Don't companies have a confidentiality agreement in place when they are having discussions of this nature? Such speculative articles can be used as a basis for cancelling the acquisition. I don't understand the intention of business-standard in reporting something that is unconfirmed.
Companies 'might' have confidentiality agreements, but I think it would be naive to expect that in today's world news won't leak. So maybe they take that into account while going about such acquisitions?
And getting the 'first scoop' is the job of the fourth estate, so can't fault them for doing their job.
There have been a number, it's just they're mostly small and don't get a huge amount of press. The oldest tech acquisition I remember is Bazee.com, which became Ebay India about a decade ago.