Under The Radar News - Friday

• Budding bid. Giant brewer InBev is attempting to put together a $46B bid for Anheuser-Busch (BUD), a move that would create the fifth-largest consumer products group in the world. InBev expects an initially cold reception, but thinks Busch would ultimately warm to a bid. BUD shares are trading up 6.8% at 10:30 AM.
• Harris actively pursued. According to DealReporter, Harris Corp. (HRS) is in talks with multiple suitors, who are very interested in a potential deal at a price range of $70-75 (current price $64).
• Bill Miller still undecided on Icahn. Legg Mason's (LM) Bill Miller hasn't decided whether he wants to support Carl Icahn's dissident Yahoo (YHOO) board slate. Miller's fund controls a 5.4% stake in Yahoo. He would like Microsoft (MSFT) to buy Yahoo, not just a search ad join-up. "Microsoft would be crazy to give up this opportunity that we've handed them in this fight," Icahn said recently.
• Drivers turn thrifty. U.S. drivers drove 4.3% less miles this March than last, a sign Americans are indeed cutting back in the face of soaring gasoline prices. It marks the first March decline since 1979.
• Move over Tupperware. The latest trend in home sales parties: Tasers (TASR). The company's Lady Taser comes in nine colors. Women say it feels "empowering."
• Munis come back down to earth. Muni bond yields fell to a three-month low of 4.52%, down from February highs of 5.11%. "Sanity has returned to the credit markets, and that's flowed over to the muni market as well," Baird fixed-income analyst Craig Elder says. Auction-rate debt market remain largely frozen.
• Airlines mull baggage tax. UAL (UAUA), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Northwest Airlines (NWA) and Continental Airlines (CAL) are all scratching their heads as to how to react to AMR's (AMR) new $15 first-checked-bag surcharge.
• Flight delays cost $41B. Domestic flight delays cost U.S. carriers and their clients $40.7B in 2007. "The staggering levels of delays experienced in 2007 and the significant costs these delays had on the U.S. economy are troublesome," Sen. Charles Schumer said. Noteworthy, the report says the government is largely to blame, due to its foot-dragging over switching air-traffic control from radar to satellite.
• BCE buyout failure could boost LBO market. One unexpected benefit of a potential collapse in BCE's (BCE) $53B private-equity buyout: It would eliminate $16.8B from the U.S. LBO backlog, a full 20.6%, which could in turn help the debt's depressed prices bounce back. "It's the largest piece of the pipeline out there and would be a boost to the market," CreditSights Chris Taggert says. Bondholders unexpectedly won a court decision Wednesday that allows them to challenge the deal, effectively blockading it.
• Nvidia to acquire RayScale. Nvidia (NVDA) is on the verge of announcing the acquisition of RayScale, a ray-tracing software company. The move may advance Nvidia's stance on merging traditional rasterization with ray tracing.
• Arcelor eyes Russian company. ArcelorMittal (MT) is in talks to acquire its first Russian factory. "They are interested in producing steel plates and pressed parts for the automotive industry. St. Petersburg is a good place because of a big sea port and the ease of importing steel," a source says. MT is the world's #1 steel maker.