Notable Mergers and Acquisitions of the Day 09/30: (BP)/(CEO) (WOR) (ALR) (MHP)/(CME)

• Bloomberg reporting: BP's (NYSE: BP) $7.1 billion Argentina sale to CNOOC (NYSE: CEO) said to risk collapse.
  
  
• Worthington Industries, Inc. (NYSE: WOR) reports its Pressure Cylinders segment has purchased the assets of STAKO, a leading European producer of automotive liquefied propane gas (LPG) tanks, located in Slupsk, Poland.
  
  
  Detail from the release:
  
  "STAKO manufactures toroidal and cylindrical LPG tanks for storage of liquid gas propane-butane mixture for engines in passenger cars and commercial and delivery vehicles. The company has also initiated production of compress natural gas (CNG) composite and steel tanks used mainly for storage of compressed methane used to fuel automotive vehicles and buses. Other composite tanks are used for storage of compressed air for medicine, aeronautics breathing air for fire fighters, scuba diving and paintball. STAKO currently has 470 employees.
  
  Sales for the last 12 months were approximately $25 million USD."
  
  
• Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR), reports that on September 29, 2011, it has purchased an additional 5,443,771 shares of Axis-Shield stock, bringing its total current ownership position to 10,990,468 shares, or approximately 21.98%, of Axis-Shield's issued and outstanding ordinary share capital.
  
  The additional shares were purchased at a price per share of 460 pence (£4.60).
  
  
• McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) and CME Group (NYSE: CME) may be in talks for a landmark merger.
  
  According to reports Friday, the duo may be seeking to combine McGraw's Standard & Poor’s 500 Index with CME's Dow Jones Industrial Average.
  
  McGraw would end up with a 75 percent stake in the joint venture. CME would hold most of the rest, with News Corp (Nasdaq: NWSA), which has a minority stake in S&Ps, taking a small percentage.
  
  The duo have been in talks about the possible combination for about a year, Bloomberg notes, and have only recently brought News Corp in for discussion. An announcement about the combination may be just weeks away, sources told Bloomberg.
  
  Neither McGraw nor CME commented on the speculation.
  
  The Wall Street Journal first reported this speculation after the market closed on Thursday.

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