of Leucadia common stock for each share of Jefferies common stock they hold. This exchange is intended to be tax-free to Jefferies' shareholders. The merger is expected to close during the first quarter of 2013. Jefferies Group closed at $16.27 Monday, a gain of 14.02% on 10 times average volume.

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j2 Global (NASDAQ:

) announced Monday that it had acquired Ziff Davis. The acquisition provides j2 a series of world-class web properties, including PCMag.com, ComputerShopper, ExtremeTech, Toolbox.com and Geek.com. The purchase price was approximately $167 million, net of certain post-closing adjustments, and was funded out of j2's cash on hand. The transaction is anticipated to be immediately accretive and to contribute approximately $60 million to 2013 revenues. After giving effect to this transaction, j2 has over $300 million in cash and investments. j2 Global closed at $30.18 Monday, a gain of 2.79% on twice average volume.

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Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:

) announced Monday it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Consorcio Comex with headquarters in Mexico City . Sherwin-Williams will pay approximately $2.34 billion, including assumed debt, in an all-cash transaction. Completion of the acquisition is subject to certain conditions and customary regulatory approvals. Sherwin-Williams closed at $149.06 Monday, a gain of 5.84% on 3.5 times average volume.

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Shares of True Religion Apparel (NASDAQ:

) spiked higher Monday on unconfirmed market chatter of possible private equity interest. On October 10, 2012, the Board of Directors announced a Special Committee to explore and evaluate potential strategic alternatives available to the Company, including a possible sale. A spokesperson for True Religion was not available for comment. True Religion Apparel closed at $26.49 Monday, a gain of 2.40% on higher than average volume.