Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday December 31, 2012

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Monday December 31, 2012:

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Duff & Phelps

announced Sunday that it had entered into a definitive merger agreement under which a consortium comprising controlled affiliates of or funds managed by The Carlyle Group

, Stone Point Capital LLC, Pictet & Cie and Edmond de Rothschild Group will acquire the company for $15.55 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $665.5 million. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2013. Duff & Phelps closed at $15.62 Monday, a gain of 19% on 20 times average volume.

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Starbucks

announced Monday that the company's planned acquisition of Teavana Holdings

has formally closed, making Teavana a wholly-owned subsidiary of Starbucks. Starbucks acquired Teavana for an aggregate acquisition price of approximately $620 million in cash and is expecting the acquisition to be accretive to earnings by approximately $0.01 per share in fiscal year 2013, based upon the previously announced earnings targets. Teavana shareholders of record will receive $15.50 per share in cash. Starbucks closed at $53.63 Monday, a gain of almost 2% on lower than average volume.

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The Middleby Corporation

announced Monday the acquisition of Viking Range Corporation (“Viking”) for $380 million in cash. A conference call has been scheduled for 10:30 AM ET on January 2, 2013 to discuss the Viking acquisition. Middleby closed at $128.21 Monday, a gain of 2% on average volume.