A Fresh Challenge to Dell Buyout

ICAHN AND SOUTHEASTERN READY RIVAL BID FOR DELL  |  The billionaire Carl C. Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, two of the biggest shareholders of Dell, plan to bid for the computer maker in a last-ditch effort to stop what they call “the great giveaway,” the $24.4 billion management buyout led by Michael S. Dell, the company’s founder, and the private equity firm Silver Lake, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael J. de la Merced report in DealBook.

Unlike the bid currently on the table, which would pay shareholders $13.65 a share in cash, the bid by Mr. Icahn and Southeastern, disclosed in a letter to Dell’s board Thursday night, would pay shareholders about $12 a share either in cash or in additional shares of the company, leaving a portion of Dell publicly traded. If the special committee of Dell’s board refuses to budge, the two investors, which together owned more than 11 percent of Dell’s shares as of late March, have threatened a legal battle. “We are often cynical about corporate boards, but this board has brought that cynicism to new heights,” their letter to Dell’s board said. “This company has suffered long enough from very wrongheaded decisions made by the board and its management.”

By offering to give shareholders a chance to remain investors in Dell, the shareholders argue their bid is worth more than the offer on the table. Dell’s stock closed Thursday at $13.32 and rose modestly in trading after hours.

CALIFORNIA SUES JPMORGAN OVER CREDIT CARD CASES  |  California’s attorney general accused JPMorgan Chase on Thursday of flooding the state’s courts with questionable lawsuits to collect overdue credit card debt, claiming that the bank “committed debt collection abuses against tens of thousands of California consumers,” Jessica Silver-Greenberg reports in DealBook. From January 2008 to April 2011, JPMorgan filed thousands of lawsuits each month to collect such debt, claims the attorney general, Kamala D. Harris. The bank took shortcuts like relying on court documents that were not reviewed for accuracy, Ms. Harris says. “To maintain this breakneck pace,” according to the lawsuit, JPMorgan relied on “unlawful practices.”

Ms. Silver-Greenberg writes: “The accusations outlined in the lawsuit echo problems â€" from questionable documents used in lawsuits to incomplete records â€" that plagued the foreclosure process and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks. One hallmark of the foreclosure crisis, robosigning, in which banks worked through mountains of legal documents without reviewing them for accuracy, is at the center of Ms. Harris’s lawsuit against JPMorgan.”

SAC’S FIGHT TO KEEP CLIENTS  |  The giant hedge fund run by Steven A. Cohen has extended a deadline for investors to decide whether to withdraw money, pushing the date to June 3 from May 16, DealBook’s Peter Lattman reports, citing a person briefed on the matter. “While only a couple of weeks, the extension hints at the tense behind-the-scenes discussions between SAC and its investors over the firm’s central role in the government’s broad crackdown on insider trading,” Mr. Lattman writes. “One possible reason for granting the additional time is that SAC investors are awaiting the resolution of a civil action brought against SAC by the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

ON THE AGENDA  |  Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, gives the keynote address at a conference of the Chicago Fed. Jacob Lew, the secretary of the Treasury, is on CNBC at 5:30 a.m. The banking analyst Michael Mayo is on Bloomberg TV at 7:45 a.m.

FALCONE AND S.E.C. REACH DEAL  |  The Securities and Exchange Commission appears to have softened its tone nearly a year after suing Philip A. Falcone. The high-flying hedge fund manager, who was accused last summer of manipulating the market, using hedge fund assets to pay his own taxes and “secretly” favoring select customers at the expense of others, disclosed in a filing on Thursday that he had “reached an agreement in principle” to settle the two cases with the S.E.C. DealBook’s Ben Protess writes: “The settlement, which came after a federal judge in New York questioned aspects of the cases, would be a moral victory of sorts for Mr. Falcone, who has stubbornly resisted a deal for more than a year. It might also reignite concerns that the S.E.C.’s results sometimes fall short of its ambitions.”

Mergers & Acquisitions »

Facebook Said to Be in Talks Over Buying Waze  |  If Facebook were to buy Waze, a mobile navigation service, it would give the social network the ability to better deliver locally tailored ads and content to its users, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES

Barnes & Noble Shares Jump on Sign of Microsoft Interest in Nook  |  Microsoft is said to have offered to take over the Nook unit’s e-books and devices operations, but it is unclear whether there are any current talks on a possible deal.
DealBook »

Bank of America to Sell Mortgage Servicing Rights to KeyBank  |  Bank of America is selling a portfolio of commercial mortgage servicing rights valued at about $110 billion for an undisclosed amount, Reuters reports.
REUTERS

Ares Management Said to Be Buying AREA Property Partners  |  The Wall Street Journal reports: “Ares Management, a Los Angeles-based investment firm with about $60 billion under management, is acquiring AREA Property Partners, a New York-based real estate investor, according to people briefed on the matter.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Dish’s Results Hint at Trouble for Sprint Bid  |  Dish Network’s pay-TV pain signals trouble for its $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, Robert Cyran of Reuters Breakingviews writes.
REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS

Cloud Storage Company Box to Buy Crocodoc  | 
REUTERS

INVESTMENT BANKING »

After Complaint, Bloomberg Restricts Journalists’ Access to Customer Data  |  Goldman Sachs raised concerns that journalists at Bloomberg News had access to log-in information about customers of the terminal service, leading Bloomberg L.P. to restrict its journalists’ access to such data, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Goldman’s Cohn Can’t Escape the ‘Squid’  |  Gary D. Cohn, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, said Wall Street still faced a challenge in explaining its role in the lives of everyday people.
DealBook »

Margin Debt Is Back in Style  |  “Small investors are borrowing against their portfolios at a rapid clip, reaching levels of debt not seen since the financial crisis,” The Wall Street Journal writes.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

With Wall Street Support, a Charity Grows Up  |  The financier Leon D. Black and his wife, Debra, formed an organization to help raise money to fight skin cancer after she was successfully treated for the disease.
DealBook »

R.B.S. Names Chief of Citizens Financial  |  Bruce Van Saun, Royal Bank of Scotland’s finance director, has been appointed chief executive of the Citizens Financial Group, the company’s United States unit, two years ahead of its planned initial public offering.
DealBook »

PRIVATE EQUITY »

Extreme Reach, Video Advertising Company, Attracts $50 Million  |  The growth equity firm Spectrum Equity invested “in excess of” $50 million for a minority stake in Extreme Reach, which offers a video platform for advertising.
BOSTON GLOBE

Carlyle’s First-Quarter Profit Barely Budged  |  The Carlyle Group’s earnings rose less than 1 percent in the first quarter, the firm reported on Thursday. The small gain came largely thanks to a rise in the value of its investments.
DealBook »

HEDGE FUNDS »

What Happens in Vegas for Hedge Funds  |  The SALT hedge fund conference is an ideas conference, a Wall Street bacchanal and a power-networking event. It is also a place to absorb the musings of senior Wall Street money managers and Washington politicos.
DealBook »

Paulson Puts Hotel Unit in Bankruptcy  |  Reuters reports: “Billionaire investor John Paulson has put a real estate unit of his hedge fund into bankruptcy to thwart a lawsuit by a lender that claims it is owed tens of millions of dollars related to the recent sale of several luxury resorts.”
REUTERS

I.P.O./OFFERINGS »

Sprouts, Grocer Backed by Apollo, Files for I.P.O.  |  Sprouts Farmers Markets, an organic grocer that was acquired by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2011, is aiming to raise up to $300 million in an I.P.O.
REUTERS

VENTURE CAPITAL »

Salesforce Acquires Clipboard, Bookmarking Service  |  “The deal was worth between $10 million and $20 million, according to a closely involved source,” AllThingsD reports.
ALLTHINGSD

LEGAL/REGULATORY »

Judging by Bond Market, Giant Banks Seen as Too Big to Fail  |  President Obama said in 2010 that the Dodd-Frank law would put an end to taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street. But “investors, it turns out, don’t believe that,” Bob Ivry reports in Bloomberg Markets magazine. “The people who lend money to the largest banks are betting that Uncle Sam will toss a lifeline to a giant should it stumble, according to a study by Deniz Anginer, a World Bank financial economist.”
BLOOMBERG MARKETS

Fannie Mae to Pay $59.4 Billion to Treasury  |  The payment is coming after Fannie Mae reported a record quarterly profit.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Investors in Bankia to Sue Bank of Spain  |  The New York Times reports: “A group of investors plans to file an unusual lawsuit against the Bank of Spain, accusing the central bank of failing to warn investors of the problems at Bankia, a giant mortgage lender whose downfall helped set off a banking crisis that obliged Spain to seek a bailout from Europe.”
NEW YORK TIMES

Japan’s Pro-Inflation Policies Show Signs of Helping  |  “In the last few months, the nation’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has pushed policy makers and other officials to take bold steps to revive one of the world’s largest economies. Their handiwork was evident on Thursday when the Japanese yen hit 100 to the dollar for the first time in four years,” The New York Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES

Bank of England Keeps Benchmark Rate Unchanged  | 
NEW YORK TIMES