Dish Network offered on Monday to buy Sprint Nextel for $25.5 billion in cash and stock, challenging the planned takeover of Sprint by the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank. The offer of $7 a share is worth about 13 percent more than the SoftBank proposal, Dish said in a statement. “The Dish proposal clearly presents Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank proposal,†Charles W. Ergen, chairman of Dish, said in a statement. The Dish offer, he added, would yield “substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal.†SoftBank has proposed a $20.1 billion deal to acquire a 70 percent stake in Sprint.
HEDGE FUND PAYDAYS STRETCH TO 10 FIGURES Â |Â Despite lackluster performance in the industry over all, a few hedge fund titans posted big returns last year, earning giant paydays, Julie Creswell reports in The New York Times. At the same time, some hedge fund managers were paid well even for disappointing returns.
David Tepper, who oversees $15 billion at Appaloosa Management, was the best compensated hedge fund manager in 2012, with a $2.2 billion payday, according to the annual ranking released on Monday by Institutional Investor’s Alpha. He oversaw a 30 percent gain after fees, thanks in part to bets on Citigroup, Apple and US Airways. Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors, who made $560 million, delivered a 28 percent gain for investors.
Not everyone was so successful. Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, could not quite beat the market, and yet he earned $1.7 billion, putting him at No. 2 on the list. Steven A. Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors, which has been under intense government scrutiny, fell short of market returns yet made about $1.4 billion.
“Pay for the top 25 earners came in at $14.14 billion last year. As high as that is, it was the lowest amount earned since the financial crisis in 2008, but comparable to the $14.4 billion the top 25 earned last year, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha,†Ms. Creswell writes. “Swashbuckling bets and robust returns are exactly what investors are hoping for â€" and paying for in outsize fees â€" when they allocate money to hedge funds. But far too often in recent years, investors have paid hefty fees for lackluster returns.â€
LIFE TECHNOLOGIES SAID TO BE NEAR $13 BILLION SALE  | A winner may be emerging in the contest for Life Technologies, a maker of genetic testing equipment. Thermo Fisher Scientific, which makes life sciences instruments, “is nearing a deal†to buy Life Technologies for close to $13 billion, or roughly $75 a share, Reuters reports, citing four unidentified people familiar with the matter. “Life Technologies’ board met on Saturday to review three takeover offers,†choosing Thermo Fisher over Sigma-Aldrich and a group of private equity firms, according to Reuters. “A deal could come as soon as Monday, though negotiations could yet fall apart as terms are being finalized.â€
WHEN SHAREHOLDER VOTES AREN’T HEARD  | At 41 publicly traded companies, directors remained in place despite losing shareholder elections last year, James B. Stewart, a columnist for The New York Times writes. For instance, at Cablevision Systems, the New York cable and media company controlled by the Dolan family, “three directors lost shareholder elections twice in the last three years â€" in 2010 and 2012 â€" and received only tepid support in 2011. Nonetheless, the three remain on the board.â€
“That an electoral system unworthy of Soviet-era sham democracies is flourishing today in corporate America is largely thanks to the management- and director-friendly policies of Delaware, where more than half of United States companies are incorporated and where the corporate franchise tax contributes disproportionately to the state’s revenue,†Mr. Stewart says. “State law controls board governance, and Delaware has long tolerated plurality voting. The Delaware Supreme Court has also affirmed the power of boards to reject the resignations of directors who fail to gain a majority of votes.â€
ON THE AGENDA Â |Â Citigroup reports earnings before the market opens. Shawn Matthews, chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald & Company, is on Bloomberg TV at 7:48 a.m. Glenn Schorr, a Nomura analyst, is on CNBC at 12:30 p.m.
FOR NEW S.E.C. CHIEF, CLOCK IS TICKING  | Mary Jo White, who was confirmed as the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is facing urgency in her new job. “Here’s hoping that one priority is to determine, and ramp up, investigations and whistle-blower complaints that are approaching their five-year statute of limitations,†Gretchen Morgenson writes in her column for The New York Times. “For a lot of cases involving questionable practices and disclosures arising from the mortgage bust of 2008, time is running out.â€
CVC in Talks Over British Online Gambling Firm  | CVC Capital Partners said it was in talks over making a takeover offer for Betfair, the British online gambling exchange. REUTERS
Liberty Global Wins European Approval for Virgin Media Takeover  |Â
REUTERS
Glencore Expected to Agree to Concessions in China  | For Glencore, securing regulatory approval in China would be “the final regulatory hurdle in its $32 billion acquisition of miner Xstrata,†Reuters writes. REUTERS
Regulatory Concerns to Delay Bank Merger  | M&T Bank said on Friday that a review by the Federal Reserve of its procedures and systems to fight money laundering would delay the closing of its $3.7 billion acquisition of Hudson City Bancorp. DealBook »
A Coffee Deal for the Long Haul  | Joh. A Benckiser of Germany is paying a rich price for its latest coffee acquisition, but rivals may be in for a jolt, Quentin Webb of Reuters Breakingviews writes. REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS
Goldman Raises Directors’ Pay by 500 Shares  | Goldman Sachs directors, who were already among the best-compensated corporate directors in the country, will receive an additional 500 shares a year, according to a securities filing. DealBook »
Drop in Home Loans Takes Toll on Banks  | Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase reported strong earnings, but added that mortgage income was declining. DEALBOOK
Wells Fargo Reduces List of Approved Money Managers  | The bank is cutting the list of money managers marketed to wealthy clients. “Executives said the clampdown protects clients from exposure to a plethora of investment models that have received little oversight,†Reuters reports. REUTERS
More Banks Offering Services to Fight Activist Investors  |Â
REUTERS
Citigroup Names Head of Hedge Fund Services in Asia  |Â
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Texas Energy Company Said to Seek to Delay Bankruptcy  | Energy Future Holdings, the company that was taken private in the largest leveraged buyout ever, “intends to make debt payments in May that could let it stave off a bankruptcy filing for as long as another 18 months, according to people close to the situation,†The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL
LVMH Fund Invests in Australian Retailer  | A private equity firm backed by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton agreed to buy a 49.9 percent stake of R.M. Williams, an Australian retailer, The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL
Warburg Pincus Buys Stake in Avtec of India  |Â
REUTERS
As Gold Falls, Paulson Loses $300 Million  | John A. Paulson lost more than $300 million of his personal wealth as the price of gold declined, according to Bloomberg News. BLOOMBERG NEWS
Hedge Fund Said to Put Pressure on Jones Group  |Â
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Now in the I.P.O. Market: Dividends  | “In the past six months, nearly half of all companies that sold shares through an I.P.O., or 26 in total, have paid a dividend,†Fortune writes. FORTUNE
HD Supply, Backed by Carlyle and Bain, Files for I.P.O.  | HD Supply Holdings, an industrial distribution company owned by a group of private equity firms, has filed to go public. It plans to use the proceeds to reduce debt. DealBook »
Virtus Health Said to Seek $712 Million Valuation in I.P.O. Â |Â
WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Flawed Logic of ‘Bitbugs’  | Paul Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times, says that devotees of bitcoins, or “bitbugs,†suffer from a philosophical misconception. “Goldbugs and bitbugs alike seem to long for a pristine monetary standard, untouched by human frailty. But that’s an impossible dream. Money is, as Paul Samuelson once declared, a ‘social contrivance,’ not something that stands outside society.†NEW YORK TIMES
Goldman Invests in Upstart Online Broker  | Motif Investing, a firm based in San Mateo, Calif., announced on Friday that it had raised a $25 million round of financing from investors including Goldman Sachs. DealBook »
Support Grows for European Effort to Fight Tax Havens  | Efforts to crack down on tax havens are gaining momentum after the number of European countries agreeing to share more bank information doubled. DealBook »
Google Reaches Deal in Europe on Searches  | The New York Times reports: “Google has for the first time agreed to legally binding changes to its search results after an antitrust investigation by European regulators into whether it abuses its dominance of online search.†NEW YORK TIMES
Zandi Said to Be Candidate to Lead Housing Agency  | The economist Mark Zandi “has emerged as a leading candidate to head†the Federal Housing Finance Agency, according to The Wall Street Journal. WALL STREET JOURNAL
Creditors of Lehman’s European Arm May Be Fully Repaid  | Bloomberg News reports: “Creditors to Lehman Brothers International Europe may be repaid in full after administrators settled disputes with some of the failed investment bank’s affiliates, increasing the size of expected future recoveries.†BLOOMBERG NEWS
Former Credit Suisse Executive Pleads Guilty to Inflating the Value of Mortgage Bonds  | Kareem Serageldin, a former senior trader at Credit Suisse, admitted in court on Friday that he fraudulently inflated the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed. DealBook »
Start-Up Looks to Make Law Firm Billing More Transparent  | Amid questions about industry practices, Viewabill offers law firms an app that can show their clients in real time what they are being charged for. DealBook »
In This Economy, Company Size Matters  | “American giants are benefiting from productivity gains and renewed growth in China and other overseas markets, allowing them to increase profits even if business at home remains lackluster,†The New York Times writes. NEW YORK TIMES
