Pfizer will present a nearly $4 billion offer for Germany’s Ratiopharm this week, sources tell Reuters, launching a possible bidding war with Teva Pharmaceutical and Actavis. A decision is unlikely before the end of the month.

Hedge fund Elliot Associates offers to buy Novell Inc — the world’s No. 2 maker of Linux — sending its shares up 28 percent. Speculation is that other bidders could come in and drive the price up further.

Britain’s Prudential seems to have stopped its decline after it announced a $35.5 billion takeover of AIA — the Asian life insurance business of AIG. The stock dropped a fifth since the Pru announced its offer, but it’s now bounced a percent or so.

For these deals stories — and all others — click here.

Plus, in other media:

Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi is in talks with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen about extending an alliance but a capital tie-up is not on the agenda,  La Tribune newspaper says.

At the Private Equity and Hedge Funds Summit, Primus co-CEO Robert Morse tells Reuters the opportunities in real estate in the U.S. are extraordinary. The $1.2 billion financial investment firm is now setting its sights on property owned by distressed sellers in the United States.

Here is a selection of the best stories from today’s summit:
BC Partners boss sees mini-bubble brewing
CQS raises $750 million for convertibles
BC Partners to court sovereign fund investors
Toscafund says UK stocks’ low value “absurd”

From the Web:

Buffett Casts a Wary Eye on Bankers (NYT)
“”Don’t ask the barber whether you need a haircut.” That little nugget was buried in Warren E. Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders published over the weekend.” – NYT

This Year’s Huge (So Far) M&A Deals And The Lawyers Masterminding Them (Business Insider)
A slide show of the big deals and the lawyers behind them.

M&A Is Back (Seeking Alpha)
“Merger activity is picking up once again, although the transactions are quite different from most of the deals done in 2005 and 2006″  – Charles Lieberman at Seeking Alpha

IPO Market Vigilantes: Narrowing the Valuation Disconnect (Renaissance Capital LCC)
“While the current period of poor IPO performance may leave buyers feeling burned, history demonstrates that such imbalances are short-lived.” – Renaissance Capital, Greenwich, CT (www.renaissancecapital.com).

What Happened To The Startup IPO? (Business Insider)
“What you are seeing is large holding companies come in and basically take the place of the public markets in several instances and sort of provide semi-exits.” – Business Insider video