Goldman\'s Sigh of Relief

GOLDMAN'S SIGH OF RELIEF  |  If Goldman Sachs insiders were worried about the upcoming memoir by a disgruntled former employee, they aren't anymore. A spokesman for Goldman said he was “relieved” upon reading the book, which is scheduled to be released on Monday.

It turns out that the former employee, Greg Smith, doesn't offer many new details in his memoir, “Why I Left Goldman Sachs,” which builds on an opinion article published in The New York Times this year. Nelson D. Schwartz writes in DealBook that the book is “long on Mr. Smith's reminiscences of the pleasures of the job - handmade suits, sashimi at 30,000 feet, strawberries at Wimbledon,” but short on any “illegal or questionable financial practices at the firm.” The information Mr. Smith provides on the trader Fabrice Tourre, who became known to the public as “Fabulous Fab” after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman with fraud in 2010, is that he was “slightly goofy” and “socially awkward.” Not exactly groundbreaking stuff.

The book also includes a cameo from Warren E. Buffett and a scene at the gym in which Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman's chief executive, is nude, according to The Wall Street Journal. The blog Dealbreaker published an excerpt in which Mr. Smith tries hard not to brag about his superlative Ping-Pong abilities.

Goldman went on the offensive on Thursday, providing Bloomberg News with documents showing that Mr. Smith “was denied a raise and a promotion in the weeks before he resigned in March.” The revelation was enough to prompt a columnist for Bloomberg View, William D. Cohan, to label Mr. Smith “a sweet-talking con man.” Mr. Smith is expected to give his side of the story in an appearance on “60 Minutes” on Sunday. Goldman Sachs will give its view when Edith Cooper, the firm's global head of human capital management, appears on Bloomberg TV at 10 a.m on Friday.

Goldman doesn't have Lucas van Praag to defend it anymore, but the former public relations chief is starting his own firm, LvP & Associates, according to The New York Post. The newspaper says that Mr. van Praag “will dole out advice to financial firms and other companies seeking crisis management and help navigating reputational risk.”

BLACK MONDAY, 25 YEARS LATER  |  When the Dow Jones industrial average lost 23 percent of its value on Oct. 19, 1987, young investment bankers on the trading floor of Salomon Brothers “no doubt wondered if their world was coming to an end,” writes Floyd Norris of The New York Times, who at the time was the stock market columnist at Barron's. The crash didn't lead to a new Depression, despite dire predictions. Bu t Mr. Norris writes that it signified “the beginning of the destruction of markets by dumb computers.” For more on the 25th anniversary of the crash, James B. Stewart of The New York Times is appearing on CNBC around 10 a.m.

ON THE AGENDA  |  Next Wednesday, the former Goldman Sachs director Rajat K. Gupta is scheduled to be sentenced for insider trading. Not surprisingly, the government and Mr. Gupta's defenders have two very different views on what his penance should be. DealBook's White Collar Watch columnist, Peter J. Henning, outlines the factors that the United States District Court judge Jed S. Rakoff will consider, saying that the judge may give “a much lower recommended sentence than what the government wants.”

Data on existing home sales in September, to be released at 10 a.m. on Friday, will offer more clues as to whether the housing mark et is indeed experiencing a recovery. Hans Humes, the chief investment officer of Greylock Capital Management, is on CNBC at 12 p.m. Kenneth Feinberg, the former pay czar for the Obama administration, is on CNBC at 11 a.m.

SEAN PARKER'S UNCERTAIN START  |  Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, the pair behind Napster, are finding a tepid response to their new, much-hyped start-up, Airtime, reports Jenna Wortham of The New York Times. Granted, the site is just four months old, at “a ridiculously early stage for a company,” as Mr. Parker told The Times. But Ms. Wortham says, “part of the problem is that Internet users are not likely to stick around while a new company figures out its direction.”

Mergers & Acquisitions '

Pacific Century to Buy ING's Asian Insurance Units for $2.1 Billion  |  The Dutch financial services firm has agreed to a $2.1 billion deal to sell some of its Asian insurance businesses to Pacific Century Group, owned by Richard Li, the son of one of Asia's richest men.
DealBook '

Carrefour to Sell Colombian Unit for $2.6 Billion  |  The European retailing giant has agreed to sell its Colombian business to the Chilean company Cencosud for 2 billion euros, or $2.6 billion.
DealBook '

Clearwire Is Sought by Sprint for Spectrum  |  Sprint disclosed on Thursday that it had offered to buy a stake in Clearwire from its founder, Craig O. McCaw, the cellphone pioneer, effectively giving it majority control of the struggling bro adband company.
DealBook '

Best Buy Founder's Campaign to Take Control  |  Richard Schulze, Best Buy's founder and its largest shareholder, has been raising billions of dollars this year for a bid to take over the company. “Associates say he's certain he'll succeed,” Bloomberg Businessweek writes.
BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

Orient-Express Hotels Gets Buyout Offer  |  Shares of Orient-Express Hotels surged in trading on Thursday after the hotel arm of the Tata conglomerate of India made an offer for the rest of the company that it does not already own.
DealBook '

Hawker Beechcraft Says Deal Talks Ended  |  Hawker Beechcraft, the business jet maker, said on Thursday that takeover talks with the Superior Aviation Beijing Company had collapsed and that Hawker would instead seek to emerge from bankruptcy as a stand-alone company.
DealBook '

INVESTMENT BANKING '

When Wall Street Firms Change Risk Models  |  While it may be tempting to ignore value at risk altogether because it has proved of little worth when times get tough, that might be mistake. Value-at risk-measurements play a crucial role in setting capital.
DealBook '

Morgan Stanley Chief Suggests Commodities Arm May Be Sold  |  James Gorman of Morgan Stanley said the firm was obligated to explore “differ ent structures” for its commodities trading division, Reuters reports.
REUTERS

Gorman on Track to Miss Performance Goals  |  Morgan Stanley's chief executive looks likely to forfeit stock compensation that was conditioned on the firm's producing an average return on equity of 12 percent, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

A Citigroup To-Do List  |  “Michael Corbat, congratulations on becoming the new chief executive officer of Citigroup!” writes Nick Summers in Bloomberg Businessweek. “Here is a list of about 6 billion things that require your immediate attention.”
BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

Santander Plans Credit Card Venture in Spain  |  The Spanish bank Santander is teaming up with Elavon, a credit card payment processing company owned by U.S. Bancorp, to start a card service in Spain, Reuters reports.
REUTERS

Cyberattacks Pose New Challenge for Banks  | 
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Ally Financial Confronts Cyberattacks  | 
REUTERS

PRIVATE EQUITY '

A Victory for Vulture Investors in Australia  |  When Nine Entertainment fell on hard times, firms led by Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital began buying its b onds and eventually took control from the private equity firm CVC. The Economist writes: “Distressed investors are sometimes maligned, but this deal is an advertisement for their restorative powers.”
ECONOMIST

Blackstone Swings to Profit of $622 Million in 3rd Quarter  |  The alternative investment giant Blackstone Group swung to a $621.8 million gain for the quarter from a loss in the period a year earlier, benefiting from a sharp increase in the value of its holdings.
DealBook '

Champ Ventures Buys Stake in Shipping Company  |  The private equity firm Champ Ventures, along with HarbourVest Partners, is taking an 85 percent stake in Sea Swift, an Australian shipping company, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

HEDGE FUNDS '

In Insider Trading Case, Drawing In David Ganek  |  Anthony Chiasson, a co-founder of Level Global, is trying to show that his more prominent partner, David Ganek, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, traded in the same stocks during the same periods.
DealBook '

Chipotle's Profit Misses Expectations  |  The results offered evidence for a bearish argument by David Einhorn earlier this month.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

John Paulson's Personal Real Estate Investments  |  The billionaire hedge fund manager “has spent more than $145 million on six properties” over the last eight years, according to The Wall Street Journal.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

I.P.O./OFFERINGS '

Lackluster Debut for Astro Malaysia Holdings  |  The Malaysian television company was flat in its trading debut on Friday, “on concerns its valuation was too high,” Reuters reports.
REUTERS

Lord & Taylor Parent Moves Toward an I.P.O.  |  The Hudson's Bay Company, which was founded in 1670, making it Canada's oldest corporation, has filed a preliminary prospectus in preparation for a return to the Toronto Stock Exchange.
DealBook '

VENTURE CAPITAL '

Venture Capital Firms Selling to Private Equity  |  According to a new report from the data firm PitchBook, a record number of “exits” for venture capital firms this year came from private equity, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Venture Capital Investments Fall 12 Percent  |  The latest data showed investments by United States venture capital firms falling to $6.49 billion in the third quarter, Reuters reports.
REUTERS

LEGAL/REGULATORY '

JPMorgan Apologizes for Energy Trading Errors  |  JPMorgan Chase said it “regrets an d apologizes” for mistakes by its energy trading unit, as it faces the possibility of having its license to trade electricity suspended, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

S.E.C. Settles Insider Trading Case Against Hong Kong Firm  |  Well Advantage, which is run by the billionaire Zhang Zhi Rong, agreed to pay more than $14 million related to accusations that it illegally traded in the shares of the Canadian oil producer Nexen before the announcement that it was being acquired by Cnooc.
DealBook '

Barclays Sets Aside $1.1 Billion More for Insurance Claims  |  The British bank has earmarked an additional £700 million to compensate clients who were inappropriately sold payment protection insurance.
DealBook '

Google's Earnings Are Filed Too Early  | 
NEW YORK TIMES

Aid for Spanish Banks to Be Agreed Upon This Year  |  The New York Times reports: “European Union leaders said early Friday that legislation enabling rescue aid to be channeled directly to Spanish banks should be agreed by the end of the year, but they left open critical decisions on how soon it could go into effect.”
NEW YORK TIMES

Europe Moves Closer to Adopting a Single Bank Supervisor  |  European leaders agreed at a summit in Brussels “to adopt a legal framework by the end of this year giving the European Central Bank overall r esponsibility for banking supervision,” Reuters reports.
REUTERS