Vodafone in $10 Billion Deal

VODAFONE IN $10 BILLION DEAL  |  Vodafone, the British telecommunications giant, agreed on Monday to buy the German cable operator Kabel Deutschland for 7.7 billion euros, or $10.1 billion, DealBook's Mark Scott reports. The announcement concludes months of speculation about the German company, which also had received a preliminary approach from John C. Malone's Liberty Global. Vodafone said it had offered Kabel Deutschland's investors 87 euros for each of their shares, representing almost a 40 percent premium on the German company's stock since a potential Vodafone deal was first reported in February.

Kabel Deutschland's shares rose 2 percent, to 85.80 euros, in early morning trading in Frankfurt on Monday. “The fight to control Kabel Deutschland, which is Germany's largest cable company, forms part of an overhaul of Europe's telecommunications and cable sectors, as local and international competitors compete to pocket assets across the Continent,” Mr. Scott writes. Vodafone said it planned to add Kabel Deutschland's customers to its cellphone and broadband businesses in Germany.

A BRAZILIAN BILLIONAIRE'S REVERSAL OF FORTUNE  |  The Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista was on a roll in 2010, with Brazil's economy growing 7.5 percent that year and Mr. Batista's prodigious holdings in oil, mining, shipping and real estate soaring in value. “Today, with the Brazilian stock market and the value of its currency falling as mass demonstrations hobble the country, Mr. Batista's billions are evaporating,” Peter Lattman and Simon Romero write in The New York Times. “From a peak of $34.5 billion in March 2012, his wealth has dropped to $4.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His lenders are growing anxious, and there are concerns that he might have to reorganize - and possibly lose control of - his dwindling empire.”

“The rise and fall of the charismatic industrialist mirrors Brazil's sudden reversal of fortune. After years of economic expansion, the South American nation has begun to sputter. Inflation has become a major concern. Brazil's stock market index has declined about 23 percent this year, the most of any large country,” The Times writes. “And then there are the street protests spreading across Brazil, stunning the country's political and business establishment.”

SAFETY VALVE FOR DELL INVESTORS  |  Investors in Dell have until July 18 to tender their stock to Michael S. Dell in a proposed $13.65-a-share buyout of the company, a price that some big investors have loudly challenged. “But many shareholders may not realize that they have an intriguing alternative that could generate more money than Mr. Dell is offering: requesting that a court appraise the company's long-term value,” Gretchen Morgenson, a columnist for The New York Times, writes.

“Because Dell is incorporated in Delaware, such an appraisal process would go through that state's Court of Chancery. Upon the case's conclusion, Delaware law would require Mr. Dell to pay the shareholders bringing the litigation whatever value the court determined was fair. Going the appraisal route has its risks. One big one is that the court could award shareholders less than the $13.6 5 a share that Mr. Dell is offering. The cases also take time, during which investors' stock is tied up.”

ON THE AGENDA  |  The American Cancer Society holds its Financial Services Cares gala starting at 6 p.m. in Manhattan. Elvira Nabiullina takes over as head of Russia's central bank. Reed Brodsky, a former federal prosecutor who now works at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, is on Bloomberg TV at 2 p.m.

HULU PONDERS ITS FUTURE  |  Each of the potential buyers for Hulu, the Web streaming service that is jointly owned by the Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and News Corporation, brings with it a different vision of what the company should become, Amy Chozick and Brian Stelter write in The New York Times. “The interested parties include Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, the Chernin Group - an investment firm owned by the former News Corporation president Peter Chernin - and two private equity firms, Guggenheim Digital Media and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.”

Yahoo, fresh off its acquisition of Tumblr, had also expressed interest with an exploratory offer of $600 million to $800 million, several people briefed on the sale told The Times. “The eventual value of Hulu (which would include the brand, its accessible interface and the rights to many of the television shows it offers) is expected to be roughly $1 billion. Binding bids are due by Friday, though one person familiar with the process said the deadline could be delayed until next month.”

Mergers & Acquisitions '

Founders of ENRC Offer $4.7 Billion in Takeover Bid  |  The deal, which had to be outlined ahead of a Monday deadline for the consortium to clarify its takeover plans, comes as allegations of bribery and corruption continue to dog the troubled mining company.
DealBook '

Confidence From SoftBank Chief in Sprint Bid  |  “We've fought far tougher battles than this,” Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's founder and chief executive, told investors on Friday in Tokyo.
NEW YORK TIMES

Sprint May Be Off the Table, but Dish's Deal Appetite May Remain  |  What will the Dish deal maker Charles Ergen do next? One option may be going after the newly enlarged T-Mobile US. Another move may be a partnership or alliance with a wireless service provider.
DealBook '

Decline in Defense M.&A. Leads to Changes at Banks  |  The Washington Post reports: “The aerospace and defense industry saw a decline in mergers and acquisitions during the first part of the year as federal budget cuts set in, forcing the banks and financial advisers that facilitate those deals t o reconsider their stomach for the sector.”
WASHINGTON POST

Michael Dell Defends His Leveraged Buyout Offer  |  Michael S. Dell on Friday defended his $24.4 billion bid to buy control of Dell, arguing that an alternative proposal by Carl C. Icahn would severely weaken the computer company.
DealBook '

Mediobanca to Sell Stakes  |  The Italian bank announced plans to sell stakes in a number of companies for a combined $2 billion, as it looks to untangle itself from Italy's struggling corporate sector.
DealBook '

Mediobanca's Stake Sales Are a Hopeful Sign for Italy  |  After nearly seven decades of playing the puppet master of Italian capitalism, the merchant bank that Enrico Cuccia built has announced an official retreat. It is the end of an era, Rob Cox of Reuters Breakingviews writes.
REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS

INVESTMENT BANKING '

Morgan Stanley Cleared to Buy Rest of Wealth Management Business  |  Morgan Stanley said on Friday that it had received government approval to buy the remaining stake in the wealth management joint venture it formed with Citigroup in 2009.
DealBook '

Pay for Top Bankers Falls  |  The average compensation for top bankers in the United States and Britain fell by a tenth last year amid pressure from investors and regulators, The Financial Times reports.
FINANCIAL TIMES

Finally, a Jolt for Stocks  |  The good news about the turmoil in stocks following the Federal Reserve's announcement last week “is that, finally, the artificial high might just be coming to an end,” William D. Cohan writes in an opinion essay in The New York Times.
NEW YORK TIMES

China's Credit Squeeze Eases  |  The New York Times reports: “China's central government made no official announcement on the situation, and it remained unclear whether policy makers had intervened, but short-term interest rates fell sharply Friday from the day before, when they had reached some of the highe st levels in a decade.”
NEW YORK TIMES

Citigroup Set to Open Baghdad Office  | 
FINANCIAL TIMES

Pimco's Gross Shifts Family Holdings  |  William H. Gross, who manages the world's biggest mutual fund at Pimco, “is re-jiggering family investments in Pimco bond funds that have been beaten down by rising interest rates,” Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

PRIVATE EQUITY '

The Birth of a Buyout Firm  |  The Wall Street Journal reports: “Sander Levy and Alok Singh, private-equity veterans who eight years ago collaborated on the creation of a Bermuda reinsurer, are partnering with longtime tech executive Kevin Parker to start a new technology-and-financial-services-focused buyout shop, Bridge Growth Partners LLC.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Apax Partners Raises $7.5 Billion Fund  |  Apax Partners raised $7.5 billion for its latest private equity fund two years after approaching inves tors with the goal of raising $11.8 billion, Reuters reports.
REUTERS

HEDGE FUNDS '

Couple Behind Children's Investment Fund Said to Split  |  For years, Christopher Cooper-Hohn's hedge fund, the Children's Investment Fund, gave profits to the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, a charitable foundation run by his wife, Jamie. But the couple is now said to be living separately and may divorce, The Telegraph reports.
TELEGRAPH

I.P.O./OFFERINGS '

Suntory Beverage Unit Prices Tokyo I.P.O. at $4 Billion  |  Japan's largest manufacturer of nonalcoholic drinks priced its offering at the lower end of the indicated range, but the deal still ranks as the biggest I.P.O. in Asia this year.
DealBook '

Shares in Gogo Slip in Market Debut  |  Gogo shares were down 5.9 percent from the in-flight Internet service provider's initial public offering price in their first day of trading, closing at $16 on Friday.
DealBook '

An I.P.O. for Smashburger May Be Years Away  |  The restaurant chain Smashburger has secured a $35 million debt facility that is expected to help the company expand for “two or three years,” the chief executive said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

VENTURE CAPITAL '

Focusing on the Science, Not the Art, of Venture Capital  |  “Google Ventures and its take on investing represent a new formula for the venture capital business, and skeptics s ay it will never capture the chemistry - or, perhaps, the magic - of Silicon Valley,” The New York Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES

Snapchat Said to Achieve $800 Million Valuation  |  TechCrunch reports: “Snapchat has raised an $80 million Series B round at an $800 million pre-money valuation, according to a source.”
TECHCRUNCH

LEGAL/REGULATORY '

Ex-Enron C.E.O.'s Prison Sentence Is Cut by 10 Years  |  A deal between prosecutors and lawyers for Jeffrey K. Skilling, who spearheaded the fraud that destroyed Enron, came after an appeals court ordered his sentence recalculated.
DealBook '

S.E.C.'s New Chief Promises Tougher Line on Cases  |  By requiring an admission of guilt in some cases, Mary Jo White is pressing for more accountability at financial firms, says James B. Stewart, the Common Sense columnist for The New York Times
NEW YORK TIMES

Monaco's Tax Haven Team  |  The Russian billionaire who owns a majority stake in Monaco's soccer team can offer his players not just hefty wages but also liberation from income tax, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES

Emerging Markets Running Into a Wall  |  “Sustained, meteoric growth in emerging economies may no longer be possible,” Tyler Cowen writes in the Economic View column in The New York Times.
NEW YORK TIMES

Europe Plans New Talks on Bank Rescues  |  European Union finance ministers were unable on Friday and Saturday to reach a deal on rules for failing banks.
NEW YORK TIMES

How the Federal Reserve Got Away From Its Roots  |  “In 1913, few of the framers of the Fed anticipated that the institution would do anything” like what it announced last week, Roger Lowenstein writes in a column in The New York Times.
NEW YORK TIMES

Casting Doubt on Ireland's Turnaround  |  The economic data seemed to show Ireland recovering, but the actual situation may not be so rosy, Floyd Norris, a columnist for The New York Times, writes.
NEW YORK TIMES