The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is in talks to acquire rival Actavis Inc. for more than $13-billion, in what would rank as one of the biggest health-care deals this year. A Wall Street Journal item inside The Globe says according to sources, talks are fragile. The two companies had been working toward an announcement of the all-stock deal when some of Actavis's directors came out against it around the middle of this week. Executives on the two sides are still working to resurrect the deal. The deal, at least as it was discussed earlier in the week, was to have been billed as a merger of equals, and carry a small premium for Actavis shareholders. The size of the premium appears to have been one sticking point, as well as fears from the directors in question that the talks were moving too quickly. A Valeant spokesman said, "We're a very acquisitive company and we look at lots of different companies." Actavis currently has a market value of nearly $13-billion; it is unclear how big of a premium the deal could add to that. Actavis, based in Parsippany, N.J., bills itself as the world's third-largest generic drug company.