Four agreements were filed this past week for public company acquisitions with a deal value of at least $100 million. In the largest of these deals, on September 17, 2010, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) agreed to acquire database technology company Netezza Corporation in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.7 billion. Under certain circumstances, including if IBM terminates the agreement after Netezza withdraws its recommendation of the merger, Netezza must pay a $56 million (3.29% of the total deal value) break-up fee. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Also this week:

There were no initial public offerings this past week which met our criteria for coverage.

Three companies recently completed follow-on equity offerings, each issuing at least $50 million. Included among them was utility company UIL Holdings Corporation, which raised about $456 million in its offering of 17.7 million shares of common stock. The company plans to use the net proceeds to fund a portion of its pending acquisitions of Connecticut Energy Corp., CTG Resources Inc. and Berkshire Energy Resources, and for general corporate purposes.

In other follow-on equity offerings:

Risk factor of the week: "If we are held liable for clean up and other costs related to several businesses we exited, which handled hazardous and non-hazardous waste, such liability could adversely affect our business and financial condition" (from World Fuel Services Corporation Follow-on Equity Offering).

Links above are to summaries of deals contained in PLC What's Market. For additional examples of risk factors and summaries on current deal activity, see PLC What's Market, a continuously updated database of deals and filings that allows you to analyze and compare terms or features across multiple deals or filings and contains links to the underlying public documents.