In May, Murchison offered to merge with Midwest via a share swap, which initially represented a premium to Sinosteel's AU$1.36-billion ($1.3-billion) offer.

Sinosteel said it was pleased to see the company's withdrawal and would further its takeover bid.

A Talent-Hunting Drive

China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are looking to recruit senior executives from both at home and abroad, according to a notice issued by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) on July 7.

The SASAC, the body responsible for managing the country's central SOEs, issued a notice saying that it needed to fill 16 vacant posts, including three general managers, 10 deputy general managers and three chief accountants in the electricity, metallurgy, electronics, chemical engineering and trade industries.

The SASAC has posted openings for 103 senior management positions in central SOEs since 2003 and has hired 91 of a total of nearly 6,000 domestic and overseas applicants.

Online Retailer's Ambition

Taobao.com, China's top consumer-to-consumer website, will receive a 2-billion-yuan ($292 million) investment from its parent company, Alibaba Group, over the next five years, Ma Yun, founder and CEO of Alibaba said recently.

Taobao.com is currently the nation's dominant online retailer with 67 million registered accounts. About 10 million customers visit Taobao every day.

But the website is hampered by the lack of an advanced profit-making model. It plans to use the money to purchase additional technology, make innovations and hire more professionals, Ma said.

"We are aiming to surpass the world's top retailer, Wal-Mart, in terms of revenue within five years," Ma said.

But the company has a long way to go. Wal-Mart's revenue was $378.8 billion in 2007, while Taobao raked in 43.3 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) in revenue last year and estimates it will reach 100 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) in 2008.