acquistions

Companies such as Duke Energy and DuPont are off and running with megamergers early this year. Even Playboy is among the dealers. And market pros say the trend is far from over. Why are so many U.S. companies tying the knot? Fast growth is hard to come by in any other strategy.

Amazon is reportedly about to announce on Monday the acquisition of Quidsi, the New Jersey-based e-commerce company behind Diapers.com, Soap.com, and, most recently, BeautyBar.com.

Shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) were higher in trading ahead of Wall Street's opening, following a near 9-point gain on Tuesday. The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker reported stellar earnings earlier in the week and announced several new computer models on Tuesday, along with a new type of...