Morning Agenda: Twitter Aims for $10 Billion Valuation

TWITTER AIMS FOR $10 BILLION VALUATION  |  Twitter on Thursday set an expected price range for shares in its initial public offering that was below what some analysts had expected, Michael J. de la Merced and Vindu Goel report in DealBook. The social media company said it planned to sell 70 million shares at $17 to $20 each. At the midpoint of the range, the I.P.O. would raise about $1.3 billion and value Twitter at about $10 billion, excluding options. Including options and restricted stock units, Twitter would be valued at more than $12 billion.

The price range was the last major piece of information Twitter needed to disclose before kicking off a road show for investors on Monday. Executives and their advisers are starting a series of meetings about the offering in Baltimore and Washington, before moving on to New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Denver. The company has moved up the pricing of the offering by more than a week, to Nov. 6, meaning it would then begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol TWTR, the next day.

“The relatively low price range came as a surprise to some analysts, who had been expecting Twitter to seek several more dollars a share as it continues to show significant business growth,” according to the DealBook report. “In August, the company valued itself at $20.62 a share. One analyst, Robert Peck of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, has already predicted that the company would reach $50 a share by the end of next year.”

FED PROPOSES LIQUIDITY RULE  |  Federal regulators on Thursday proposed a rule that requires big banks to hold a set amount of assets that they can quickly turn into cash, part of an effort to prevent another cash squeeze like the financial crisis of 2008, DealBook’s Peter Eavis reports. With the new rule, known as the liquidity coverage ratio, regulators are trying to ensure that, in times of turbulence, banks will have adequate funds to replace the cash that might be leaving them at a rapid clip. The rule is intended to complement new rules on capital.

“The proposed rule would, for the first time in the United States, put in place a quantitative liquidity requirement,” Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said in a statement. He added that it “would foster a more resilient and safer financial system in conjunction with other reforms.”

Mr. Eavis writes that the requirement, scheduled to become effective by 2017, “could dent the profits of banks, particularly Wall Street firms that rely on huge amounts of short-term market borrowing.” And yet, “regulators are concerned that the big institutions remain vulnerable to bank runs. And based on comments from prominent banking regulators on Thursday, banks should expect additional measures.”

DUPONT TO SPLIT IN 2  |  The industrial conglomerate DuPont is splitting in two, spinning off its performance chemicals segment into a new publicly traded company, DealBook’s David Gelles reports. The unit â€" which makes a pigment that turns paints, paper and plastics white, as well as refrigerants and polymers for cables â€" generated about $7 billion in revenue in 2012, but prices for its pigment products plunged in the second quarter. DuPont said in July that it would explore “strategic alternatives” for the unit. Soon after, the activist investor Nelson Peltz revealed that his fund, Trian Partners, had previously acquired a stake in DuPont. But DuPont’s chief executive, Ellen Kullman, denied that Mr. Peltz had influenced her decision to evaluate the future of the unit.

ON THE AGENDA  |  United Parcel Service, Procter & Gamble and Moody’s report earnings before the market opens. CommScope, a telecommunications equipment company backed by the Carlyle Group, is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq after pricing its shares at $15 on Thursday evening to raise $577 million. Bart Chilton of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is on Bloomberg TV at 10:45 a.m.

NARROWING THE GENDER GAP ON BOARDS  |  “It has been a Sisyphean challenge to nudge the numbers and create a clearer path for women to obtain seats as corporate directors. Even as more women become chief executives and studies highlight the paucity of female directors, boards remain a largely male preserve,” Elizabeth Olson writes in DealBook. “The latest effort to attack the problem, a program at George Washington University School of Business, is trying a two-pronged initiative: helping women make it onto the short lists to be considered for open seats and training women to be ready to step into those posts.

“The approach is being supported by influential women, including financing from Linda Rabbitt, founder of the Rand Construction Corporation, a construction firm based in Washington with more than $263 million in annual revenue. The program, called On the Board, has 15 female executives in its first class, most of whom have little or no experience sitting on corporate boards but are top managers at major corporations.”

Mergers & Acquisitions »

Ruling Lets Times Co. Complete Sale of Boston Globe  |  A Massachusetts judge lifted an injunction that had temporarily halted the sale of the New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe, to John W. Henry.
NEW YORK TIMES

Apax Partners Said to Be in Talks to Buy One Call  |  The private equity firm Apax Partners is in “advanced talks” to buy One Call Care Management, which helps insurance companies manage medical costs, for more than $2 billion, Reuters reports, citing three unidentified people familiar with the matter. One Call is owned by Odyssey Investment Partners.
REUTERS

Permira to Buy Maker of Dr. Martens  |  The deal for the R. Griggs Group is valued at about $485 million and adds another strong consumer name to the private equity firm’s portfolio.
DealBook »

Rio Tinto Said to Be in Talks to Sell Stake in Mine  |  Rio Tinto is “in advanced talks to sell its stake in the Clermont coal mine in eastern Australia” for about $1 billion to Glencore Xstrata and the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

INVESTMENT BANKING »

Lazard Earnings Rise 75% on Deals and Cost Cutting  |  The improvement reflects, in part, a rise in markets, which has helped both the firm’s core financial advisory arm and its asset management business.
DealBook »

Activist Bet on Evercore Would Have Beaten One on Lazard  |  Nelson Peltz’s faith in Lazard’s chief executive, Ken Jacobs, has been rewarded. And yet a bet on a purer investment banking play would have been more lucrative, Antony Currie of Reuters Breakingviews writes.
REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS

Bank of America to Cut Up to 4,000 Mortgage Jobs  |  “The layoffs are the latest round of job cuts at major banks as rising mortgage rates cut into demand for refinancing home loans,” Reuters writes.
REUTERS

‘The Daily Show’ and the Wall Street ‘Witch Hunt’  |  “It’s a shakedown, witch hunt, scalping jihad,” Jon Stewart said, mocking financial television’s coverage of the $13 billion JPMorgan Chase settlement.
DealBook »

An Undercover Rapper at Goldman Sachs  |  While he worked at Goldman Sachs in London, Jihan Bowes-Little would moonlight as a rapper, with lyrics inspired by his bag with the firm’s logo.
FINANCIAL TIMES

Citigroup Said to Plan Large Sale of Mortgage Servicing Rights  |  Citigroup “is selling mortgage-servicing rights on $63 billion of loans, its largest potential sale of this type since the 2008 financial crisis, according to two people briefed on the offer,” Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

PRIVATE EQUITY »

K.K.R. Profit Buoyed by Rising Markets  |  Private equity firms including K.K.R. have benefited as improving markets have helped push up the value of their investments.
DealBook »

HEDGE FUNDS »

Ackman to Sell Part of His Stake in Canadian Pacific  |  The activist investor William A. Ackman will have nearly tripled his investment in Canadian Pacific, at a time when he needs it most.
DealBook »

Icahn Amps Up Pressure on Apple, but His Stake Limits His Leverage  |  Despite public appeals from Carl C. Icahn urging Apple to buy back $150 billion of its shares, there has been no word from the company.
DealBook » | DealBook: Icahn Takes a Bow as Big Winner in Netflix Trade

After Muddy Waters Report, NQ Mobile Falls by Half  |  The short-selling firm known for its scathing reports on Chinese companies released a harsh assessment of NQ Mobile, a mobile security company.
DealBook »

I.P.O./OFFERINGS »

Tesla Chief Says Valuation May Be High  |  “I think that we have quite a high valuation, and a higher valuation than we have any right to deserve,” Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, said at an event in London, according to The Financial Times.
FINANCIAL TIMES

Investors Warm to Zynga  |  The games company Zynga reported a smaller loss than expected for the third quarter, sending its shares higher in after-hours trading.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

VENTURE CAPITAL »

Bitcoin Gets Vote of Confidence From Wall Street  |  Michael Novogratz, a principal at the Fortress Investment Group, said at a panel discussion that he was bullish on bitcoin, betting that the digital currency could be used to transfer money in countries with weak banking systems, The Financial Times reports. But he added that the currency has generated enough enthusiasm “to at least make this a bubble.”
FINANCIAL TIMES

Football App, a German Start-Up, Gets U.S. Investment  |  A $7 million investment by Union Square Ventures comes as Berlin is gaining credibility as one of Europe’s largest technology hubs.
DealBook »

LEGAL/REGULATORY »

Accounting World Still Resists Sunlight  |  “The accounting business has sometimes had an attitude of â€" how shall I put it? â€" contempt for those who would regulate it,” Floyd Norris writes in the High & Low Finance column in The New York Times.
NEW YORK TIMES

When Doomsaying Is in Fashion  |  “The scaremongers can’t bring themselves to let go,” Paul Krugman writes in his column in The New York Times. “Consider, for example, Stanley Druckenmiller, the billionaire investor, who has lately made a splash with warnings about the burden of our entitlement programs.”
NEW YORK TIMES

Fed Is Said to Warn Banks on Underwriting Practices  |  Bloomberg News reports: “Top banking regulators in the U.S. are recommending lenders strengthen underwriting standards for leveraged corporate loans as borrowing of the high-risk debt approaches levels not seen since before the financial crisis, according to nine people with knowledge of the matter.”
BLOOMBERG NEWS

S.E.C. Seeks Information on Trading in Puerto Rico Debt  |  The Wall Street Journal reports: “The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking several mutual fund companies for information about their investing and trading in Puerto Rico municipal bonds, according to people familiar with the probe.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL