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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Starwood Hotels — Starwood agreed to be bought by Marriott for $12.2 billion in cash and stock, creating the world's largest hotel company. The deal is valued at $79.88 per share, compared to Starwood's Friday closing price of $74.99.

Taubman , Simon Property , General Growth Properties — Evercore downgraded the mall operators to "hold" from "buy," pointing to broadening retail weakness across a variety of subsectors.

Walt Disney — Guggenheim cut its rating on Disney to "neutral" from "buy," saying the shares are fairly valued after a recent run-up.

Goldman Sachs , Wal-Mart Stores — Berkshire Hathaway cut its stake in Goldman by 13 percent and in Wal-Mart by 7 percent, according to its quarterly 13F filing. It also liquidated stakes in Viacom and Graham Holdings , and increased stakes in Charter Communications , General Motors , and 21st Century Fox .

Best Buy — RBC downgraded the electronics retailer to "sector perform" from "outperform," pointing to concerns over deterioration in the electronics category for retailers.

General Electric — The Wall Street Journal reports GE has two bidders for its Japan commercial lending unit. The paper said Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Shinsei Bank are both in active discussions with GE. Separately, Trian disclosed in its latest quarterly filing that it had increased its stake in GE by 83 percent. It had been known that Trian increased its stake, but not by how much.

Baxalta — The drug maker received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its drug to treat a rare bleeding disorder known as "Hemophilia A."

Microsoft — Microsoft launched a new fund to help companies that are trying to bring affordable Internet to underserved markets.

Ericsson — Ericsson said it has not engaged in any merger talks with Cisco Systems , despite rumors that Cisco was actively pursuing the Swedish maker of networking equipment.

Blackstone — The asset management firm has reportedly agreed to sell its GCA Services Group unit for about $1 billion, according to Reuters. The buyers for the facility management company are said to be Goldman Sachs and Thomas H. Lee Partners. GCA is the largest provider of janitors to U.S. public schools.

Canadian Pacific — Canadian Pacific Chief Executive Hunter Harrison met with Norfolk Southern CEO James Squires on Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal, proposing a possible merger. The report said, however, the pitch by Squires was met with a less than enthusiastic reception.

Kraft Heinz , Time Warner Cable — These stocks are among the new stakes disclosed by hedge fund Third Point in its latest 13F filing.

Oracle — Oracle was added to the "conviction buy" list at Goldman Sachs, which points to an expectation of accelerating cloud revenue growth

Syngenta — Syngenta shareholders are urging the agricultural chemicals giant to initiate takeover talks with ChemChina, according to Bloomberg. That follows reports last week that ChemChina had made a bid for Syngenta.