The wave of mergers and acquisitions is good news for investment bankers and for the executives who have guaranteed their own futures with, say, Jim Beam, from the acquirer. It is also good for their shareholders if the acquirer overpays (and they often do so). But is this M&A wave good news for the economy overall, and for jobs lower down the hierarchy? I think organic growth would be healthier.

And even better is when companies suing each other in court over soured deals or patents manage to negotiate a settlement which allows them to abandon the lawyers and just do business together again. The way is clear for growth when this happens.

And it did happen with two of our companies this week, discussed below along with news from North Korea, Mongolia, Myanmar, The Netherlands, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, Israel, India, Ireland, Finland, Africa, and elsewhere. Double issue today from wet but warm London.

*To start reporting on the deals, Yandex, of the Netherlands, which offers search in Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. YNDX which controls c60% of Russian search, yesterday made a deal with Facebook (FB) to link its search to social media. This will help Facebook fight the dominance of mail.ru's Vkontaktye which we already own a stake in via Naspers, NPSNY of South Africa. The terms of the FB deal were not released but no cash is changing hands. Earlier Facebook blocked a social media app by Yandex citing intellectual property.

Yandex was called the “Cabot Stock of the Month” by Timothy Lutts today.

*The second fight settled by an agreement pitted Cosan of Brazil, maker of sugar and ethanol, via a transport sub called Rumo Logistico against America Latina Logistica (ALL). Rumo invested the equivalent of $380 mn in ALL in 2012 and then sued because the funding did not result in ALL being able to handle the freight it was supposed to. The two settled but terms were not disclosed earlier this week. CZZ.

*Bauer Performance Sports reported on its fiscal 2013-4 Q2, in US rather than Canadian dollars. Its overall sales were up 7% but 9% in constant currencies to $117.1mn. What really got BRRPF going was not hockey, but lacrosse, played by Claude's younger sister, Ella. Thanks to the Cascades helmet protecting her head and those of her teammates, lacrosse sales were up 14%. The other growth area was apparel (uniforms and special protective clothing), up 60% year over year. Hockey equipment sales were okay but profits were nipped by selling more to teams than individuals (meaning lower markup) and BRRPF having to pay more freight. The margin elvel fell to 33.8% from 36.2% yoy and net income rose all over 3% to $7.5 mn or 20 cents/sh, essentially flat.

*GlaxoSmithKline got an important FDA “breakthrough” designation as for its Tafinlar treatment for certain forms on lung cancer based on phase II trials. It is for use to treat metastatic BRAF V600E mutation-positive non-small cell lung caners which have been treated with platinum chemotherapy, and not others.

GSK also turned back to the developer Prosensa the exon-skipping drug drisapersen that they were working on for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, presumably because it doesn't work.

*Dr Reddy's and Oregon's Galena created a partnership for the latter's NeuVax cancer treatment in phase 2B for the Indian market. It will be used for low-Her2Neu breast cancer treatment, at levels below 3 for the Her2Neu marker and also against gastric cancers. NeuVax is the Galena name for cytotoxic T-lymphocytes which bind to cancer cells, and it will be paid double digit milestones whose amount was not revealed. RDY is following TEVA in getting out of merely doing generics.

*After its revelation that biosimilars do not work the same way as Copaxone, whose patents expire in April, Teva stock duly rose. It managed to win a patent case in US courts against Purdue which sued the Israeli generics maker for patent infringement over Oxycontin. Teva won the case and did not do a deal with Purdue.

*Meanwhile in chronic pain treatment, Mallinckrodt of Ireland agreed to work with Medtronics, a US firm for MNK develop drugs which can be delivered intrathecally by MNK's programmable infusion system. They also will work on spasticity treatments together. Terms were not disclosed. MNK was spun off last year by Covidien (COV) and this was a loose end.

Covidien meanwhile is moving into emerging markets as a general strategy outlined by CEO Jose Almeida (to fiercemedicaldevices, a website). Its first minor deals were taking over WEM Equipamentos Electronicas Ltda, a private Brazilian maker of electro-surgical devices and disposables; and Changzhou Kangdi Medical Staples in China. COV also is investing in an Irish startup from The Foundry alongside venture capitalists in FIRE1 of Dublin, a medical devices incubator.

*Chicago Bridge & Iron of Holland and Chiyoda of Japan announced that they are jointly creating a North American liquefied natural gas facility for exporting gas, without saying where it will be or how much it will cost. I suspect Canada will be the site. CBI and Chiyoda work together in Australia, Russia, and South Africa already.

*Nokia and Continental, a former tire firm now making car equipment, will create a connected auto system for self- and driver use combining NOK's HERE map and location system with technology from Continental. Raymond James put an underperform rating on NOK with a $7 target price. I disagree.

*Telefonica is providing spare 3G capacity to Nextel in Brazil and Mexico but the terms of the TEF-NII deals were not disclosed. TEF was raised to market perform from underperform by broker Raymond James.

*Paddy Power plc reportedly is being hurt by too many sevens coming up in recent sporting results. Gamblers like to bet on 7, and the bookie wound up paying out more than expected. PDYPF is also said to have violated sanctions by funding presents for North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un and his wife for whatever Communists celebrated Dec. 25, 2013. These were brought to North Korea by Dennis Rodman. PDYPF disputes an estimate that the goodies were worth $10,000 or more but did confirm that Jameson's Irish whisky was among the presents. Jameson's is also Irish and young Kim is known to like his drink.

*Colombia's Ecopetrol (EC) got nearly $245 mn in long-term credits from the US Export-Import Bank, announced earlier. This will pay for investments for transporting and refining crude oil.

*After Peter Munk resigned from the board of Barrick Gold, dissident shareholders want to force the resignation of Anthony Munk, his son. ABX was downgraded to a sell by Canaccord with a $17.50 target price vs a neutral rating and a $20 TP earlier. We only own the ABX bond which was recommended today in DickDavisDividendDigest quoting my article, having sold the share for Barrick NAm Financial 4.4% of 5/31/2021 US$ bonds.

*Canaccord favors another gold stock, Iam Gold, IAG, where it set a $6 target price (vs $5) and rates it buy.

*The Financial Times reports that Mongolia is developing a national football (soccer) team, hiring British team-startup expert to find players for Ulaanbaator's Bayangol Football Klub. Commented Martin Ferera: “if they have leisure for this it must be good for YAK”. YAK is the Canada symbol for Mongolian Growth Group, MNGGF in the US, which develops commercial property in Mongolia.

*Myanmar, our other frontier market, is allowing international companies to register with a single step beginning in May. The current process to get licenses to trade, offered starting in 2012, can take up to a year to be completed, and involves multiple examinations. The new method will require only a single ruling. Applications have risen 500% since the rule was created. We are present through Yoma Strategic Holdings, YMAIF.

*Cameco was raised to buy from neutral by BofA-Merrill, with a $22 target price. Earlier it was $20. CCJ mines uranium and is Canadian. I am not sure which kind of dollars are involved.

*We got a dividend from Africa Opportunity Fund, AROFF in the USA, AOF in London.  Of course I own the USA versions of any stock we tip which trades across borders. But in London you can read up on the fund in The Financial Times which doesn't publish info about even closed-end funds in its US edition fearing regulators. In fact it is perfectly legal for Americans to buy foreign listed CEFs once their shares are 90 days past their IPO. It is open-end funds which US retail investors are banned from buying.