Shares of the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica climbed on Monday after a report in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that AT&T had made a $93 billion offer for the company that was rejected by the government. But Telefónica was forced to deny the report. “In relation to press rumors published today, Telefónica states that it has not received any approach, nor any indication of interest, neither verbal nor in written form, from any party,†the Spanish company said in a statement. In Madrid, shares of Telefónica rose as much as 3.9 percent on Monday before paring back gains. They were up 2.6 percent in late morning trading, DealBook’s Mark Scott writes.
The Spanish industry minister, José Manuel Soria, said on Monday that he had no knowledge of an offer by AT&T for Telefónica, but acknowledged that he had met with the chairman of AT&T, Randall L. Stephenson, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, The Financial Times reports.
THE BIG FORESTRY DEAL  | Weyerhaeuser said on Sunday that it planned to acquire Longview Timber from Brookfield Asset Management, gaining 645,000 acres of timberland, for about $2.65 billion. The company added that it was weighing a sale or spinoff of its home-building unit, DealBook’s Michael J. de la Merced reports.
The deal expands Weyerhaeuser’s holdings in the Pacific Northwest by 33 percent, to 2.6 million acres, and increases its overall holdings in the United States to 6.6 million acres. Weyerhaeuser is paying for the deal by raising about $2.45 billion in debt and equity, including through loans from Morgan Stanley. The company also plans to raise its quarterly dividend to 22 cents a share from 20 cents. According to Bloomberg News, it is the third-largest forestry acquisition in North America.
Weyerhaeuser is also considering a potential sale or spinoff of its home-building division, the Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Company, which includes Pardee Homes. But the company may also decide to hold onto the unit, which reported nearly $1.1 billion in revenue last year, a 28 percent increase from 2011.
JPMORGAN TO SPIN OUT PRIVATE EQUITY UNIT  | The last remaining private equity unit of JPMorgan Chase, One Equity Partners, is being spun out into a separate company and is raising its next fund as an independent firm. “The move comes as banks are facing regulatory pressure to reduce their exposure to risky businesses, but the divestment of One Equity, which manages $4.5 billion of the bank’s money, was not in response to that, according to a person briefed on the matter,†DealBook’s Peter Lattman reports. “Instead, this person said, the decision is a reflection of JPMorgan’s emphasis on its client businesses rather than making investments off the firm’s balance sheet.â€
“One of the bank’s reasons for de-emphasizing its private equity investments â€" especially the ones that were made by its largest unit, JPMorgan Partners â€" is that it didn’t want to be in businesses that directly competed with some of its prized private equity clients, like the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts,†Mr. Lattman continues.
ON THE AGENDA Â |Â Gary D. Cohn, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, is being honored at the annual gala of Harlem RBI and Dream Charter School, starting at 5 p.m. in Manhattan. The lawyer H. Rodgin Cohen of Sullivan & Cromwell is on Bloomberg TV at 7:45 a.m. Aaron Levie, chief executive of Box, is on Bloomberg TV at 6 p.m.
A DERIVATIVES DEAL FALLS APART  | JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were planning a sale of “synthetic collateralized-debt obligations,†derivative investments that were at the heart of the financial crisis. But the attempt failed after investors balked at buying some of the products being offered, The Financial Times reports. The bankers had been looking to revive the synthetic C.D.O.’s “after receiving inquiries from some investors hungry for higher-yielding investments,†the newspaper writes.
Cinven to Buy CeramTec for $2 Billion  | The European private equity firm Cinven agreed on Sunday to buy the ceramics business CeramTec from Rockwood Holdings for 1.49 billion euros. DealBook »
Asia’s Richest Man Buys Dutch Waste Firm  | A consortium of companies owned by the Asian billionaire Li Ka-shing has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to acquire the Dutch waste management firm AVR from its private equity owners. DealBook »
Elan Puts Itself Up for Sale  | Four months after Royalty Pharma approached the Irish drug maker Elan, a takeover battle takes a new turn. DealBook »
Co-operative Bank Turns to Bondholders to Fill Capital Shortfall  | Co-operative Bank has announced plans to raise an additional $2.4 billion to replenish a capital shortfall by asking junior bondholders to swap their debt securities for shares. DealBook »
JPMorgan Plans Service for Tracking Assets  | The Financial Times reports: “JPMorgan Chase will on Monday unveil its attempt to capture a slice of the growing business of managing the billions of dollars worth of cash and securities that funds and companies will need to stump up to back their derivatives trades.†FINANCIAL TIMES
Among Pessimists, a New Economic Optimism  | “But could the New Normal, as this long economic slog has been called, be growing old? That is the surprising new view of a number of economists in academia and on Wall Street, who are now predicting something the United States has not experienced in years: healthier, more lasting growth,†Nelson D. Schwartz writes in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES
Big Banks Resist New Rules for Small Loans  |Â
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Overcoming Your Negativity Bias  | Learning to put your attention where it serves you best requires the same sort of deliberate practice necessary to build any new skill, Tony Schwartz writes in the Life@Work column. DealBook »
Pitching the Value of Marijuana to Investors  | On Friday, 18 start-up companies attended a conference organized by the ArcView Investor Network, a group of entrepreneurs looking to invest in legal cannabis companies, E.C. Gogolak writes in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES
Singapore Telecommunications Unit Attracts Private Equity Bidders  | K.K.R., the Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group, in addition to strategic buyers like Eutelsat Communications of France, are among the parties to place first-round bids for the Australian satellite unit of Singapore Telecommunications, Reuters reports, citing an unidentified person with direct knowledge of the matter. REUTERS
Cermaq Receives $1.1 Billion Offer for Unit  | Altor Equity Partners and Bain Capital made an offer for the Ewos unit of the Norwegian fish food maker Cermaq, Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS
Hedge Funds Reduce Bets on Gold  | Bloomberg News writes: “Hedge funds cut wagers on a gold rally for the first time in three weeks on mounting speculation central banks will curb record stimulus and as this year’s slump in bullion spurred losses for billionaire John Paulson.†BLOOMBERG NEWS
Brazil Cement Producer Aims to Raise $4.9 Billion in I.P.O.  | If successful, the initial public offering of Votorantim Cimentos of Brazil would bring the level of capital raised in I.P.O.’s in that country this year above $10.6 billion, setting a record, The Financial Times reports. FINANCIAL TIMES
In I.P.O., CDW to Fall Short of Boom-Era Valuation  | The CDW Corporation disclosed plans to price its initial public offering at $20 to $23 a share, valuing the entire company at about $3.6 billion at the midpoint of that range, or half of what its owners paid for it in 2007. DealBook »
Path Is Said to Approach $1 Billion Valuation  | TechCrunch writes: “We’re hearing from multiple sources that private social network Path is raising a new round of funding that could value the company as high as $1 billion.†TECHCRUNCH
Watchdogs Without Bark in Countrywide Case  | A court battle over legal liability for Countywide Financial loans is “laying bare an industry practice that has put investors in mortgage securities at a disadvantage and reduced their financial recoveries in the aftermath of the home loan mania,†Gretchen Morgenson writes in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES
Bank Gave Bonuses Tied to Foreclosures, Lawsuit Claims  | Bank of America “rewarded staff with cash bonuses and gift cards for meeting quotas tied to sending distressed homeowners into foreclosure, former employees said in court documents,†Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS
Defining Real Estate Broadly to Avoid Corporate Taxes  | Iron Mountain, an information storage company, is a great example of how companies are trying to qualify as real estate businesses to take advantage of tax benefits, Victor Fleischer writes in the Standard Deduction column. DealBook »
Singapore Censures 20 Banks Over Rates  | Financial institutions, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, were found to have insufficient risk management and internal controls, which allowed some traders to try to alter rates. DealBook »
In Utah, a Local Hero Is Accused of Fraud  | An Internet marketing millionaire named Jeremy Johnson, who is known in his local community as “Christlike,†has been accused by the Federal Trade Commission of being “the mastermind†behind a large and intricate online marketing fraud, The New York Times reports. NEW YORK TIMES
U.S. Directs Agencies to Free Up Spectrum  | The White House announced efforts intended in part to spur government agencies to participate in a plan to double the country’s supply of airwaves for use in high-speed wireless Internet service, The New York Times reports. NEW YORK TIMES
