BLACKBERRY CO-FOUNDER IS SAID TO CONSIDER BID FOR COMPANY Â |Â Mike Lazaridis, the co-founder of BlackBerry who stepped down as co-chief executive last year, has contacted private equity firms about a possible bid for the troubled company, David Gelles and Michael J. de la Merced report in DealBook. He has separately approached the Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group about making an offer, according to people familiar with the matter, who cautioned that the talks were preliminary and might not lead to any bids.
BlackBerry’s prospects were muddied further on Friday when the company announced quarterly revenue far below analysts’ expectations and said it would lay off 4,500 employees, or nearly 40 percent of its already reduced work force, Ian Austen reports in The New York Times. The company’s shares listed in the United States fell 17.1 percent, to $8.73.
“This is a recognition that they lost the handset war,†James H. Gellert, chairman and chief executive of Rapid Ratings, an investment risk evaluation firm, told The Times. “It’s certainly a waving of the big, white towel.â€
Just two months ago, BlackBerry added a corporate jet to its fleet, according to The Wall Street Journal.
AT JPMORGAN, TRYING TO FOLLOW THE RULES WASN’T ENOUGH  | Stephen M. Cutler was known as a tough and, at times, feared regulator when he was the Securities and Exchange Commission’s chief of enforcement from 2001 to 2005, calling for more corporate accountability. But times have changed, James B. Stewart writes in the Common Sense column in The New York Times. “As general counsel of JPMorgan Chase & Company, Mr. Cutler is now on the receiving end of the lectures, which last week came from George S. Canellos, a successor to Mr. Cutler and currently the co-chief of enforcement at the S.E.C.†On Thursday, the S.E.C. and other regulators announced that JPMorgan had agreed to admit wrongdoing and pay nearly $1 billion in fines over its large trading loss in London last year.
A lawyer whose company was an S.E.C. target during Mr. Cutler’s tenure said, “I have to admit to a certain amount of schadenfreude,†adding: “At the time, he did a lot of grandstanding about lawyers being gatekeepers and the moral compass for the organization and how we should have prevented all this. He sounded great on the soapbox. Now I’ve been following JPMorgan and it’s pretty ironic.â€
How did JPMorgan become a piñata for government regulators, just a few years after avoiding the missteps that brought low so many other firms in the financial crisis? Joe Nocera, a columnist for The Times, suggests a few possible reasons. “On one level, JPMorgan raises the broad question of whether any of the big, sprawling, systemically important banks can truly be managed. But there are also issues that are particular to JPMorgan,†Mr. Nocera writes. “The fact that the London Whale trades were being marked differently by two areas of the bank suggests that something was seriously awry.â€
ON THE AGENDA Â |Â
Dennis P. Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, speaks at the Metropolitan Club in New York at 9:20 a.m. William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Fed, speaks at Fordham University’s graduate school of business at 9:30 a.m. The financier Steven L. Rattner is on CNBC at 7 a.m.
OPENING A LID COMPANIES WOULD PREFER STAY SHUT  | “Vivendi and Activision Blizzard have been tripped up on their new deal by their old one, creating a possible “wreck,†as one participant representing Activision put it, Steven M. Davidoff writes in the Deal Professor column. Last week, “Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of Delaware Chancery Court ruled that the two could not complete a sale by Vivendi of most of its stake in Activision Blizzard.†Mr. Davidoff writes: “The judge halted the sale because he found that it violated a provision in Activision’s certificate of incorporation.â€
“The word ‘wreck,’ which was the comment made by one of Activision’s lawyers at the hearing on this matter, was probably apt,†Mr. Davidoff continues. “The transaction was scheduled to close last week, but now the parties will have to delay closing for several months to hold a shareholder vote.†On Friday afternoon, Activision filed an appeal.
Vodafone Wins Approval for Takeover of German Cable Operator  | The approval by the European antitrust authorities was the last hurdle in Vodafone’s $10.4 billion acquisition of Kabel Deutschland. DealBook »
Small Ad Agencies Feed Off Merger of Big Fish  | “The smaller fry are extolling what they consider to be the benefits of being small, like nimbleness, and the drawbacks of being big, like high overhead,†Stuart Elliott writes in the Advertising column in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES
Chinese Magnate to Build $8 Billion Film Park  | The Chinese property developer Wang Jianlin, the founder of Dalian Wanda Group, unveiled a 50 billion renminbi ($8.17 billion) “motion picture city†in Qingdao, China. REUTERS
Citigroup Said to Experience Decline in Trading Revenue  | The Financial Times reports: “Citigroup has suffered a significant decline in trading revenues that threatens to depress its earnings, according to people familiar with conversations between investors and the bank in recent days.†FINANCIAL TIMES
Academic Study Casts Doubt on the Value of Investment Advice  | The Financial Times writes: “Pension funds and other large investors are throwing away billions of dollars a year on worthless advice from investment consultants, according to academic research.†FINANCIAL TIMES
Buffett’s Lessons in Patriotism and Compassion  | “I’ve been dialing for dollars,†Warren E. Buffett said at a recent event at Georgetown University, speaking about his effort to persuade other billionaires to give away the majority of their net worth. If the billionaires resist, Mr. Buffett said, he tells them: “If I’m talking to some 70-year-old, I say, ‘Do you really think your decision-making ability is going to be better when you’re 95 with some blonde on your lap, or now?’†NEW YORK TIMES
A Night for Swiss Pride, Minus Tax Talk  | At a party at the Swiss Embassy on Wednesday night in Washington, discussion about bank secrecy took a back seat to a celebration of other Swiss pursuits, with Kübler absinthe and Davidoff cigars. DealBook »
Dell-Led Trio to Donate Magnum Photo Archive to University of Texas  | The collection, whose value is estimated at about $200 million, had already been in display at the school’s Harry Ransom Center. The donation will formally cede ownership of the prints to the university. DealBook »
J.C. Flowers Is Said to Consider Bid for Lloyds Unit  | The private equity firm J.C. Flowers has approached the Lloyds Banking Group about a possible bid for the TSB business that recently split off, The Telegraph reports. TELEGRAPH
Hedge Funds Make Use of Government Information Requests  | The Wall Street Journal reports: “Finance professionals have been pulling every lever they can these days to extract information from the government. Many have discovered that the biggest lever of all is the one available to everyone â€" the Freedom of Information Act â€" conceived by advocates of open government to shine light on how officials make decisions.†WALL STREET JOURNAL
Rocket Fuel and FireEye More Than Double on First Day  | The successful initial public offerings of Rocket Fuel, an advertising technology company, and FireEye, a cybersecurity services provider, point to a resurgence of technology I.P.O.’s by year end. DealBook »
A Coy Tweet From Twitter Starts a Debate  | In an effective P.R. strategy, Twitter “has managed to spread the news of its initial public offering of stock without revealing much about its plans or its finances,†Jeff Sommer writes in the Strategies column in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES
Under New Law, Start-Ups Can Ask for Money Publicly  | Legislation goes into effect on Monday that allows small start-ups to ask for equity investments publicly, without having to register the shares for public trading. NEW YORK TIMES
Merkel Is Re-elected in Germany  | The New York Times reports: “Chancellor Angela Merkel scored a stunning personal triumph Sunday in the national elections in Germany, becoming the only major leader to be re-elected twice since the financial crisis of 2008 and winning a strong popular endorsement for her mix of austerity and solidarity in managing troubled Europe.†NEW YORK TIMES
New York Life Suspends Chief Executive of Its Lending Unit  | New York Life is said to have suspended Madison Capital’s chief executive, Trevor J. Clark, and another one of its senior executives, Christopher G. Williams, over violations in company policies. DealBook »
A Better Comparison on C.E.O. Pay  | The Securities and Exchange Commission is moving to require companies to publish a comparison of their chief executives’ pay to the media compensation of other company employees. But “a far more meaningful comparison for regulators is the peer groups public companies choose to use as benchmarks when setting their pay packages,†Gretchen Morgenson writes in the Fair Game column in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES
Differing Strategies for Confronting Economic Stress  | The New York Times reports: “Indonesia and India, the two emerging markets hardest hit in recent weeks by falling currencies and other financial troubles, took opposite tracks on Friday as both countries struggled to balance growth with the threat of inflation.†NEW YORK TIMES
