Mainland Resources, Inc.(fka MNLU)

[Ecomike]

Todays news on El Paso Corp buyout, shows that big money for M&A is still out there!!!! This news may help spur others to cut a deal with MNLU for the cash it needs. Also people cashing out of EP stock today may reinvest in places like MNLU?

Deal seen closing in Q2 (Adds valuation of El Paso assets, updates share prices)

Oct 17 (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Inc's (KMI

KMI KINDER MORGAN, INC. COMMON STOCK 28.83
Change +1.9400 (+7.21%) AS OF 11:41 AM ET 10/17/11.
Chart for KMI Research planned takeover of El Paso Corp in a $21 billion deal that would create the largest oil and gas pipeline company in North America will receive regulatory clearances because there is little asset overlap, Rich Kinder, Kinder Morgan's chief executive, said on Monday.

""We certainly anticipate we will obviously have to comply with the regulator, in this case, the (U.S. Federal Trade Commission), and we'll work with them to satisfy whatever their concerns are; but we don't see that as a major obstacle and we do expect to close, we're thinking, in the second quarter of next year," Kinder told investors on a conference call.

As part of the planned deal, Kinder plans to sell El Paso's exploration and production assets. That deal is expected to close in the second quarter and proceeds will be applied to acquisition debt, Kinder told investors.

El Paso's exploration and production business, which includes assets in the hot Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, is valued at $9.2 billion, according to analysts at Houston investment energy bank Tudor Pickering Holt & Co.