T-Mobile Courts MetroPCS

T-Mobile Courts MetroPCS  |  Deutsche Telekom of Germany, the parent company of T-Mobile USA, is in talks to buy MetroPCS, a deal that could be announced as soon as Wednesday, DealBook reports.

The acquisition would help strengthen T-Mobile after AT&T's failed attempt last year to buy the cellphone service provider. Deutsche Telekom could also use a MetroPCS deal to pare back its American exposure. If the companies structure the deal as a reverse merger, as a Heard on the Street column notes, T-Mobile would have a United States stock listing, allowing Deutsche Telekom to exit gracefully from its American subsidiary over time.

As with any deal, investors handicapped the winners and the losers. Leap Wireless International, another logical acquisition target, rose 8 percent. But shares of Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 carrier, fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday on fears of a new competitive threat.

 

Political Ads Define Wall Street Loosely  |  This election season, politicians love attacking opponents for their ties to Wall Street - even ones that are flimsy, DealBook's Peter Lattman writes. “I visited Wall Street once, in 1980, as a tourist at the New York Stock Exchange,” said Keith J. Rothfus, a Pittsburgh lawyer who is running for Congress in Pennsylvania. “If I'm a Wall Street lawyer, then the 7,500 people that work for Mellon bank in western Pennsylvania are fast-money traders who charter private jets to the Hamptons on weekends.”

The anti-Wall Street rhetoric is bound to be on display in the presidential debate on Wednesday night, where references to Mitt Romney's time at the private equity firm Bain Capital can be expected. Still, one prominent private equity boss says the attacks are having a beneficial side effe ct. “Ironically, it gave the public and other people a chance to think through these arguments,” Stephen A. Schwarzman, head of the Blackstone Group, told Bloomberg Television. He added, “We have not seen any of the blowback that you might expect.”

 

Pay Rises With the Market  |  Companies always trumpet that stock rewards help link compensation to performance. But it may be more about the luck of the market for top Wall Street executives, the Deal Professor writes. During the depths of the financial crisis, banks on government assistance handed out millions of options and stock incentives at low prices. Now, executives could reap huge gains. On average, those packages gained 221 percent, according to Equilar data. “The sad thing is that these executives were compensated not because of the work they did at their firms, but because of a lucky rise in the stock market. It is anything but pay for performance,” the Deal Professor says.

 

Einhorn's New Short  | 
You know your ideas hold sway when your name is used as a verb. David Einhorn, the president of Greenlight Capital, once again moved stocks, announcing his latest picks and pans at an industry conference on Tuesday. He praised General Motors and the health care company Cigna, giving a lift to their shares. He also prompted a sell-off in Chipotle Mexican Grill, his latest short.

But the hedge fund manager's power is not absolute. He had harsh words on Tuesday for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, his short-selling target from last year, but that stock rose 3 percent by the end of the day.

 

On the Agenda  |  While he's unlikely to talk shorts, David Einhorn and his brother, Daniel (who was recently profiled in DealBook), are speaking on Wednesday at an event at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. In New York, Bloomberg Link is hosting a conference on state and municipal finance. The hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, of Hayman Capital Management, is on CNBC at 10:40 a.m.

 

Not Much New in JPMorgan Chase  |  The lawsuit filed by New York's attorney general against JPMorgan Chase rehashes the same old stuff, Peter J. Henning writes in his White Collar Watch: “Like so many cases related to the financial crisis, no individuals are named in the complaint. Nor does it appear that any criminal charges will emerge this long after Bear Stearns was pushed into the arms of JPMorgan by the federal government in a transaction routinely described as a fire sale.”

Still, there may be an advantage to revisiting old complaints. The lawsuit's “broad scope presents an opportunity not only to punish wrongdoing at one bank, but to apply the methods and findings of the case to other banks,” the editorial board of The New York Times writes. And the case highlights a legal weapon that past attorneys general have used to take on Wall Street.

 

Dimon Gets the Vanity Fair Treatment  |  Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's chief executive, is photographed by Annie Leibovitz in the magazine's November issue.

 

Ellison's Island ‘Laboratory'  |  Larry Ellison, the Oracle C.E.O. who recently purchased most of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, told CNBC that he planned to fill the island with organic farms and electric cars as a “laboratory for sustainability in businesses.”

 

 

 

Mergers & Acquisitions '

Best Buy Founder Said to Move Ahead With Buyout Plan  |  Reuters reports: “Richard Schulze and at least four private equity firms have started examining the books of the world's largest consumer electronics chain, early steps toward what could become a potential $11 billion buyout, according to people familiar with the matter.” REUTERS

 

Deal Speculation Lifts AIA Shares  |  The AIA Group was said to be approaching a deal to buy ING's Malaysian and Thai units. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

Elpida Memory Says Ruling on Takeover Is Delayed  | 
R EUTERS

 

INVESTMENT BANKING '

The Rise and Fall of Ina Drew  |  Ina Drew, JPMorgan Chase's former chief investment officer, who oversaw the unit behind the bank's huge trading loss, is profiled in The New York Times Magazine this weekend: “Her fall is a murkier tale about how executives are coping with the growing public scrutiny and skepticism about what exactly banks are doing with all our money.” NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

 

European Regulator to Weigh In on Bank Capital  |  The European Union's bank regulator is releasing an assessment of banks' recent efforts to raise capital. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

Fo rmer Goldman Partner Buys Duplex for $19.3 Million  |  Jonathan Sobel, a former Goldman Sachs partner, has bought into 740 Park Avenue, according to records filed on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

For Brokerage Firms, Brand Names Matter Less  |  Reuters reports: “Frequent consolidations and name changes in the industry have jaded many brokers and advisers. And at brokerages that were absorbed into big banks, many brokers are irked by negative headlines about the financial missteps of their parent company. Wealth clients are increasingly relying on individual financial advisers more than the firm they work for.” REUTERS

 

Pimco's Gross Warns Again on Treasury Bonds  |  Bill Gross, managing director of Pimco, writes in his latest investment outlook letter that the United States is like “an addict whose habit extends beyond weed or cocaine and who frequently pleasures itself with budgetary crystal meth.” PIMCO

 

PRIVATE EQUITY '

Carlyle Group's Move in Commodities Trading  |  The Carlyle Group said it had acquired a 55 percent stake in Vermillion Asset Management, a commodities trading firm, Reuters reports. REUTERS

 

Global Infrastructure Partners Raises $8.25 Billion Fund  | 
BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

Goldman Is Said to Step Up P ressure on Nine Entertainment  |  Goldman Sachs wrote to Nine Entertainment, the struggling Australian media company, and CVC Asia Pacific, urging Nine to restructure its debt, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

Chinese Private Equity Contends With Slowdown  |  Jiuding Capital, a high-flying private equity firm in China, is feeling the effects of slower economic growth and a sagging stock market, The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

HEDGE FUNDS '

Humane Society Enlists Icahn as Adviser  |  Carl C. Icahn is advising the Humane Society in its effort to seek a board seat at Tyson Foods, The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

More Insider Trading Investigations  |  The number of government investigations into insider trading in the United States has grown “by almost half in the past year,” according to The Financial Times. FINANCIAL TIMES

 

BlackRock Expected to Benefit From Advertising Rules  |  New rules on hedge fund advertising are expected to benefit the biggest financial firms, like BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase, more than actual hedge funds, according to Bloomberg News. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

I.P.O./OFFERINGS '

Facebook Pitches Madison Avenue  |  Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, said at an event for marketers in New York on Tuesday: “Rather than just talk at large groups of anonymous people, businesses can relate to a consumer and establish an ongoing relationship.” NEW YORK TIMES

 

Telefonica Expected to Seek Up to $1.9 Billion in I.P.O.  |  An I.P.O. filing from the Spanish phone company Telefónica is imminent, two unidentified people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

VENTURE CAPITAL '

Kleiner Perkins Partner Says She Was Fired  |  Ellen Pao, who sued Kleiner Perkin s Caufield & Byers for discrimination in May, said the firm fired her on Monday afternoon, the Bits blog reports. NEW YORK TIMES BITS

 

Thiel Fund Leads Investment in Brazilian Start-Up  |  Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures Management has made its first foray in Brazil, leading an investment in an e-commerce start-up that is trying to shake up the traditional furniture market here and take on an established retailer recently acquired by the Carlyle Group. DealBook '

 

Getting Paid to Share on Social Media  |  The New York Times reports: “In a little-known practice, social media shopping sites are offering payments to shoppers who post product links that drive Web traffic and sales to retailers.” NEW YORK TIMES

 

LEGAL/REGULATORY '

How Europe's Central Bank Shifted Strategy  |  The European Central Bank has become more active in its effort to save the euro, The Wall Street Journal says. WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

Freddie Mac's Financing Effort Hits a Snag  |  The mortgage giant is looking to provide loans to investors to buy foreclosed homes and rent them out, but the Federal Housing Finance Agency “has put those plans on hold,” according to The Wall Street Journal. WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

Regulator Urges Appeal of Dodd-Frank Court Ruling  |  Bart Chilton, a Democratic member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on Tuesday assailed a recent court ruling that overturned limits on speculative trading, calling it “deeply flawed” and vulnerable to appeal. DealBook '

 

2 Lawmakers Criticize Geithner Over Libor  |  Two Republican senators, Chuck Grassley and Mark Kirk, wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner taking him to task for, according to Reuters, “failing to wean U.S. firms off a key British benchmark interest rate that he knew was being rigged.” REUTERS

 

The Intangible Costs of Bankruptcies  |  Indirect costs of a company's financial distress, which are more abstract, have not been studied enough, Stephen J. Lubben writes in the In Deb t column.
DealBook '