DELL FIGHTS BACK Â |Â The fight over Dell Inc. has climbed to a new level.
The computer maker on Friday began its official campaign to support a proposed $24.4 billion sale of itself to Michael S. Dell and the investment firm Silver Lake, amid continued opposition to the deal.
The computer company filed its definitive proxy materials after receiving final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. And it set July 18 as the date for a shareholder vote on the transaction.
Dell said that its board had examined every possible alternative to the deal, and rebutted calls by Southeastern Asset Management and Carl C. Icahn to instead pursue a big stock buyback and special dividend.
“Our analysis led us to conclude unanimously that a sale to the Michael Dell/Silver Lake group for $13.65 per share is the best alternative available â€" in a challenging business environment it offers certainty and a very material premium over pre-announcement trading prices,†the company wrote in a letter to shareholders.
DealBook »
LLOYDS’ BIG MORTGAGE SALE  | Lloyds Banking announced that it had agreed to sell a portfolio of United States real estate-backed securities for £3.3 billion ($5 billion) to a number of American investors, including Goldman Sachs. The British firm said it expected to generate a pretax income of £540 million from the deal.
The disposal is part of Lloyds’ mounting efforts to increase its capital reserves after British regulators demanded that the country’s banking sector raise a combined £25 billion to fill a capital shortfall by the end of the year, Mark Scott reports on DealBook.
By offloading the American mortgage-backed securities, the British bank has benefited from a resurgent American property market, where housing prices in March rose almost 11 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the S.&P. Case-Shiller home price index.
DealBook »
ON THE AGENDA  | The Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index is released at 9:45 a.m., while the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence survey is published at 9:55 a.m.
Enter specialized boot camps where â€" for fees that sometimes exceed $1,000 a day â€" would-be masters of the universe can perfect Excel modeling techniques and financial analysis, Lynnley Browning writes on DealBook.
Each year, tens of thousands of students at the nation’s top business schools, and scores of new hires at financial firms, including Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group, now take courses run by companies like Training the Street and Wall Street Prep.
Graduates say the classes give them a new appreciation for the heart of financial analysis. An eight-hour crash course on leveraged buyouts from Training the Street was so intensive that it “kind of makes you want to slit your wrists,†said Michael Rojas, who graduated from Columbia Business School this month.
DealBook »
A Spotlight on Smithfield’s Dissident Investor  | With its proposed sale to Shuanghui International, Smithfield Foods appears to be eschewing a recommendation by Continental Grain, one of its biggest shareholders, to break itself up. It isn’t clear how Continental will respond.
DealBook »
Deal Professor » | China’s Food Deal Extends Its Reach, Already Mighty
Bank of China Said to Provide $4 Billion in Financing for Smithfield Deal  | Bank of China will provide up to $4 billion in financing for Shuanghui International’s proposed $4.7 billion offer for the pork producer Smithfield Foods.
REUTERS
Dish Network’s Bid for Clearwire Complicates Telecom Deal  | By bidding for Clearwire at the last minute, Dish Network has complicated several proposed telecommunications deals, which have caused instability in the companies’ share prices.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Clearwire Investor Voices Opposition to Sprint Bid  | Crest Financial, one of the biggest minority shareholders in Clearwire, has urged the wireless company to not recommend Sprint Nextel’s buyout offer after Dish Network made a counter bid.
REUTERS
Berkshire Hathaway Buys The Roanoke Times  | Warren Buffett continues to add to his newspaper empire after Berkshire Hathaway bought The Roanake Times for an undisclosed fee.
CNN MONEY
American Realty to Buy Portfolio From GE Capital  | American Realty Capital Properties has agreed to buy a portfolio of 471 lease properties from GE Capital for $807 million in a bid to diversify its revenues, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Encore Buys Stake in Cabot Credit for $200 Million  | The American debt management company Encore Capital Group has agreed to buy a majority stake in Cabot Credit Management for around $200 million to break into the British debt purchasing market.
FINANCIAL TIMES
British Engineering Company Confirms Bid for Medical Unit  | The British engineering company Smiths Group has received an approach for its medical unit that could be worth up to $3 billion.
REUTERS
UBS Raises Banker Pay to Match Competitors  | The Swiss bank UBS plans to increase the salaries of its investment bankers to match those at rival banks even as it cut around 10,000 jobs to bolster its profitability.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Fewer Bonuses for Bankers in Britain  | One in three bankers in London walked away empty-handed from the last bonus round, a survey by the recruitment firm Morgan McKinley showed.
DealBook »
Succession Carousel at General Electric  | The potential exit of GE Capital’s chief shifts the spotlight onto succession for his boss, Jeffrey Immelt.
DealBook »
Goldman Sachs Scores Big in Health Care Deal  | Despite failing to put together three potential health care deals in recent months, Goldman Sachs scored a major payday after helping to arrange Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ $8.7 billion acquisition of Bausch & Lomb.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Bond Market Movements Puts Focus on Fed  | Analysts are divided over whether rising interest rates on long-term mortgages and Treasury bills are a sign that the credit bubble is bursting or that the United States economy is recovering.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Morgan Stanley Makes Trades in Shrinking Derivatives Unit  | Morgan Stanley bought credit positions with a notional value of more than $50 billion over the last three years, despite plans to shrink its derivatives business.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Vatican’s Top Banker Faces Tough Challenges  | Ernst von Freyberg will need a lot of strength as he sets out to rescue the scandal-torn reputation of the Institute for the Works of Religion, as the Vatican’s bank is formally known.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Santander Sells Half of Asset Management Arm to Investment Firms  | Banco Santander said on Thursday that it had sold a 50 percent stake in its asset-management arm to two investment firms, Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic, as the bank continues to raise money to bolster its balance sheet.
DealBook »
Cerberus’s Share Offer for Seibu Holdings Set to Close  | Cerberus Capital Management’s offer to buy shares in the Japanese rail and hotel operator Seibu Holdings closes on Friday, according to Bloomberg News.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
American Private Equity Firms Circling Indian Tech Firm  | The American private equity giants Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group are planning bids to buy Hewlett Packard’s $1 billion stake in the Indian technology services company MphasiS.
REUTERS
Warburg Pincus Sells Stake in Indian Electronics Firm  | Warburg Pincus has sold its 8.4 percent stake in the Indian electronics company Havells India to European private equity firm Vontobel.
ECONOMIC TIMES
Sony Chief Warns Against Breakup  | Sony’s chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, has defended the Japanese company’s plan to keep its electronics and entertainment units under one roof after coming under pressure to break up the operations.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sony Said to Hire Bankers Over Breakup Plan  | Sony has hired Morgan Stanley and Citigroup to help consider the breakup plan put forward by the U.S. hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, according to Bloomberg News.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Top Hedge Fund Managers Control Lion’s Share of Capital  | The hedge fund industry’s top 100 largest fund managers control more than 60 percent of capital allocated to the sector, according to the data provider Preqin.
HERE IS THE CITY
Former Goldman Executive Opens New Firm  | A former Goldman Sachs executive, Fred Eckert, has opened a new hedge fund after his last firm went bankrupt â€" and after he spent two months in a coma during the financial crisis.
REUTERS
Former SAC Capital Trader Plans New Hedge Fund  | Miaodan Wu, a former manager at the hedge fund SAC Capital, is preparing to start his own hedge fund in Hong Kong to bet on price swings in financial securities, according to Thomson Reuters.
REUTERS
British Politician Calls for Restraint in R.B.S. Share Sale  | The British business secretary, Vince Cable, believes that the prospective share sale of the partly nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland should not be rushed, as the firm says the offering could start next year.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Awaiting a Big Payday Ahead of Partnership Assurance I.P.O.  | Top executives at the British financial services firm Partnership Assurance and bankers at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley could stand to earn millions of dollars if the firm’s I.P.O. is successful in London.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Royal Mail Faces Big Pension Charge Ahead of Offering  | The Royal Mail Group of Britain faces an extra $450 million yearly pension charge ahead of its proposed initial public offering.
FINANCIAL NEWS
SoftBank Capital Raises $53 Million for N.Y. Fund  | SoftBank Capital has raised a $53 million fund targeted at backing early-stage start-ups in New York, according to AllThingsD.
ALLTHINGSD
Tumblr Adds Advertising to Web Dashboard  | Less than a month after being acquired by Yahoo, the micro-blogging company Tumblr has added brand advertisements to its web dashboard.
TECHCRUNCH
Lars Dalgaard Joins Andreessen Horowitz  | Lars Dalgaard, the founder of SuccessFactors who sold the business to SAP for $3.5 billion, has joined the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner.
FORTUNE
Reducing the Corporate Tax Rate Could Stabilize Banks  | If Congress reduces the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, as many have suggested, it could help reduce systemic risk in the banking industry, Victor Fleischer writes in the Standard Deduction column.
DealBook »
A.I.G. Ends Suit Against New York Fed Over Losses  | The American International Group has dropped a case against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over whether the insurer retained the right to sue over losses on residential mortgage-backed securities after its bailout in 2008.
REUTERS
Head of C.F.T.C. Faces Questions over E-Mail Use  | Gary Gensler, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is facing scrutiny from Congress over using his person e-mail for work connected to the collapse of MF Global.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Former British Politician Criticizes Financial Transaction Tax  | Nigel Lawson, the former British chancellor of the Exchequer, said the proposed European financial transaction tax would drive business from London to New York.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Bitcoin Exchange Tightens Verification Procedures  | Mt. Gox, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, has announced new verification procedures to avoid money laundering and other illegal activities.
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