First Foundation Inc, a financial services company offering clients in multiple locations in the US, has filed for an intended initial public offering of common stock with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The deal between Pfizer and AstraZeneca to acquire its London based business were halted with no plans to resume said sources who spoke in condition of anonymity as the matter was held private in nature.

Seven Energy International Limited has received $225 million equity capital from investors including Singapore's Temasek, IFC and the IFC ALAC Fund to be used for corporate affairs and boosting dometic energy markets in Nigeria.

Microsoft's deal to acquire Nokia valued $7.2 billion have been set to close on Friday which is also in time for the company's target saying that the deal was expected to close during the first quarter of 2014.

Avaz AAC has received USD500000 funding round led by Inventus Capital and other investors including Mumbai Angels, Raju Reddy of Sierra Atlantic and Google India MD's Rajan Anandan for the development of an app directed for those who have autism.

Beauty box sampler, Birchbox, has received USD60 million in Series C funding round led by Viking Global Investors and other financiers including Accel Partners, Consigliere Brand Capital, Aspect Partners and First Round Capital.

Oil and gas producer Seplat, the first publicly listed oil and gas firm in the Nigerian bourse, said that it would end its gas flaring activities in the country by September and expects that the practice would be halted in the country by 2020.

CFAO Auto Group has been looking at the potential car market in Nigeria following other multinational companies including Toyota, Nissan and Kia's entrance to the country through local partnership with distributors for car assembly and production.

AdRoll has taken in USD70 million Series C funding round led by Foundation Capital and other new and existing investors including Institutional Venture Partners, Glenmede, Northgate Capital, Performance Equity, Peter Thiel, Merus Capital and Accel Partners.

US-listed fund manager Carlyle has invested USD698 million to the sub-Saharan Africa region aiming to focus in the consumer, transport, ICT and financial sectors and adding to J&J Africa, its current investment in the country.

Doha Bank, a Qatar based lender, has entered into a definite acquisition agreement with HSBC Holdings Plc's HSBC Bank Oman to purchase its lending arm in India pending regulatory approvals in India, Jersey, Qatar and Oman.

The territorial dispute between China and Japan has caused the latter to pull out its investments from the country and redirecting its focus to other South East Asian countries where it has already funded companies with USD22.8 billion last year.

Two coincidental events took place as Weibo executives rejoiced the warm welcome it received from the international financial markets after its IPO on the NASDAQ and the release of venture capitalist and Weibo user Charles Xue.

Today, home-rental Airbnb has received a rare funding that reached a hefty USD500 million from a funding round from investors led by TPG, Dragoneer Investment Group and T. Rowe Price along with other mutual funds.

Preact announced releasing a new software platform that makes uses of "leading-edge behavioral science, machine learning, and big data analytics" along with receiving a Series A funding round valued USD4.6 million led by Trinity Ventures.

Tuition.io announced that it has received a new investor following its management of more than USD1 billion student loans and finding ways to monetize the site through ads posted on its blogs.

Chinese microblogging site Weibo has cut its offered IPO size after a shaky start taking in only USD286 million from 16.8 million depository shares sold which was far from the expectations on Wall Street.

AngelPad has been rearing startups prior to their public debut and today, during its Spring Demo Day, the company would launch 11 startups to a roomful of investors, techies and the media.

Encana Corp has been aiming to get CAD700 million from a planned IPO which was also seen to be the biggest sale of shares since 2010 in Canada's oil and gas industry.

Citymapper has raised USD10 million Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital and other investors including Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Connect Ventures.

SpringCM announced raising USD18 million led by Goff Capital, Foundation Capital and Square 1 Bank. The announcement was made today adding that the funding round would be used to expand company operations in sales and marketing division.

Lending Club gets new funds valued USD65 million and acquires Springstone Financial for USD140 million, from investors including Wellington Management Company, BlackRock, T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. and Sands Capital

Zoosk has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission an IPO valued USD100 million, reported TechCrunch.

International soccer star Didier Drogba has partnered with HOM to launch his clothing brand in May, a French clothing brand for men, reported Ventures Africa.

One Medical Group has received a USD40 million investment led by Redmile Group, led by Redmile Group and other previous investors of the company

The initial public offering of microblogging platform Weibo has only sold 16.8 million shares instead of its expected 20 million share sale, reported TechCrunch.

Yahoo Inc. would still get a hold of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd even after the Chinese e-commerce firm launches its public debut this year.

OwnZones Media Network has raised USD5.9 million new funding without disclosing names of its investors, to generate income instead of packing up the entire content of a site with advertisements

British billionaire Richard Branson has signed a deal to acquire Rochelle Hotel and Mountain Vineyard, which would add to his luxury hotel collections.

Hapag-Lloyd AG has agreed to buy Cia. Sud Americana de Vapores SA in a deal that would create the fourth biggest shipping firm in the world.