It was once Amazon that led a lobbying campaign in Washington to prevent online merchants from having to collect state and municipal sales taxes from customers. Now, eBay has taken up the cause as the issue is moving through Washington in earnest for the first time, Andrew Ross Sorkin writes in the DealBook column. A bill introducing such a tax cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate, setting it up for a vote this week.
John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, made his thoughts known over the weekend in an e-mail to tens of millions of eBay merchants. “This legislation treats you and big multibillion-dollar online retailers â€" such as Amazon â€" exactly the same,†wrote Mr. Donahoe. “It may harm your ability to grow and costs jobs, including yours.â€
Mr. Sorkin writes: “Mr. Donahoe, who deserves credit for turning around eBay in recent years, isn’t trying to protect the mom-and-pop store or the struggling artist, he’s trying to keep substantial businesses with real revenue from paying taxes.â€
“In the end, it is unclear whether the Republican-controlled House will approve tax legislation if it clears the Senate, as expected. But when consumers make purchases, either in a store or online, they should be prepared to pay the requisite sales tax. And, yes, merchants and lawmakers should provide the way to collect it.â€
NEW LEADERSHIP FOR S.E.C.’S ENFORCEMENT TEAM  | Andrew J. Ceresney, a former federal prosecutor turned defense lawyer who on Monday was named a co-director of the enforcement unit of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is confronting a fresh batch of challenges. “Mr. Ceresney will inherit a unit that is on pace to file the lowest number of enforcement cases in a decade, according to S.E.C. figures provided to The New York Times,†DealBook’s Ben Protess writes. “In the last six months, through March 31, the number of cases is down 23 percent from the same period a year ago â€" a sharp contrast from recent years when the agency trumpeted its record-high numbers.â€
“Some longtime S.E.C. officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly, also question whether their focus on insider trading cases distracts from investigations of broader significance. What’s more, the officials say that the S.E.C. opened fewer investigations in the 2012 fiscal year than the previous year, presenting a potential obstacle to Mr. Ceresney, who will take the reins with George Canellos, an agency veteran.â€
AWAITING A BLUEPRINT ON FED LENDING  | “After the Federal Reserve lent more than $1 trillion to big banks during the 2008 financial crisis, Congress required the central bank to devise specific ways of protecting taxpayers when doling out emergency loans to financial institutions,†DealBook’s Peter Eavis writes. “But nearly three years after that overhaul became law, the Fed still has not established these regulations. The delay involves a crucial but little-noticed part of the Dodd-Frank act, the sweeping financial sector overhaul that Congress passed in July 2010. One part of the legislation focused on the Fed. While the government used many different tools to shore up the financial system during the crisis, Congress was well aware that the Fed played a decisive role.â€
ON THE AGENDA Â |Â Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, are to speak at the National Press Club in Washington about their plan to address too-big-to-fail institutions. Data on new home sales for March is out at 10 a.m. Delta Air Lines, US Airways and United Technologies report earnings before the market opens. Apple and AT&T report earnings on Tuesday evening.
NETFLIX SURPRISES WALL STREET  | In a recent interview with GQ, a Netflix executive said the company’s goal was “to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.†By one measure, the company now has more subscribers than HBO in the United States. On Monday, Netflix said its revenue in the first quarter topped $1 billion for the first time, largely because it quickly added subscribers to its streaming service, gaining about two million in the United States during the quarter. The company’s stock soared in trading after hours, passing $200 a share for the first time since 2011.
“After the subscriber data was released, analysts rushed to note that Netflix, with 29.2 million such subscribers, had apparently surpassed HBO. Michael Olson, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, also pointed out that Netflix’s two million new subscribers beat industry expectations of about 1.7 million,†The New York Times writes.
Thai Billionaire Offers $6.6 Billion for Discount Retailer  | The Thai operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores, owned by the billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, said on Tuesday that it would pay more than $6 billion to acquire the discount retailer Siam Makro in the biggest takeover announced in Asia this year. DealBook »
Credit Suisse Sells Private Equity Business to Blackstone  | The Blackstone Group will buy Strategic Partners, a private equity business owned by Credit Suisse that specializes in buying stakes in funds from other investors. The unit has $9 billion of assets under management. DealBook »
Sprint Forms Special Committee to Review Dish Offer  | Sprint Nextel said its board had formed a special committee and hired advisers to consider the $25.5 billion takeover offer from Dish Network. REUTERS
Head of Rosneft Willing to Hear Concerns of TNK-BP Minority Shareholders  |Â
REUTERS
Financial Firms Bow to Pressure on Executive Pay  | Seven large financial firms in the United States, including the PNC Financial Services Group and Capital One Financial, said they were “scaling back the maximum bonuses awarded to executives who beat their performance targets, according to regulatory filings,†The Wall Street Journal writes. WALL STREET JOURNAL
CME Says It ‘Mistakenly’ Let Traders See Data  | The CME Group said that it allowed “a small number†of traders to see confidential information on swaps that it collects, and corrected the problem within two days, Reuters reports. REUTERS
In Germany, Lazard Said to Hire Investment Banker From Credit Suisse  |Â
BLOOMBERG NEWS
JPMorgan and Barclays Gain Ground in Dealing Energy Derivatives  |Â
REUTERS
Private Equity Firms Lose Enthusiasm for Chinese Currency  | Private equity firms once hoped that funds raised in Chinese currency would be treated by the Chinese government as domestic, but uncertainty over that issue has weighed on fund-raising, The Wall Street Journal writes. WALL STREET JOURNAL
K.K.R.’s Municipal Water Deal  | A deal in Bayonne, N.J., in which K.K.R. and another company are receiving water bill revenue from a utility, “is an example of the financial engineering pitched to cities across the U.S. that are in a jam,†The Wall Street Journal writes. WALL STREET JOURNAL
Taking a Page From Rhodes  | Stephen A. Schwarzman’s move to contribute $100 million to start a scholarship program in China may not be entirely philanthropic, but there will still be many beneficiaries if it helps Western and Chinese elites understand each other better, Peter Thal Larsen of Reuters Breakingviews writes. REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS
Hedge Fund Reveals $2 Billion Stake in Microsoft  | Jeffrey W. Ubben of ValueAct Capital Management said at an investor conference on Monday that his firm held about $2 billion in Microsoft stock. REUTERS
Former Icahn Lieutenant Takes on Real Estate Trust  | “We knew we were in for a fight before we bought the first share,†Keith Meister, managing partner of Corvex Management, and a former executive of Icahn Enterprises, said of his investment in CommonWealth REIT, according to The Wall Street Journal. WALL STREET JOURNAL
Brazilian Power Company Raises $421 Million in I.P.O.  | Alupar Investimento held what was “South America’s first initial public offering by a power utility since the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008,†according to Bloomberg News. BLOOMBERG NEWS
Twitter Signs Deal With Advertising Agency  | Twitter agreed to a multiyear deal, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with the Starcom MediaVest Group, part of Publicis Groupe. “This is what the company has been talking about for really the last year,†said Laura Desmond, the global chief executive of Starcom MediaVest. NEW YORK TIMES
A Messaging App, Kik, Attracts $19.5 Million  | The app “just got a little more gas in the tank for its race against rivals like WhatsApp, GroupMe, MessageMe and Facebook Messenger,†the Bits blog writes. NEW YORK TIMES BITS
GlaxoSmithKline Partners With Venture Capital Firm  |Â
REUTERS
S.&P. Urges Judge to Dismiss Civil Case  | Standard & Poor’s urged the dismissal of federal civil accusations that it inflated its credit ratings to win business during the boom in mortgage investments. DealBook »
In Europe, a Pint-Size Punishment for Google  | Regulators in Germany fined Google just $189,225 for scooping up personal information in the Street View mapping project. “That’s how much Google made every two minutes last year, or roughly 0.002 percent of its $10.7 billion in net profit,†The New York Times writes. NEW YORK TIMES
News Corp. Reaches $139 Million Settlement With Shareholders  | The group of United States shareholders had claimed that the board of News Corporation had breached its fiduciary responsibility in its handling of the phone-hacking scandal. NEW YORK TIMES
Earthquake Response and Political Tensions Return to the Spotlight  | The government’s response to a deadly earthquake is yet another test of its ability to deliver the goods, Bill Bishop writes in the China Insider column. The administration of President Xi Jinping takes more steps to tackle corruption. DealBook »
