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The fund topped an offer by the Texas Pacific Group, which had structured a turnaround plan.

Blockbuster, the video-rental chain, made a $1.3 billion hostile bid for Hollywood Entertainment yesterday, topping an offer by Movie Gallery.

Williams made a lot of money, notably his seven-year, $87.5 million contract after the 1998 season when the Yankees had to top an offer from the Red Sox.

The takeover strategist bid $44 million for the company, topping an offer of $43.5 million by Meshulam Riklis and other bidders.

The bid values Canary Wharf, the London real estate group, at $2.5 billion, topping an offer from the Brascan Group.

As an illustration of the clubbiness of the private equity business, no private equity firm to date has publicly tried to top an offer from one its rivals.

The bid from Mr. Wasserstein's family trust topped an offer from a group of investors led by Mortimer B. Zuckerman, which had been considered the favorite.

Qintex Ltd. of Australia said that it had agreed to acquire MGM for $25 a share, topping an offer by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

The commission asked the Spanish government to explain whether it had modified rules in February to block E.On's bid, which topped an offer of 20.1 billion euros by Gas Natural.

The Brazilian offer, worth 475 pence a share, tops an offer of 455 pence a share from India's Tata Steel that Corus had agreed to last month.

The consortium's bid for Univision, the fifth-largest television network in the country, behind Fox, topped an offer from a rival group led by Grupo Televisa, the Mexican broadcast giant.

That bid, topping an offer of $2.2 billion from the oil executive Oscar S. Wyatt and his partners, should allow Enron to close a sale of CrossCountry by September.

The retailer Coles Myer raised its bid for the pub and liquor store operator Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, topping an offer made Monday by a rival bidder, Woolworths.

A. Benckiser G.m.b.H., the German maker of cosmetics and detergents, had offered $37 cash a share in a takeover bid, topping an offer from L'Oreal S.A. of France.

It raises his bid to $:265 million ($429 million), topping an offer by the Du Pont Company of Wilmingtom, Del., and the Fuji Photo Film Company of Japan.

The recent bid by Cnooc topped an offer of $16.8 billion made in April by Chevron, but threatens to be derailed by American lawmakers opposed to oil and gas assets being snapped up by a Chinese company.

The drama for control of the Tribune Company intensified last night as two Los Angeles billionaires put in a last-minute bid, topping an offer from the Chicago real estate magnate, Sam Zell, by a dollar a share.

When the bidding was over, Tata Steel stepped away as the winner in a heated battle for its European rival, the Corus Group, topping an offer from Brazil's Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional.

The consortium won the support of 64 percent of Hanaro's shareholders, topping an offer made by a rival consortium led by a South Korean conglomerate, the LG Group, which already holds an 18 percent stake in Hanaro.

The emirate of Dubai raised its offer for Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, the British port operator, to £3.88 billion ($6.9 billion), topping an offer made earlier on Thursday by PSA International of Singapore.

The two topped a bid by Rogers Communications Inc. of Toronto.

The offer topped a bid from Audio/Video Affiliates.

Seagram raised its bid for Martell, topping a bid made by Grand Metropolitan.

On Monday the company decided not to top a bid for Maybelline by L'Oreal S.A.

Companies West Point-Pepperell made a higher offer for J. P. Stevens, topping a bid already approved by the Stevens board of directors.

ESPN outbid several other cable networks for the rights, narrowly topping a bid from Ted Turner's new TNT network.

Jay Pritzker presented Texas Air with an offer for Eastern Airlines, topping a bid from Peter V. Ueberroth.

The offer would top a bid of $275 a share made by Marvin Davis, a West Coast investor, who lost a bid to take over Northwest Airlines.

ABP and PGGM topped a bid from GIMV to acquire the listed investment fund.

Great-West Life, the only one of the big five that was not a mutual company, bought London Life in 1997, topping a bid by the Royal Bank of Canada.

The Amdahl offer tops a bid by IBM Canada Ltd., a unit of I.B.M., which offered $11 (Canadian) a share.

Companies First Financial Management made a bid valued at $1.07 billion for Western Union Financial Services, the world's largest money-transfer business, topping a bid by Forstmann Little.

The new Kohlberg, Kravis offer topped a bid made public just hours earlier by Robert Maxwell, the British entrepreneur, who had raised his bid to $89 a share, from $86.80.

In Arizona, for instance, the BankAmerica Corporation acquired the insolvent Western Savings and Loan Association, the state's second-largest savings unit, topping a bid by the Security Pacific Corporation.

Another is "a small shake of the head, like a bidder at an auction responding in the negative when the auctioneer meets his eyes as a way of asking whether he wants to top a bid that has just topped his."

Separately, IPC Holdings' $943 million offer for Tempest Reinsurance tops a bid made earlier this year by ACE Ltd., another Bermuda insurance concern that offered about $640 million in cash and stock.

The offer of 387 pence a share, valuing PizzaExpress at the equivalent of $436 million, topped a bid of 367 pence from the company's co-founder and former chairman, Luke Johnson, who holds 8.7 percent of the chain's stock.

Vornado Realty Trust appeared to have the edge yesterday as it raised its bid to $56 a share in cash and stock, or $41 billion, topping a bid of $54 a share from the private equity giant Blackstone Group.

Tops $187 Million Offer The Texas offer tops a bid made less than two weeks ago by Eddie Antar, the founder and chairman of Crazy Eddie, and the Belzberg family of Canada.

Jay Pritzker, the Chicago financier, yesterday presented the Texas Air Corporation with a proposal to acquire Eastern Airlines, and his offer apparently topped a bid made by the departing baseball commissioner, Peter V. Ueberroth, and a partner.

He burst into the public consciousness in August, when his real estate investment company, Michigan Avenue Partners - or, more accurately, its McCook Metals subsidiary - offered to top a bid by Alcoa Inc. to buy Reynolds Metals.

Scrambling to increase oil production abroad as it faces tougher competition at home, Eni S.p.A., Italy's state-controlled oil company, offered $3.96 billion today for Lasmo P.L.C., topping a bid from its American rival Amerada Hess.

The offer made by QVC's chairman, Barry Diller, topped a bid by Viacom Inc. that was valued at $8.2 billion when it was made last week but has since sunk in value to $7.5 billion as Viacom's stock has fallen.

Albemarle Increases Bid for Albright Albemarle increased its friendly bid for Albright & Wilson, the maker of phosphates for detergents, to $810 million from $657 million, topping a bid from Rhodia.

Future Shop, based in Burnaby, British Columbia, offered 16.80 Canadian dollars, topping a bid by Gerald Schwartz, a leveraged buyout specialist, to buy half of Chapters for 15 Canadian dollars a share and merge it with Indigo Books Music and More.