Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Thursday January 24, 2013

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Thursday January 24, 2013:

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Shares of Research in Motion

moved sharply higher Thursday on comments from Lenovo's CFO, Wong Wai regarding potential takeover targets and strategic relationships. Wai mentioned RIMM as one possible opportunity, but not the only one. A spokesperson for Lenovo told Benzinga the report from

was overstated with regard to Research in Motion, and said Lenovo does look at all opportunities, as a responsible public company would. Research in Motion closed at $17.74 Thursday, a gain of 2% on 2.5 times average volume.

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JC Penney

was once again the subject of takeover chatter on Thursday. Unconfirmed market sources reported that Cerberus is looking into a transaction valued at $5.2 billion. Spokespersons for JC Penney and Cerberus were not available for comment. JC Penney closed at $19.12 Thursday, a gain of 4% on higher than average volume.

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First Solar

was the subject of takeover chatter once again on Thursday. Siemens

, frequently mentioned, along with GE

, was the rumored buyer. First Solar closed at $30.30 Thursday, a loss of 2.73% on lower than average volume.

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Amazon.com

announced Thursday, that it has acquired leading text-to-speech technology company IVONA Software. IVONA delivers world-class technologies that power the “Text-to-Speech,” “Voice Guide” and “Explore by Touch” features on Kindle Fire tablets. Additionally, IVONA delivers text-to-speech products and services for thousands of developers, businesses and customers around the world. Amazon closed at $273.62 Thursday, a gain of 2% on average volume.