News In Brief

Amsouth Bancorp said it will acquire First American Corp. in a stock swap valued at about $6.3 billion. Under an agreement between the companies, stockholders of Nashville, Tenn.-based First American will receive 1.871 shares of AmSouth stock in exchange for each share of First American. The deal would create a Southeast financial-services company with $40 billion in assets and 680 branches in nine states.

Liberty Media Group said it will buy The Associated Group Inc., a cellular-phone and telecommunications company, in a $3 billion stock deal. Associated co-founded and holds a roughly 41 percent interest in Teligent Inc., a provider of broadband communications services to small and medium-size firms. Liberty Media, a cable-TV programmer, belongs to AT&T.

In the first union of an online broker and an online bank, Palo Alto, Calif.-based E+Trade Inc. said it would buy Telebanc Financial Corp. in a stock deal valued at about $1.8 billion. Under terms of the accord, E+Trade will exchange 2.1 of its shares for each share of Telebanc. The latter is based in Arlington, Va.