** Toshiba Corp has agreed to give Western Digital Corp two weeks' notice before closing any sale of a memory chip unit that would involve transferring joint venture shares that Western Digital claims give it a say in the $18 billion sale of the unit.

** U.S. cable operator Charter Communications Inc said on Sunday it was not interested in acquiring U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Corp, leaving the latter's majority owner, SoftBank Group Corp, pondering how to orchestrate a merger.

** Top shareholder Vivendi has no plans to merge Telecom Italia with Orange nor to make it French, Chief Executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine told newspaper La Stampa in an interview published on Saturday.

** Volkswagen's planned sale of motorcycle brand Ducati and transmissions maker Renk has currently no majority backing on the carmaker's supervisory board, with opponents to asset sales feeling invigorated by the group's strong results.

** India's Max Financial Services called off its proposed merger with HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd, citing delays in the process.

** South Africa's Bidvest will acquire management services group Noonan for approximately 2.7 billion rand ($208 million) as the trading, services and distribution company looks to grow internationally.

** Japan's biggest city gas supplier Tokyo Gas said it has acquired a 24.9 percent stake in Vietnamese gas firm PetroVietnam Low Pressure Gas Distribution Joint Stock Co , a unit of PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corp.

** U.S. asset manager Blackstone has entered into exclusive talks with Banco Popular over the sale of a majority stake in the rescued Spanish lender's property portfolio, Popular said in a statement.

** China has asked Anbang Insurance Group, whose chairman was detained last month, to sell its assets outside the country, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

** India's Snapdeal said it had decided to remain independent and was ending all talks regarding a sale, bringing the curtain down on months of discussions around a possible acquisition of the e-commerce firm by bigger rival Flipkart.

** Diagnostics company Laboratory Corp of America Holdings said it would buy privately owned contract research organization (CRO) Chiltern International Ltd for nearly $1.2 billion in cash to expand its oncology offerings.

** Specialty chemicals group Clariant said it has hired Goldman Sachs as an additional adviser to help stave off an activist investor's campaign to derail its planned merger with U.S. peer Huntsman.

** India has privately raised objections to Chinese firm Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group's proposed $1.3 billion takeover of Indian drugmaker Gland Pharma, a source familiar with the matter said.

** U.S. oil producer Penn Virginia Corp said it would buy assets in the Eagle Ford shale in Texas from larger rival Devon Energy Corp for $205 million to expand in the area.

** Estácio Participações SA, Brazil's No. 2 for-profit education firm, has proposed a broad overhaul of corporate governance rules following a failed takeover attempt by larger rival Kroton Educacional SA.

** Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) is ready to spend up to 1 trillion yen ($9.05 billion) to acquire global asset management firms to double the amount of clients' money that it handles, a top executive told Reuters.

** The real estate arm of BNP Paribas said it would acquire UK property services group Strutt & Parker, in a deal that will triple its revenue and the number of staff it has in the country covering the business. (Compiled by Diptendu Lahiri and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru)