Pell mell Dell

A special committee of Dell’s board is evaluating separate takeover proposals from Blackstone Group and billionaire investor Carl Icahn to decide whether either or both are likely to trump an existing $24.4 billion take-private deal, a source familiar with the discussions said yesterday. Icahn and Blackstone put in preliminary bids late last week, potentially upsetting the plans of the No. 3 PC-maker’s founder, Michael Dell, and private equity firm Silver Lake to take Dell private. Dell could make an announcement as soon as today about whether either of the rival offers were reasonably likely to lead to a superior bid, a source said.

Tax havens

The US has asked Liechtenstein to hand over data on foundations that may have been used to hide untaxed American money from the IRS, a step that may threaten Swiss banks.

Fuelling China

Sinopec of China agreed to form a joint venture that will acquire $3 billion in oil and gas assets held by its state-owned parent in Kazakhstan, Colombia and Russia.