Wall Street Braces for the Storm

WALL STREET BRACES FOR THE STORM  |  Wall Street is preparing for Hurricane Sandy. All stock and options markets in the United States will be closed on Monday as the storm approaches New York. Financial firms like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which have offices in the designated evacuation zones, are telling employees to work from home.

This is the first time the New York Stock Exchange has closed trading for weather reasons since Hurricane Gloria in 1985, DealBook's Michael J. de la Merced writes. The exchange had planned to stay open electronically while closing its physical trading floor, but with the city going into emergency mode on Sunday night, the N.Y.S.E. took the extra precaution. “It was a judgment decision based on the safety of a lot of market participants, especially as the storm seems to be getting more severe,” Lawrence E. Leibowitz, chief op erating officer of NYSE Euronext, told Bloomberg News. The Nasdaq and BATS stock markets are also closing.

Wall Street firms are implementing contingency plans. Most Goldman Sachs employees are working from home, with some reporting to sites in Greenwich, Conn., and Princeton, N.J., according to an internal memorandum reviewed by DealBook. Morgan Stanley is having employees at its lower Manhattan offices work remotely, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and the Blackstone Group are also closing offices in Manhattan.

It is not clear when trading will open again. Officials warned that New York City might be dealing with the storm until Wednesday.

 

RANDOM HOUSE AND PENGUIN TO MERGE  |  Two major publishing houses are joining forces. Bertelsmann, the German owner of Random House, plans to combine the publisher with Penguin, owned by the British media conglomerate Pearson. According to the terms of the deal announced on Monday, Bertelsmann is set to control 53 percent of the venture with Pearson holding the rest. The deal comes as publishers try to protect themselves against the rising clout of Amazon and other online retailers. The announcement says the two companies plan to invest more in “new digital publishing models.”

 

FACEBOOK LOCKUP EXPIRES  |  What do Facebook's employees think of the company's prospects? The market will soon find out as more than 270 million shares become eligible to be sold. The shares, which amount to more than 10 percent of the total outstanding, are mostly controlled by employees.

The social network's battered stock price got a lift last week after better-than-expected quarterly results. But some analysts predict the rally could be short-lived. “I would i magine that half of that stock will get sold,” Michael Pachter, a Wedbush analyst, told CNBC. There is still more potential pressure coming in November, when more shares can be traded.

 

ON THE AGENDA  | 
Plans are changing due to the hurricane. A spokeswoman for Bloomberg TV said on Sunday that Monday's guest lineup was “in flux.” The schedule is thinner than usual at CNBC, but Richard Kovacevich, Wells Fargo's former chairman and chief executive, is scheduled to appear at 4:30 p.m. Kweku Adoboli, a former UBS trader on trial for fraud and false accounting, takes the stand in London. In Madrid, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain meets with Premier Mario Monti of Italy to discuss the European debt crisis. Burger King Worldwide, which rejoined the public markets in June, reports earnings before the market opens. Herbalife and Tumi Holdings report results Monday eve ning. Data on personal income and outlays in September is to be announced at 8:30 a.m.

 

NOMURA SWINGS TO A SLIGHT PROFIT  | 
Nomura Holdings reported a small profit of 2.8 billion yen ($35 million) for the recent quarter, compared with a loss of 46.1 billion yen in the period a year earlier. The Japanese firm said it benefited from rising sales in its fixed-income business, which helped offset weakness in its equities division. Still, the results fell short of the 5 billion yen profit that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News were expecting. “I get the impression Nomura was just making ends meet,” Mitsushige Akino, an investment manager in Tokyo, told Bloomberg News.

 

 

 

Mergers & Acquisitions '

Petr onas to Renew Bid for Progress Energy  |  Petronas, the Malaysian state oil firm, may try again to buy Progress Energy Resources after the Canadian government blocked the earlier bid, Reuters reports. REUTERS

 

The Dairy Industry's Well-Paid Deal Maker  |  The chief executive of Dean Foods, Gregg L. Engles, was once hailed as a deal maker in the dairy industry, but he has recently become better known for his paychecks that “continued to be hugely generous even as his company's fortunes tumbled,” The New York Times writes. NEW YORK TIMES

 

TNT Expects European Union to Approve U.P.S. Deal  | 
REUTERS

 

Advertising Technology Company OpenX to Acquire JumpTime  |  The Media Decoder blog reports: “On Monday, OpenX Technologies, a provider of digital advertising technologies, will announce that it has acquired JumpTime, a company that helps publishers determine what each piece of their digital content is worth.” NEW YORK TIMES MEDIA DECODER

 

Pursuing Orient-Express Hotels, Indian Firm Takes a Softer Tone  |  The Indian Hotels Company sent a letter to the board of Orient-Express Hotels on Friday, offering to “dispel any misunderstandings” about its bid to buy the roughly 93 percent of the company that it did not already own. DealBook '

 

Oshkosh Rejects Icahn's Offer and Moves to Protect Itself  |  The truck company Oshkosh Corporation rejected Carl C. Icahn's $3 billion unsolicited takeover bid on Friday, deeming it too low. It also adopted a poison pill to protect itself against further moves by the billionaire investor. DealBook '

 

INVESTMENT BANKING '

UBS to Eliminate 10,000 Jobs  |  The cuts would equal about 16 percent of UBS's work force as of June 30, Bloomberg News reports. The bulk of the layoffs are likely to come from the Swiss bank's trading business. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

Greek Editor Publishes List of Swiss Bank Accounts  |  After publishing a list of Greeks who were said to have Swiss bank accounts, the e ditor of Hot Doc magazine was arrested and then released, The New York Times reports. NEW YORK TIMES

 

Deutsche Bank Wins More Business  |  Deutsche Bank's share of stock and bond offerings rose to 5.8 percent from 4.3 percent a year earlier, beating some European rivals, Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

Credit Suisse Equities Chief Said to Be Stepping Down  |  The executive, Bob Jain, is set to oversee in-house hedge funds at Credit Suisse, according to Bloomberg News. BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

Scrutinizing the Growth of the Financial Industry  |  Gretchen Morgenson writes in The New Yo rk Times that “we are still tallying” the costs of the expanded access to credit that came with the growth of the financial industry. NEW YORK TIMES

 

PRIVATE EQUITY '

A Private Equity Boss Sets Loftier Goals  |  Damon Buffini, the founder of Permira, is overseeing a new venture that aims to invest in ways that are beneficial for society, The Telegraph reports. TELEGRAPH

 

Dymon Starting a Private Equity Fund  |  The hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital has backing from a unit of Temasek Holdings for its new private equity fund, Reuters reports. REUTERS

 

TPG Said to Be Bidding fo r Stansted Airport  | 
FINANCIAL TIMES

 

HEDGE FUNDS '

Romney's Connection to Hollywood  |  The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been an investor in the hedge fund Elliott, which has backed various Hollywood movies, The Financial Times reports. FINANCIAL TIMES

 

Robertson on ‘Disaster' Funds  |  Julian Robertson, the founder of Tiger Management, warned against hedge funds taking too bearish of a view, saying on Bloomberg TV that firms preparing for a crisis were “scared.” BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

Smaller Hedge Funds Perf orm Better, Study Shows  | 
FINANCIAL TIMES

 

I.P.O./OFFERINGS '

PTT Shareholders Approve $3.1 Billion Offering  |  The sale of shares would be Thailand's biggest ever, according to Reuters. REUTERS

 

South Korean Cable Company Raises $267 Million in I.P.O.  |  CJ Hellovision sold shares near the bottom of its expected range, Reuters reports. REUTERS

 

Telefonica's German Unit Narrows Expected Range, Again  |  The phone company altered the expected price range for its I.P.O. again on Monday, after narrowing it on Friday, according to MarketWatch. MARKETWATCH

 

VENTURE CAPITAL '

Goldman Sachs Goes Artisanal  |  An entrepreneur behind the Brooklyn Flea secured a $25 million investment from Goldman Sachs for a new development that would host emerging food businesses, The New York Times writes. NEW YORK TIMES

 

Tech Industry Gains Political Clout in San Francisco  |  Successful lobbying by the billionaire investor Ron Conway is paving the way for others, Reuters writes. REUTERS

 

Mobile Apps Devour Personal Data  | 
NEW YORK TIMES

 

LEGAL/REGULATORY '

Citigroup Pays Fine and Fires Star Technology Analyst  |  Citigroup paid a $2 million fine and fired two employees after authorities accused the bank of improperly disclosing confidential information to media outlets about YouTube's earnings and Facebook's initial public offering. DEALBOOK

 

Man Claiming Facebook Ownership Arrested on Fraud Charges  |  Federal prosecutors say that Paul Ceglia filed a sham federal lawsuit claiming to have been promised a 50 percent share of Facebook, and then doctored, fabricated and destroyed evidence to support his allegations. DEALBOOK

 

Another Day, Another Set of Insider Trading Cases  |  Prosecutors say an insurance executive in Denver traded on secret information about Kirk Kerkorian's firm acquiring a significant stake in an oil and natural gas company. Also on Friday, a former employee of the former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. DealBook '