Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

(Adds Oracle, Moody's, Regeneron, others, updates PartyGaming and Porsche)

July 23 - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 2000 GMT on Thursday.

** U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said it will pay $2.4 billion to acquire Medarex Inc, a biotechnology company that has been helping it develop a promising treatment for melanoma since 2005.

** Amazon.com will pay about $928 million for booming online shoe retailer Zappos.com, expanding aggressively into the apparel arena with a well-known name after trying unsuccessfully to go it alone.

** Bankrate Inc, which operates Bankrate.com and other personal finance websites, said it agreed to a $571 million buyout by private equity firm Apax Partners

** Online gambling group PartyGaming said it is looking for further acquisitions following its purchase of bingo website operator Cashcade for an initial 71.9 million pounds ($118.8 million) on Thursday.

** Oracle Corp, the world's No. 3 software maker, plans to buy privately held GoldenGate Software, beefing up its portfolio of technology that helps companies manipulate information in databases.

** Moody's Corp shares tumbled after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc lowered its stake, a sign of waning support for the embattled credit rating company by its largest and most prominent investor.

** Yahoo Inc said it has bought Xoopit, a privately-held company that provides technology to organize photograph collections in Yahoo's e-mail system.

** Investors bid up shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Seattle Genetics Inc after Medarex Inc agreed to be acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co at a 90 percent premium.

** Dutch bank ING Groep NV has hired JPMorgan to advise on the sale of ING's private banking business in Europe and Asia which could fetch over $1 billion, sources told Reuters.

** Dendreon Corp hired JPMorgan Chase & Co as an adviser to help it find an international licensing partner for its prostate cancer vaccine Provenge, a source familiar with the situation said.

** Porsche conceded defeat in a months-long power struggle with Volkswagen by axing its embattled CEO, paving the way for VW to merge with the maker of the 911 sportscar.

** French engineering groups Alstom and Schneider Electric said they were considering a joint bid for the transmission and distribution unit Areva has put up for sale.

** Spanish retail bank Sabadell said that it plans to merge Florida's Mellon United National Bank with TransAtlantic Bank, which it bought in May 2007.

** One of Poland's deputy prime minsters ruled out further privatisation of Europe's No. 2 copper producer KGHM sinking plans floated by the treasury ministry to sell its remaining stake.

** British broadcast transmission group Arqiva has agreed to buy video-on-demand technology from a defunct joint venture of the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV to set up a consumer video service in Britain, it said.