Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Thursday November 20, 2014

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Thursday November 20, 2014:

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Shares of United Parcel Service, Inc.

surged higher Thursday, on unconfirmed market chatter of a potential stake from investot Bill Ackman. A spokesperson from UPS told

that UPS "had not been contacted by Mr. Ackman." UPS shares gained 1% Thursday, to close at $106.71.

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Shares of Nuance Communications, Inc.

spiked higher Wednesday, on unconfirmed market chatter Microsoft Corporation

could bid up to $21.00 per share for the provider of voice and language software. Nuance is the topic frequent chatter. Carl Icahn owns a 19% stake in Nuance. Spokespersons for the companies were not available for comment. Nuance Communications closed Thursday at $15.32, a gain of 1%.

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CGG

confirmed Thursday it was approached by Technip

in an unsolicited manner regarding, a potential combination. CGG said the conditions to pursue were not met. Techip confirmed a bid of €8.30 per share (approximately $10.40).

first reported on

that Technip had bid for CGG. CGG closed Thursday at $9.71, a loss of almost 8%.

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Shares of Riverbed Technology, Inc.

spiked higher Thursday on

report that Bain Capital LLC, Hellman & Friedman LLC and Thoma Bravo LLC are among the private equity firms bidding for the network equipment maker, according to sources. . Last month, Riverbed announced a strategic review process, following a $21 per share offer from shareholder Elliott Management. Riverbed shares closed Thursday at $20.52, a gain of almost 2%.