Social media giant Facebook acquired New York, US-based social conversations platform Branch Media in a deal reportedly worth $15 million to form a Facebook Conversations group.

Argentina-based investment group Corporacion America reached an agreement to buy the stake of entrepreneur Eike Batista in SIX Semicondutores, a Brazil-based billion-dollar semiconductor project, for an undisclosed sum.

Investors pulled out money from hedge funds at the fastest rate for more than four years in December, following a year in which many managers' performance disappointed, new data showed on Monday.

The Government Accountability Office said the spinoff of SAIC Inc invalidated the health services contract awarded to it by the National Aeronautics Space Administration, Bloomberg reported.

Maersk Oil, a unit of Denmark-based oil and shipping magnate AP Moller-Maersk, received approval from the Iraqi government to purchase stakes in two exploration blocks from Spanish firm Repsol Oriente Medio for an undisclosed sum.

Charter Communications Inc has made a formal offer for the third time to acquire Time Warner Cable but the bid was rejected. The company now intends to take the offer straight to the shareholders of Time Warner Cable, Reuters reported.

California, US-based call marketing company Invoca raised $20 million in a Series C funding round led by Accel Partners for its workforce expansion and product development.

Institutional investors contributed $216.56 billion to US private equity funds last year, a sign of their renewed confidence in the asset class, a report from Private Equity Beat of The Wall Street Journal Blogs said.

Singapore-based lender Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) will spend around CNY1.8 billion ($298 million) to increase its stake in China-based firm Bank of Ningbo Co from 15.34% to 20%.

Globalive's Wind Mobile has pulled out from a major Canadian wireless spectrum auction after its European backer Vimpelcom Ltd opted not to finance its participation.