Zynga plans to sell an 11.1 percent stake in a scaled-back initial public offering that would value the Facebook game maker at as much as $9 billion on a fully diluted basis.

For US Airways, the merger-hungry fifth-largest U.S. airline, a bankrupt American Airlines may present an irresistible takeover target, but many in the aviation world think the headaches and hassles of consolidation are not worth the payoff of such a tie-up.

Hedge funds are steering clear of the big bets they are famous for, rattled by worries that the lenders who bankroll their most lucrative plays will soon turn the taps off.

Warren Buffett appears to have traded in his heavy artillery for a pea shooter, reports The Street.

Led by this week’s global onslaught of deals, the mining industry yet again tops the list for weekly activity. Get an overview of the week in M&A, capital markets and syndicated loans from the Investment Banking Scorecard.

Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are preparing a bid for all of Yahoo with Asian partners in a deal that could value the Internet company at about $25 billion, a source familiar with the matter said.

“Yahoo’s directors are leaning toward selling a minority stake in the company to an investor group instead of selling the business outright, after a meeting of the company’s board on Wednesday, according to people briefed on the matter,” reports the NYT’s DealBook.

“AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG, the parent of T-Mobile USA, have discussed an alternative transaction—forming a joint venture that would pool network assets from the two U.S. wireless carriers—if their current acquisition deal falls apart,” the WSJ reports.

Bloomberg profiles Tom Horton, the new chief executive officer at AMR.

Facebook games developer Zynga is seeking a lower-than-expected $10 billion valuation for its initial public offering, which is to be priced on December 15, two people close to the process said.

Benzinga weighs in on the topic of the moment: What’s Facebook worth?

“A group of investors led by private- equity firm Silver Lake offered to buy a minority stake in Yahoo! Inc. for about $16.60 a share,” Bloomberg reports.

AT&T will struggle to find buyers for any asset sale big enough to salvage its $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA, with most likely buyers Leap Wireless and MetroPCS Communications lacking the cash, writes Sinead Carew.

Glencore  is in talks with Spanish refiner Cepsa on a merger of oil operations that would be a first major step towards transforming the commodity trader’s energy division into a vertically integrated oil company, industry sources said.

Canada’s competition regulator has dealt a sharp blow to a C$3.8 billion proposal to take over TMX Group, voicing “serious concerns” about a deal that would bring most of the country’s financial exchanges under one roof.

“Facebook has strong incentives to go public next year. But it may end up with an offering at a less-than-opportune time or a valuation of less than $100 billion. Facebook’s own choices have left it without full room to maneuver,” writes The Deal Professor.

American Airlines and its parent company AMR Corp filed for bankruptcy after failing to win a labor deal with pilots and suffering from mounting fuel costs.

Thomas H. Lee Partners is interested in buying the U.S. operations of Yahoo, breaking away from other bidders that are for now eyeing either a minority stake or teaming up with the Internet giant’s partners in Asia, sources familiar with the matter said.

Facebook is now targeting a time frame of April to June 2012 for a initial public offering, raising possibly $10 billion, the WSJ reports.

The chances of an AT&T-T-Mobile merger grow dimmer by the day, but there may yet be hope on the horizon for the telecommunications giants – next year’s election.

“Social gaming company Zynga is planning to begin its IPO road show this coming Monday,”  Fortune reports.

Mobile carrier KDDI Corp said it would sell up to $2.6 billion of convertible bonds and use the money to buy back its own shares from Tokyo Electric. Tokyo Electric is selling off assets under a restructuring plan to raise funds to compensate victims of the Fukushima crisis.

China is preparing to buy up plum assets in Europe, the commerce minister said, as the escalating debt crisis leaves countries in the region increasingly vulnerable to the deep pockets of Chinese firms.

Zynga’s tough work environment with its focus on metrics could cause a brain drain for the online game company, DealBook reports.

“What’s next for AT&T and T-Mobile? Not a merger in the near future,” reports The Washington Post.

ZDNet also looks at the T-Mobile deal and sees the wireless spectrum shortage as stopping AT&T from completely punting on the T-Mobile deal.

AT&T said it would take a $4 billion charge in case its takeover of T-Mobile USA fails, a tacit recognition of the dwindling chances that the deal will get through U.S. regulators. If the deal collapses, Deutsche Telekom may be forced to sell assets closer to home and take a knife to its cost base, reports Victoria Howley and Georgina Prodhan.

Australia’s government approved SABMiller’s $11.2 billion deal to acquire Foster’s Group under foreign acquisitions laws, but imposed conditions requiring the company to keep brewing operations in Australia.

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group could raise up to $2.83 billion, which would be the biggest Hong Kong initial public offering of the year, tapping volatile equity markets to fund the purchase of diamonds and gold and pay down debt.

Ahead of Zynga’s IPO, the San Jose Mercury News looks at what makes the company attractive.

Get a new perspective on the Olympus saga  in this interactive graphic.

Former Olympus Corp CEO Michael Woodford said that Tokyo police were best able to get to the truth behind one of Japan’s biggest accounting scandals, as speculation mounts of possible links to organized crime.

AT&T was dealt a blow as the top U.S. communications regulator sought to have its planned $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA sent to an administrative law judge for review.

“Battered Chinese companies listed in the U.S. or Singapore could be a feast for M&A bankers who see opportunities for take-private deals,” reports the WSJ’s Deal Journal.

Hedge funds are having a rough year, but the money keeps rolling in, reports the NYT’s DealBook.

For your morning distraction, The Reformed Broker rants about how he finds time to blog.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange will take over its smaller rival in Osaka in 2013 to create the world’s third-biggest bourse, aiming to build scale to cope with a weak home market and compete with a flurry of global tie-ups.

KKR and Japanese trading house Itochu Corp have joined forces in a roughly $7 billion bid for U.S. oil and gas group Samson Investment, in a rare link-up between a major private equity firm and a Japanese company.

Shanda Interactive  said it agreed to be taken private by a group led by its Chief Executive Tianqiao Chen and his family in a deal that values the Chinese Internet firm at $2.3 billion.

“Vodafone Group PLC’s India unit continues to consider an initial share sale and is also open to mergers and acquisitions in the country despite facing regulatory headwinds and a potential tax liability,” reports the WSJ.

Gilead Sciences struck a deal to buy Pharmasset for about $11 billion in a huge bet on hepatitis C treatments to diversify its portfolio.

Property and casualty insurer Alleghany said it would buy reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings for $3.4 billion in cash and stock, possibly putting an end to the months-long buyout battle for the reinsurer.

“Warren Buffett, who invested $23.9 billion for his Berkshire Hathaway in the third quarter, said the company could spend as much as $10 billion on its next acquisition,” Bloomberg reports.

“Delphi Automotive, the US car parts maker that went public last week after a long post-bankruptcy restructuring, is seeking acquisitions to boost its Asia-Pacific presence and expand its core businesses,” the Financial Times reports.

Ted Forstmann, the billionaire private equity investor and philanthropist, died on Sunday of brain cancer. He was 71.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext will sell some businesses and give rivals access to a major derivatives clearing house in concessions aimed at winning support from antitrust regulators for their $9 billion merger.

Suzuki and estranged partner Volkswagen seemed headed for arbitration, after VW once again refused to sell its 20 percent stake back to the Japanese carmaker and end a floundering two-year alliance.

Groupon opened the IPO window a crack earlier this month and now companies, including Yelp, Angie’s List and even social-gaming giant Zynga, are climbing through it.

Simon Johnson in the NYT asks: Why not break up Citigroup?

The Investment Banking Scorecard gives an overview of the week in M&A.