Nordic Merger Mania

Alecta confirms that it is in talks with other U.S. companies looking to offer more. "We've made no official statement today but our head of equities says the obvious next step is to talk to other interested parties," says Johan Andersen, press officer for the pension fund.

Laseen says AOL might offer up 5% to 10% more than its initial bid, while Alecta says it is premature to disclose what valuations it seeks for its stake in the search firm. TradeDoubler is a high-growth company and Alecta plans to speak to other shareholders at the company to arrive at a consensus.

On Wall Street, the deal was seen as refuting rumors Time Warner was looking to spin off AOL. But Laseen says that if AOL were to buy TradeDoubler, it would actually be much easier for Time Warner to sell the unit because of the additional top-line growth TradeDoubler would add. Advertising sales growth from online search is around 50% to 60% a year in Europe vs. just 20% in the U.S., according to Kaupthing. Global ad spend for Internet search last year was $14 billion, according to Optimedia. Of that, it's estimated that $10 billion comes from the U.S. while $3 billion comes from Europe.

Meanwhile, Arris agreed to pay 96 Swedish kronor a share for Tandberg Television, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. Shares in Tandberg on the Oslo Bors, where the company is listed, closed at 98.3 Swedish kronor today, up 0.31%.