A deal that's been kicking around for some time in the rumor mills just got some press coverage.

ATTENTION: This is NOT an April Fool's joke. Though at first blush it may seem more implausible than the April 1 blog I posted about the "Street Shares and iDRS" (a blog that got me into so much trouble in certain circles), the word is that the Vanguard bid for iShares and/or BGI is actually for real.

Well, I'll believe it when I see it. Matt and I have been kicking this around today, and as Matt says, "You have to assume that iShares is less valuable in Vanguard's arms than someone else's. For starters, coming in, you would expect it to slash expense ratios. For instance, EEM would have to be folded into VWO, since those are essentially the same fund. But because VWO's expense ratio is about one-third of EEM's, that means you are taking a fund that made $19

Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids for iShares have surfaced.  

(Editor's note: The following was submitted by IndexUniverse.com's Murray Coleman in San Francisco and IndexUniverse.EU's Paul Amery in London.)

The recently announced $4.4 billion deal by Barclays Global Investors to sell its exchange-traded funds business to private equity manager CVC Captial Partners could be in jeporday. 

Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids have surfaced. The Daily Telegraph is naming private equity groups Apax, BC Partners and Hellman & Friedman as parties expressing an interest in bidding more for iShares than the original terms offered by CVC Capital.

A Barclays spokesman told the paper that it was too early to tell if any new offers would turn into anything concrete. But he did tell

Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids for iShares have surfaced.  

(Editor's note: The following was submitted by IndexUniverse.com's Murray Coleman in San Francisco and IndexUniverse.EU's Paul Amery in London.)

The recently announced $4.4 billion deal by San Francisco-based Barclays Global Investors to sell its exchange-traded funds business to private equity manager CVC Captial Partners could be in jeporday. 

Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids have surfaced. The Daily Telegraph is naming private equity groups Apax, BC Partners and Hellman & Friedman as parties expressing an interest in bidding more for iShares than the original terms offered by CVC Capital.

A report by the Sunday Times of London also listed BC Partners. In fact, the paper says that the firm is now willing

SSgA outlines plan for unified StreetSharesTM brand, Kranefuss to head up iDRS unit.

In a dazzling turn of events that made the FT, IndexUniverse.com's Matt Hougan and many others pawns in a brilliant smoke-and-mirrors act, with most industry observers believing that private equity firm CVC Capital had made a successful bid to buy the iShares unit, the SSgA deal was made public in London this morning.  The CVC purchase would have provided cash-starved Barclays bank with an infusion of funds and a separation of the share-lending business from the overall deal. The SSgA deal provides more capital, though it will be financed at 80% by iShares, and no Barclays upside in the new enterprise.

The previously announced deal had struck some experts as somewhat shocking and unlikely, as bids which included the share lending business had already topped $6 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the bidding process, while the CVC

There's been plenty of speculation on the sale of iShares. Finally, here's the truth.

We've got Matt Hougan and John Spence and Chuck Jaffe and the Wall Street Journal—and now even Murray Coleman all jumping in and speculating on what's going to happen with iShares. The truth is that none of them know—and even the people over at BGI probably don't know. But I do.

I just don't see it happening. Or rather, I do think that an eventual separation has become exponentially more likely ... I just don't think it happens immediately. 

First of all, let me point you to the best blog on the topic yet. It's Paul Amery's blog from over on the http://www.indexuniverse.eu/ site. Here are the Cliff's NotesTM of what Paul covered in his blog that few others have hit upon:

1. Barclays needs to tell

Reports are listing a San Francisco-based private equity firm as the leading candidate in the bidding war over ETF leader BGI.

That shouldn't come as a big surprise to those following the next evolution of a changing iShares brand.

In case you missed it, weekend stories in papers ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the Sunday Times reported that a list of finalists has emerged in the auction of Barclays Global Investors by its parent London bank. Insiders are indicating that Hellman & Friedman LLC could wind up as the leading candidate to assume control of BGI.

As pointed out in the WSJ, that's a private equity firm also based in San Francisco with a history of past relations with the asset manager. Other possibilities, according to the paper, are Bain Capital and other private equity rivals such as TPG and Apax Partners LLP.

Although we've heard some industry

The head of BGI's iShares business gives his views on slumping market share numbers, ETFs still in registration, spreads and fund expenses.

Lee Kranefuss, chief executive officer of BGI's iShares business, recently took time to discuss with IndexUniverse's Murray Coleman the future of exchange-traded funds and recent developments relating to the industry's dominant product line.

IU:  Barclays recently renamed the Lehman-based bond indexes to the Barclays Capital moniker. Will the iShares Lehman ETFs change?

Kranefuss:  Barclays Capital completed its acquisition of Lehman Brothers' North American Investment Banking and Capital Markets businesses. As part of the transaction, Lehman Brothers' indices have become part of Barclays Capital. The Lehman indexes are now Barclays Capital indexes. iShares will be renaming those ETFs. It's our practice to include the index provider in the name of the funds; we think that transparency is important for investors. People ought to know which index a fund is following.

The head of BGI's iShares business gives his views on slumping market share numbers, ETFs still in registration, spreads and fund expenses.

Lee Kranefuss, chief executive officer of BGI's iShares business, recently took time to discuss with IndexUniverse's Murray Coleman the future of exchange-traded funds and recent developments relating to the industry's dominant product line.

IU:  Barclays recently renamed the Lehman-based bond indexes to the Barclays Capital moniker. Will the iShares Lehman ETFs change?

Kranefuss:  Barclays Capital completed its acquisition of Lehman Brothers' North American Investment Banking and Capital Markets businesses. As part of the transaction, Lehman Brothers' indices have become part of Barclays Capital. The Lehman indexes are now Barclays Capital indexes. iShares will be renaming those ETFs. It's our practice to include the index provider in the name of the funds; we think that transparency is important for investors. People ought to know which index a fund is following.

The head of BGI's iShares business discusses the company's slumping market share numbers, ETFs still in registration, spreads and fund fees.

Lee Kranefuss, chief executive officer of BGI's iShares business, recently took time to discuss with IndexUniverse's Murray Coleman the future of exchange-traded funds and recent developments relating to the industry's dominant product line.

IU:  Barclays recently renamed the Lehman-based bond indexes to the Barclays Capital moniker. Will the iShares Lehman ETFs change?

Kranefuss:  Barclays Capital completed its acquisition of Lehman Brothers' North American Investment Banking and Capital Markets businesses. As part of the transaction, Lehman Brothers' indices have become part of Barclays Capital. The Lehman indexes are now Barclays Capital indexes. iShares will be renaming those ETFs. It's our practice to include the index provider in the name of the funds; we think that transparency is important for investors. People ought to know which index a fund is following.

IU:

Matt—in times like these, we just try to do our best to help the nation and the world.

It was great to ring the NASDAQ closing bell on a market that was up about 11%. For anyone who saw the video (and you can see it here), I was genuinely cheering up there. Yesterday, I might have even been cheering in front of my computer screen with the browser set to Yahoo Finance.

The truth is, though, that for us at the Journal of Indexes, boosting the markets to a big day was nothing special. I mean, the LEAST we can do is rally the markets a bit to just do our little part.

All fun aside, though, these markets make me very nervous. This kind of volatility is never a good thing unless you're a trader who makes his or her living scalping other people while the market