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MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: 'Tis the season I guess. Everyone seems to be in the mood to buy.

Take the private equity company Apollo Management. It has its hand in a couple of deals. It will pay $6.5 billion for Realogy Corporation. Realogy owns Century 21 and Coldwell Banker and a about a quarter of home sales in the U.S.

Apollo is also in on a private equity bid for casino giant Harrah's. That price tag: $16.7 billion.

Finally, the biggest deal of all: A pharmacy benefits manager called Express Scripts is offering to buy its rival Caremark for $26 billion.

If the name Caremark sounds familiar, it might be because last month we told you the company had agreed to a merger with drug store chain CVS.

The CVS deal is still on the table.