Soooo . . . . Financial news, anyone?

Swiss pharma giant Novartis has issued a $3.9 billion cash bid to buy Advanced Accelerator Applications, a French company [and spinoff of the organization in charge of the Large Hadron Collider] known for producing tumor-treating drug Lutathera, among others – NYTimes

Breakingviews thinks the deal should be relatively easy for investors to swallow – NYTimes

SoftBank is dropping its attempt to merge Sprint with T-Mobile based on Masayoshi Son’s concerns about losing too much control over Sprint in any potential deal – WSJ and Bloomberg

The Department of Labor is appealing a Texas federal judge’s August order blocking its 2016 white collar overtime rule – Law360

Streetwise joins the chorus in weighing in on the next Fed chief – WSJ

A proposed class of foreign currency buyers is opposing a motion by a group of foreign banks to dismiss its Forex exchange-rate-rigging  case for lack of personal jurisdiction. The plaintiffs argue that the defendants have already admitted facts in DOJ proceedings that establishes their US ties with the alleged scheme – Law360

Sears is rapidly burning through another $200 million of Eddie Lampert’s money (at 11% interest). Not looking good – Bloomberg

Akzo Nobel—having successfully fended off PPG’s takeover bids for the better part of a year—appears to be sticking it to its American suitor and revealed yesterday that it’s in talks with rival Axalta Coating Systems to “create a paints industry giant” – NYTimes

Let’s just say this—the “Little Ice Age” sounds a lot cuter than it actually was, especially for early Europeans who descended upon North America – NYReview

Or, for a more traditional brand of scary, enjoy these, uh, terrifying tales – Jezebel

Happy Halloween.