Stock Watch:21st Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA), Discovery held preliminary merger talks, says AFR, Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI), Google(Nasdaq:GOOG)

Citing sources, the Australian Financial Review has reported that 21st Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA), executives met with their counterparts at Discovery Communications (DISCA) nearly two weeks ago to discuss a possible takeover offer. According to these sources, discussions were "nascent" and talks are in the "very, very early days." A spokesperson for 21st Century Fox has denied talks took place.

 

Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI), H3 Biomedicine announce collaboration. Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI) has announced a multi-year collaboration with H3 Biomedicine for the discovery and development of precision medicines in oncology. The collaboration marries Foundation Medicine’s comprehensive genomic knowledgebase of more than 35,000 genomic profiles, FoundationCORE, with H3 Biomedicine’s drug discovery engine and computational biology platform. The approach aims to identify potential drug targets based on the unique genomic dependencies of individual cancers, rapidly accelerate clinical development, and lead to the commercialization of new, safe and effective precision medicines for individuals living with cancer. Under the terms of the agreement, H3 Biomedicine will pay Foundation Medicine a technology access fee for identification of target concepts arising from FoundationCORE and success milestones for selection, validation, clinical progression, and commercialization of products developed from the program. In addition, Foundation Medicine is eligible to receive royalties on sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.

 

Google(Nasdaq:GOOG) has reached initial agreement with Italian regulators, WSJ reports. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, Italy's data-privacy regulator has reached a preliminary agreement with Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) that mandates quarterly updates on its privacy and data collection policies, as well as allowing Italy to send privacy officers to spot-check the company's California offices. The report has cited regulator statements. Google must be in full compliance by January 2016.