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Deal Talk in Cable TV

John C. Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, who made his name through shrewd deal-making in the telecommunications industry, “is weighing a deal for Time Warner Cable, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly,” Michael J. de la Merced and Brian Stelter report in DealBook. “In this deal, Charter Communications, a cable operator in which Liberty owns a 27 percent stake, would buy Time Warner Cable. Should he reach a deal, he will most likely use the combined company to roll up other cable operators, upending a status quo dominated by giants like Comcast.”

“Those possibilities are helping to build expectations for deals in an industry that investors and some analysts think is ready for more,” DealBook writes. “Investors and analysts have speculated about transactions involvingCablevision and the privately held Cox Communications, as well as the satellite TV providers Dish Network and DirecTV.”

A CRIMINAL DEFENSE MERGER  |  Criminal defense work, once shunned by most of New York’s top law firms, is looking increasingly lucrative. One of the lawyers specializing in representing the accused, Charles A. Stillman, is announcing on Monday that his firm, Stillman & Friedman, has combined with Ballard Spahr, an old-line Philadelphia firm looking to enter the New York market and expand its criminal defense practice, DealBook’s Peter Lattman reports. Ballard’s New York office will be called Ballard Spahr Stillman & Friedman.

“The combination speaks to a shift that has taken place over decades, of corporate firms making a core bus! iness line out of white-collar work, including conducting internal investigations, handling foreign-bribery cases and representing executives in a number of scandals. As firms struggle to increase revenue, they realize that representing business people behaving badly is good for the bottom line,” Mr. Lattman writes. Mark S. Stewart, chairman of Ballard Spahr, said Stillman & Friedman was “a perfect fit.”

ONYX ON THE BLOCK  | 

Onyx Pharmaceuticals put itself up for sale on Sunday, after rejecting an unsolicited $10 billion takeover bid by the biotechnology giant Amgen last week as too low, Mr. de la Merced and Andrew Pollack report in DealBook. Amgen had proposed paying $120 a share in cash, 38 percent above Onyx’s closing price on Friday, Onyx said in a statement, adding that it had hired theinvestment bank Centerview Partners to contact possible suitors.

“It has already been in touch with a number of potential buyers, according to a person briefed on the matter,” DealBook writes. Onyx, which makes biopharmaceutical drugs, formally rejected Amgen’s approach on Friday afternoon, and the company’s shares began rising in after-hours trading soon afterward. “A sale of Onyx, based in California, would be the latest deal in the health care industry, one of the busiest for mergers and acquisitions in recent years.”

ON THE AGENDA  |  Stocks in Asia fell slightly on Monday, on fears about the Federal Reserve and an economic slowdown in China. The ISM manufacturing index for June is out at 10 a.m. Data on construction spending in May is out at 10 a.m.

RELENTLESS CLIMB IN C.E.O. PAY  |  An updated analysis shows that “the top 200 chief executives at public companies with at least $1 billion in revenue actually got a big raise last year, over all. The research, conducted for Sunday Business by Equilar Inc., the executive compensation analysis firm, found that the median 2012 pay package came in at $15.1 million â€" a leap of 16 percent from 2011,” Gretchen Morgenson writes in The New York Times. “So much for the idea that shareholders were finally getting through to corporate boards on the topic of reining in pay.”

For retiring chief executives, the rewards can be rich. “In 2012, the biggest package went to James J. Mulva, who stepped down as C.E.O. of ConocoPhillips after 10 years, according to an analysis by Equilar of the 10 largest exit packages. His total: about $156 million. As ith all C.E.O.’s on the list, his exit sum is on top of salary, bonus and other compensation received while working for the company,” Pradnya Joshi writes in The New York Times.

Mergers & Acquisitions »

Nokia to Buy Control of Joint Venture for $2.2 Billion  |  Nokia has agreed to buy Siemens’s half of a telecommunications equipment joint venture for about $2.2 billion, as Nokia continues to struggle with challenges in its cellphone business. DealBook »

2 Oligarchs Returning to Global Energy Market  |  The Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and German Khan have surrounded themselves with some highly regarded global executives to help them invest in the international energy market. DealBook »

Auction of VDM Said to Attract Private Equity Bidders  |  Firms including Apollo Global Management have shown preliminary interest in VDM, the high-performance alloys business being sold by Outokumpu, a Finnish producer of stainless steel, a German newspaper reported, according to Reuters. REUTERS

Dell’s Overseas Cash Presents a Puzzle  | 
WALL STREET JOURNAL

INVESTMENT BANKING »

Irish Banker Expresses Regret Over Taped Remarks  |  “I cannot change this now, but I can apologize to those who had to listen to it and who were understandably so offended by it,” David Drumm, former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, told The Sunday Business Post after the emergence of ! tape-reco! rded comments in which he appeared to make light of the bank’s bailout, according to Reuters. REUTERS

When the Bond Market Went South  |  “A bull market in bonds is a little like youth: you take it for granted and don’t appreciate it until it’s gone,” Nick Paumgarten writes in The New Yorker. NEW YORKER

Krawcheck on Life After Wall Street  |  “People say to me, ‘Has being a woman helped or hindered your career?’ And the answer is yes,” Sallie L. Krawcheck, the former big bank executive who recently bought the women’s network 85 Broads, ells New York magazine. NEW YORK

Bank of America Hires Financial Services Banker From Moelis  |  Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired John Binnie, a veteran financial services banker, as a vice chairman of its global financial institutions group, according to an internal bank memorandum. DealBook »

Bank of America in India  |  Bank of America has opened an office in Bangalore, India, to review appraisals of American homes, Bloomberg News reports, citing four people with knowledge of the move. The move, Bloomberg says, is part of the bank’s effort â! €œto rebu! ild share in U.S. mortgages at a lower cost.” BLOOMBERG NEWS

Former Barclays Chief Hits the Red Carpet  |  Robert E. Diamond Jr., the former Barclays chief executive, was spotted at a fund-raising event at the Savoy Hotel in central London, one of the few times he had been seen in public in Britain since he stepped down last year. Dressed in a tuxedo, Mr. Diamond joined other “B-list celebrities,” according to The Daily Mail, at the fund-raiser for disadvantaged young people in London. DAILY MAIL

PRIVATE EQUITY »

Private Equity Bidders for Soft Drink Brands  |  The Blackstone Group and Lion Capital “have teamed up to make a formal bid worth more than a billion pounds for Lucozade and Ribena, the two soft drink brands put up for sale by drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, Sky News reported on Sunday,” according to Reuters. REUTERS

Sun Capital Sells Parent of American Standard Brands  |  An affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, the private equity firm co-founded by Marc J. Leder, sold ASD Americas Holding, the parent company of American Standard Brands, to the Lixil Corporation of Japan at an enterprise value of $542 mill! ion. Base! d in New Jersey, American Standard makes the popular brand of kitchen and bath fixtures. DealBook »

HEDGE FUNDS »

A Quant’s Aggressive Tax Strategy  |  Bloomberg News reports: “James H. Simons, who became a billionaire when he turned his extraordinary mathematical ability from defense work to investing, has deployed an unusual strategy at Renaissance Technologies L.L.C. to skirt hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes for himself and other investors, said people with knowledge of the matter.” BLOOMBERG NEWS

Drop in Gold Weighs on Greenlight Capital  |  Reuters reports: “Investors in David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Management’s offshore gold fund were down 11.8 percent in June, bringing their year-to-date losses in the fund to 20 percent, two sources close to the matter said on Sunday.” REUTERS

I.P.O./OFFERINGS »

Noodles Prove Irresistible in Tough Week for I.P.O.’s  |  Shares in Noodles & Company, a fast-casual restaurant chain, doubled their initial public offering price by midafternoon on Friday, at $! 36.15. DealBook »

Chinese Banks’ Plans for Listing in Hong Kong Are Delayed  | 
FINANCIAL TIMES

Zuckerberg Leads Facebook Employees in Gay Pride Parade  | 
WALL STREET JOURNAL

VENTURE CAPITAL »

Detroit Seeks App Builders  |  Detroit is suddenly hungry for “software developers and information technology specialists who can create applications for the next generation of connected vehicles,” The New York Times writes. NEW YORK TIMES

Altair Semiconductor Raises $25 Million  | 
ALLTHINGSD

LEGAL/REGULATORY »

To Get Your Wages, Pay a Fee  |  For a growing number of hourly workers,! “paper! paychecks and even direct deposit have been replaced by prepaid cards issued by their employers. Employees can use these cards, which work like debit cards, at an A.T.M. to withdraw their pay,” The New York Times reports. “But in the overwhelming majority of cases, using the card involves a fee.” NEW YORK TIMES

Japan’s Prime Minister on His Plans for Growth  |  “Deflation must be rooted out in one fell swoop, through bold and practical new monetary and fiscal policies, implemented simultaneously,” Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan, writes in a post on LinkedIn. LINKEDIN

Canadian Steps In to Lead Bank of England  |  Mark J. Carney is stepping into the Bank of England’s palatial home on Threadneedle Street to take on one of the biggest roles in the future of Britain’s economy and banking sector, Julia Werdigier and Landon Thomas Jr. report in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES

Cohen Declines to Testify in SAC Insider CaseCohen Declines to Testify in SAC Insider Case  |  Steven A. Cohen has declined to testify before a grand jury, raising the stakes in the government’s long-running investigatio! n of poss! ible insider trading at his hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors. DealBook »

British Government Takes Step in Selling Stakes of Bailed-Out Banks  |  UK Financial Investments, the organization that manages the British government’s stakes in the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Lloyds Banking Group, is soliciting investment banks to make their pitches to help sell the holdings. DealBook »

Arrest Leaves New Blot on Vatican Bank  |  “Claiming to have foiled a caper worthy of Hollywood, or at least Cinecittà, the Italian police on Friday arrested a prelate andtwo others on corruption charges, saying that the priest plotted last summer to help wealthy friends sneak the money, the equivalent of about $26 million, into Italy while evading financial controls,” The New York Times reports. NEW YORK TIMES