VENTURE CAPITAL POST

SecondMarket founder and chief executive Barry Silbert claimed in an article on Entrepreneur that Wall Street will soon invest their money in hundreds of millions into Bitcoin.

Israeli water meter developer Arad Group is in advanced talks to buy a 50% stake in a Mexican water-measuring company, a Bloomberg report said. The deal is reportedly worth $10 million and is expected to be closed early next year.

US-based EchoStar Corp. said it had ended talks with Vivendi SA's subsidiary Global Village Telecom on a proposed partnership in Brazil. The joint venture aims to provide pay TV services in the Latin American country.

EY director Colin Pickard said Bitcoin has the potential to be a game changer in the financial services industry as long as governments start regulating the digital currency.

French automobile manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen is nearing a €3.5 billion share sale deal with Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor Co. and the government of France. Under the terms of the deal, Dongfeng and the French state will each hold a 20% stake in Peugeot.

Luxury fashion house Chanel has acquired the Bodin-Joyeux tannery based in Levrous, France, in a bid to maintain the world-class quality of the fashion company's leathers.

Total, Europe's third-biggest oil company, will purchase a 61.3% stake in InterOil Corp.'s liquified natural gas project in Papua New Guinea. The acquisition deal is worth USD3.6 billion.

French building materials business Materis is reportedly in an advanced stage of negotiations to sell its business unit Kerneos. Investment firm Astorg Partners will acquire Kerneos for EUR610 million.

The Chinese government on Thursday cleared the USD1.3 billion car-making joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and France's Renault. Under the deal, the two companies will manufacture 150,000 multi-purpose vehicles annually.

Ireland's Ryanair on Tuesday announced that it won't participate in Italian airline Alitalia's EUR300 million emergency cash call. Other carriers including Lufthansa, Etihad Airways, Aeroflot and Alitalia shareholder Air France-KLM have also turned down the deal.

La Redoute chief executive Nathalie Balla and Redcats finance chief Eric Courteille have reportedly made a joint bid to acquire Kering's loss making mail order business La Redoute.

ONGC Videsh Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's overseas arm, has bid for 3 out of 13 Sri Lankan oil and gas blocks in the Mannar basin.

France will move closer towards relaxing restrictions on Sunday opening for shops when a government-commissioned report on proposed reforms is released on Monday.

UK-based advertising firm M&C Saatchi divested a controlling stake of 75.1% in Walker Media for GBP36 million. M&C Saatchi sold its holding to French multinational advertising and public relations company Publicis.

France's two largest petroleum and electric utility firms are vying to develop two 500-megawatt wind projects near Le Treport in France. The French government opened the bidding earlier this year to attract investments of about EUR3.5 billion.