Morning Agenda: Goldman’s Charitable Efforts Stoke Tensions

Goldman Sachs “wants the world to know it has a charitable side,” DealBook’s Susanne Craig reports. “With the same calculation that earned it a reputation as the savviest trading house on Wall Street, it has staked out a position as one of the nation’s leading corporate philanthropists, giving away more than $1.6 billion since 2008.” As John F.W. Rogers, Goldman Sachs’s chief of staff, put it: “Engaging wasn’t just the right thing, it was necessary, especially in the wake of the financial crisis when people said we weren’t doing enough.”

“But this is still Wall Street, where money is the ultimate measure of worth, and how it is allocated creates resentments. Executives inside the bank say the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the clearinghouse of the company’s giving, has been given more resources at a time when the bank itself has been cutting back sharply on expenses â€" and people â€" on big trading desks,” Ms. Craig reports. “This has created bitterness among some employees â€" bitterness stoked by the favored status seemingly granted to Dina Powell, who runs the foundation.”

“Then there is the way Goldman has been going about its giving. Goldman is a firm that prides itself on discretion, but it isn’t giving away its billions quietly,” Ms. Craig writes. One Goldman employee, who asked not to be named because of a firm policy against speaking to the news media, said: “It’s run as if it’s a Broadway show.”

TWITTER FEEDING NEW HUNGER FOR I.P.O.’S  | When Facebook was getting ready to go public last year, Wall Street hoped the deal would accelerate a slow rise in new stock offerings. But Twitter’s eagerly awaited initial public offering does not carry the same weight of market expectations, Michael J. de la Merced and David Gelles report in DealBook. In some ways, it will be just one of several billion-dollar I.P.O.’s this year.

Twitter this week kicks off an eight-city road show to pitch its stock sale to big institutional shareholders like Fidelity, BlackRock and Legg Mason. The company “will be entering one of the strongest markets for I.P.O.’s in three years, especially in the United States,” DealBook writes. “Despite Facebook’s initial stumble in its market debut in May 2012, investors have shown a growing appetite for initial offerings, eager to take risks in hopes of big rewards when newly public companies’ stocks rise.”

Neil A. Mitchell, a managing director of equity capital markets at Credit Suisse, said: “High net worth private client individuals who were reluctant to participate in the I.P.O. market a year ago are increasingly reallocating money towards equities.”

JPMORGAN STRIKES DEAL WITH AGENCY OVER LOANS  | In a $13 billion settlement over its mortgage practices, JPMorgan Chase has secured important concessions that could ultimately reduce the bank’s financial burden and leave the government itself on the hook for a small portion of the cost, Ben Protess and Peter Eavis report in DealBook. On Friday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, extracted a $5.1 billion payout from JPMorgan, running ahead of a broader deal that the Justice Department and other authorities were negotiating with the bank.

“Unlike other regulators pursuing the bank, it did not require JPMorgan to admit wrongdoing. And in a provision buried in the settlement, the agency effectively allows JPMorgan to try later to recoup about $1 billion from another federal regulator: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,” according to the DealBook report. “The results show that, even as JPMorgan is facing an onslaught from the government, the bank is seeking to contain the fallout â€" and is succeeding on some fronts.”

ON THE AGENDA  | Apple and Herbalife report earnings after the market closes. Data on industrial production in September is released at 9:15 a.m. Data on pending home sales in September is out at 10 a.m. Marc Lasry, the head of Avenue Capital, is on Bloomberg TV at 11:15 a.m.

LAW FIRMS EXPECTED TO ANNOUNCE MERGER  | The law firms Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman are in advanced merger talks, with an announcement of a deal expected as soon as this week, DealBook’s Peter Lattman reports. “A combination would create one of the country’s 10 largest firms, with about 1,700 lawyers. The discussions underscore the intense pressure on corporate law firms to expand their businesses in a time of persistently soft demand for legal services and an increasing globalization of the corporate law industry.” The deal could still fall apart, though the negotiations are far along, people close to the talks said.

Mergers & Acquisitions »

G4S Rejects $2.5 Billion Offer for Cash Transport Unit  |  The global security firm G4S says it will not pursue the “highly opportunistic” offer from the British private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners, in part because the G4S board of directors views the cash transport business as a core operation. DealBook »

AMC Networks to Buy Chellomedia From Liberty Global  |  AMC Networks said on Monday it would pay about $1.04 billion for Chellomedia, the international content division of Liberty Global. REUTERS

Patton Boggs Law Firm Said to Be in Merger Talks  |  The Washington law firm Patton Boggs, “with nearly 500 lawyers and public policy advisers, is in merger discussions with Locke Lord of Dallas, which has more than 650 lawyers and consultants,” Reuters reports, citing two unidentified former Patton Boggs partners. “A third source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, would not confirm or deny that the other party was Locke Lord,” Reuters adds. REUTERS

NTT Communications of Japan to Buy 2 Cloud Computing Firms  |  NTT Communications, a subsidiary of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, is paying a combined $880 million for two cloud computing companies in the United States, Reuters reports. REUTERS

INVESTMENT BANKING »

Midlevel Bank Executive Is a New Face of the Housing Crisis  |  Rebecca S. Mairone, a midlevel executive at Bank of America’s Countrywide mortgage unit, seems the most unlikely of culprits to emerge from the housing debacle. DealBook »

China’s Dubious Art Market  |  “Even as the art world marvels at China’s booming market, a six-month review by The New York Times found that many of the sales â€" transactions reported to have produced as much as a third of the country’s auction revenue in recent years â€" did not actually take place,” David Barboza, Graham Bowley and Amanda Cox report in The Times. NEW YORK TIMES

The King of Predictable Markets  |  Eugene F. Fama, one of the winners of this year’s Nobel prize in economics, tells Jeff Sommer of The New York Times that he and the two other winners basically “agree on the facts â€" there is variation in expected returns, which leads to some predictability in returns. Where we disagree is whether it’s rational or irrational.” NEW YORK TIMES

Singapore Exchange Seeks High-Speed Traders  |  “We will pursue high-frequency trading once we have circuit breakers and other policies in place,” Magnus Bocker, the chief executive of the Singapore Exchange, said, according to Bloomberg News. “That will enhance the liquidity and quality of the Singapore market.” BLOOMBERG NEWS

Who’s Buying the Priciest Real Estate in London  |  A report from Deutsche Bank shows that at the ultrahigh end of London’s real estate market, many of the buyers are Chinese, Russian and Eastern European. BUSINESS INSIDER

PRIVATE EQUITY »

Buyout Firms Pour Money Into Shipping  |  The Financial Times reports: “Private equity-backed investment in shipping is set to hit record levels this year, having already surpassed $2.7 billion, as buyout houses bet on a recovery of an industry hit hard by the economic downturn.” FINANCIAL TIMES

For K.K.R., a Big Wireless Deal  |  The private equity firm K.K.R. “has struck a $100 million pact to build wireless-communications infrastructure alongside Associated Partners, an investment firm run by one of the sector’s pioneering families, according to people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL

HEDGE FUNDS »

Hedge Fund Assets Grow, But Returns Trail Behind  |  “Hedge funds are bigger than ever,” Barron’s writes. “There’s just one nagging problem the funds can’t seem to shake. On average, the performance of hedge funds is not what it used to be.” BARRON’S

Hedge Fund Manager Said to Plan Sale of Satellite Company  |  Mark Rachesky, a former protégé of Carl C. Icahn who is the chairman of Loral Space & Communications, is planning a sale of the satellite company, The New York Post reports. NEW YORK POST

I.P.O./OFFERINGS »

Twitter Expected to Name Woman to Board After I.P.O.  |  Twitter is planning to wait until after its initial public offering “to name its first woman to its board,” AllThingsD reports, adding that the company’s executives believe the new director should have “international expertise.” ALLTHINGSD

The Un-Facebook I.P.O.  |  Twitter so far seems to be avoiding the premature heights of Facebook’s flawed 2012 market debut, Richard Beales of Reuters Breakingviews writes. REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS

CommScope, Backed by Carlyle, Has a Rocky Debut  |  CommScope, which makes telecommunications equipment, is among those being sold this year as private equity firms hope to realize gains on their investments. DealBook »

VENTURE CAPITAL »

A Skeptical Look at Start-Up Valuations  |  “Even in Silicon Valley, where financiers don’t often let pesky business measures like revenue and profits dampen their enthusiasm for a start-up, Pinterest’s new financing seemed like a reach,” Nick Bilton writes in the Disruptions column on the Bits blog. NEW YORK TIMES

Snapchat May Raise Money at Multibillion-Dollar Valuation  |  “Only a few months after closing a Series B round of $60 million that valued the ephemeral messaging company at $800 million, Snapchat has been in talks for another funding that values it at up to $3.6 billion, according to sources close to the situation,” AllThingsD reports. ALLTHINGSD

LEGAL/REGULATORY »

In Fed and Out, a Sanguine View of Inflation  |  “Inflation is widely reviled as a kind of tax on modern life, but as Federal Reserve policy makers prepare to meet this week, there is growing concern inside and outside the Fed that inflation is not rising fast enough,” Binyamin Appelbaum reports in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES

Plan to Tax the Rich Could Aim at Nonresidents  |  “Ultrawealthy nonresidents who own property in New York City certainly make a ripe target for potential revenue,” James B. Stewart writes in the Common Sense column in The New York Times. “People who spend fewer than half the year in New York City don’t pay any city income tax, even if they generate much of their fortune in the city.” NEW YORK TIMES

The Man Who Helps Multinational Companies Avoid Taxes  |  Feargal O’Rourke, the head of the tax practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Ireland, advised Google, Facebook and LinkedIn on each company’s efforts to reduce their tax bills by routing profits through Ireland, Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS

Holding Banks Accountable, Not a Moment Too Soon  |  An agreement by JPMorgan Chase with the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a jury decision against Bank of America “have come late in the game, more than five years after the start of the mortgage crisis from which the economy and millions of homeowners have yet to recover,” the editorial board of The New York Times writes. NEW YORK TIMES

Bailout of G.M. Said to Have Included a Condition: Drop Pontiac  |  According to a snippet posted on Twitter of a coming interview with Autoweek, Robert A. Lutz, the former vice chairman of General Motors, said: “Feds said, ‘We’re giving you 60 billion dollars. Drop Pontiac or you won’t get the cash.’” JALOPNIK