April 25 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Thursday.
** Verizon Communications Inc has hired advisers to prepare a possible $100 billion bid to take full control of Verizon Wireless from its partner Vodafone Group Plc, two people familiar with the matter said.
** German steelmaker Salzgitter denied market talk it was considering a bid for Aurubis, leading Aurubis shares to reverse earlier gains. Traders had earlier said there was talk that Salzgitter was considering a bid for Aurubis at 58 euros per share, which would value the company at 2.6 billion euros ($3.4 billion).
** Investment group Eurazeo is to offload its stake in French dairy group Danone ahead of schedule via an early repayment of 700 million euros ($909.7 million) in bonds convertible into Danone stock.
** Greece gave the sole bidder for gambling monopoly OPAP a week extra to raise its terms in a last-ditch attempt to save its first big privatisation from an embarrassing failure that could derail its bailout.
Emma Delta on Monday submitted the only valid bid for the 33 percent stake and management rights in OPAP, offering 622 million euros ($808.32 million).
** China's largest search engine, Baidu Inc, is in the process of acquiring Chinese online video firm, PPS Net TV, for $350-$400 million, China Business News reported on Thursday, quoting sources.
** Volkswagen has moved a step closer to combining the three trucks businesses it owns, with a deal to take full financial and strategic control of MAN SE.
Under the deal, Volkswagen (VW), which already owns 75.03 percent of MAN, will offer 80.89 euros per share for the MAN stock it does not already own.
** CoreLogic has acquired Case-Shiller from Fiserv for $6 million, taking over its prestigious index business in a deal that closed on March 20, CoreLogic said in a statement on Thursday.
** Soft drink bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc said it would not exercise its right to acquire Coca-Cola Co's German bottling operations. The company said its right to buy the German bottling business from Coca-Cola will expire on May 25, after the companies agreed not to move forward with a transaction.
** Potash Corp of Saskatchewan , one of the world's largest potash producers, said on Thursday it was abandoning efforts to take over Israel Chemicals Ltd because of strong opposition in Israel.
** Belgium-based Arseus, the world's biggest supplier of ingredients to pharmacists so they can mix up their own versions of drugs, bought U.S.-based Freedom Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed sum, it said on Thursday.
** Spanish bank Santander said on Thursday it was in talks with potential buyers over the sale of a stake of its unit Santander Asset Management, which manages 153 billion euros ($199 billion) of assets from pension funds to real estate.
** The European Energy Exchange (EEX) and France's Powernext will combine their gas trading platforms on May 29, as they wait for regulators to approve a full merger of their gas activities, EEX said on Thursday.