Ferrero bid

Ferrero is ‘very serious’ about mounting a rival bid for Cadbury, a source close to the situation told The Post. Meanwhile, there were several re ports yesterday the Ital ian chocolate maker was lining up a $4.5 billion loan to finance an offer that would best Kraft’s $17 billion proposal.

Deal brewing

Heineken is nearing a deal to buy the beer busi ness of Femsa in Mexico for about $8 billion, according to WSJ.com, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal would bring the Dutch brewer into closer com petition with Anheuser- Busch InBev in Mexico and Brazil. Femsa brands include Tecate and Dos Equis.

Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines is prepar ing for what may be the country’s sixth- largest bankruptcy as Prime Min ister Yukio Hatoyama breaks with predecessors who bailed out the carrier three times in the past nine years.

Google guilt

Google wants to apolo gize for its poor commu nication with Chinese au thors about scanning their books into its online library and is ready to work out a settlement to allay copyright concerns, a China-based writer’s group said yesterday.