John C. Malone, whose success wiring American homes for cable television in the 1980s and 1990s earned him the nickname King of Cable, is back on the prowl in the industry he helped create, DealBook’s David Gelles reports. Mr. Malone, 72, now the chairman of Liberty Media, is working behind the scenes to gain control of Time Warner Cable, the country’s second-largest cable operator by subscribers, behind Comcast.
Such a deal would thrust him back into the heart of the cable TV world at a precarious time for the business, with overall pay television subscribers declining and content costs soaring. But Mr. Malone is energized by the prospect of returning to the fray. “John looks out and says, ‘That’s an industry that I helped shape, that made me a lot of money, but more importantly that I care a lot about, and I want to see that industry set right,’†Gregory B. Maffei, Liberty Media’s chief executive, said in a recent interview.
Mr. Maffei, 53, who is leading Liberty Media’s day-to-day efforts to strike a deal, said that Mr. Malone believed the cable industry is once again primed for transformation. “We have expressed a view that consolidation is helpful,†Mr. Maffei said, adding, “Time Warner Cable is appealing.â€
BEYOND BITCOIN  | “With mounting interest from prominent investors and growing acceptance from regulators, bitcoin â€" either the new gold or the next Dutch tulip craze, depending on who is being asked â€" is at the center of the virtual money universe. Yet there are dozens of digital alternatives, like PeerCoin, Litecoin and anoncoin, whose backers point to advantages they say their currency has over bitcoin,†Nathaniel Popper reports in DealBook.
“In the alternative galaxy of virtual currencies, newly created money can become worth millions of real dollars in a few months. All the PeerCoin in existence, for example, was worth nearly $40 million last week. Programmers and mathematicians release new entrants into the field almost every week. On one popular exchange, Cryptsy, 60 different coins can now be traded. Almost all of these altcoins, as they are known, have fed on the stratospheric rise of bitcoin.â€
SIZING UP JPMORGAN’S $13 BILLION SETTLEMENT  | The top lawyer at JPMorgan Chase had a bad taste in his mouth. Just days after JPMorgan reached a $13 billion settlement with the Justice Department over the bank’s sale of troubled mortgage securities to investors, Stephen Cutler, JPMorgan’s general counsel, delivered a harsh assessment of the government’s oversight of the financial industry. “We should all be concerned that there doesn’t seem to be a natural end point to how high fines could go,†Mr. Cutler said at an industry conference on Friday, according to Fortune. “One hundred million dollars is still meaningful.â€
And yet, Gretchen Morgenson writes in the Fair Game column in The New York Times, the settlement raises a big question: What took so long? Much of the statement of facts accompanying the deal “was the same-old-same-old, a not-very-lively description of a corrupted Wall Street mortgage factory, based largely on some facts that have been in the public domain for years.â€
ON THE AGENDA Â |Â Data on pending home sales in October is released at 10 a.m. Wilbur Ross is on CNBC at 8:10 a.m. Richard Kovacevich, the former chief executive of Wells Fargo, is on CNBC at 4 p.m. Nuance Communications and Palo Alto Networks report earnings after the market closes.
APPLE BUYS MAKER OF MOTION-TRACKING CHIPS  | Apple has agreed to buy PrimeSense, a start-up based in Tel Aviv that makes chip technology for detecting movement, Bloomberg News reports. The companies had been “negotiating a deal for about $350 million, one person familiar with the deal said last week,†according to Bloomberg. A spokeswoman for Apple confirmed the deal but declined to provide more details. Bloomberg writes that the deal fits Apple’s strategy of “buying less well-known companies whose capabilities are folded into future products. PrimeSense’s technology gives digital devices the ability to detect movements and objects, and then translates that into depth and color.â€
Chrysler Moves Forward With I.P.O. Plan  | The Chrysler Group expects to set a price range for its initial public offering as early as this week and complete an I.P.O. by mid-December, putting pressure on the company’s owners to reach a deal to allow Fiat, the majority owner, to buy full control before a listing, The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL
Trafigura Sells $500 Million Stake in Africa Unit  | The commodity trading firm Trafigura said it sold a $500 million stake in Puma Energy, its African unit, to Angolan companies rather than raise money through a share sale, Reuters reports. REUTERS
Indian Units of Pfizer and Wyeth to Combine  | The Indian subsidiaries of the drug companies Pfizer and Wyeth plan to merge, the companies said on Saturday. REUTERS
Bloomberg’s News Mission Shows Signs of Change  | Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York is preparing to rejoin a company “whose core business, after two decades of heady growth, has slowed, and whose news division has more than doubled since he left,†The New York Times reports. “Interviews with current and former employees show that the business and news operations exist in uneasy tension, and occasionally collide.†NEW YORK TIMES
Banks Issue Warning Over a Proposed Rate Cut  | The Financial Times reports: “Leading U.S. banks have warned that they could start charging companies and consumers for deposits if the U.S. Federal Reserve cuts the interest it pays on bank reserves.†FINANCIAL TIMES
Big Investment Banks Still Need to Cut  | Given banks’ double-digit cost of capital, the bulge bracket is still frittering away shareholders’ money, Dominic Elliott of Reuters Breakingviews writes. REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS
Peter B. Lewis, Philanthropist Who Ran Progressive Auto Insurance, Dies at 80  | The New York Times writes: “Peter B. Lewis, who turned the 100-employee insurance firm co-founded by his father into one of the nation’s largest auto insurance companies, the Progressive Corporation, by insuring high-risk drivers and high-end sports cars, and who became an outspoken and sometimes quarrelsome supporter of liberal causes and the arts, died on Saturday at his home in Coconut Grove, Fla.†NEW YORK TIMES
For Jordan Belfort, a Moment in the Sun  | Jordan Belfort, the former boiler room kingpin who went to prison for stock manipulation, is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the coming film “The Wolf of Wall Street,†based on Mr. Belfort’s memoir. At one juice bar in Manhattan Beach, Mr. Belfort is something of a celebrity, New York magazine writes. NEW YORK
Spain and Italy Attract Private Equity  | “Spain and Italy, two countries the private-equity industry had forgotten, could soon become a deal playground for European and U.S. buyout firms,†The Wall Street Journal writes. WALL STREET JOURNAL
Carlyle Is Said to Plan Sale of Eastern Broadcasting  | The Carlyle Group “is preparing to sell its controlling stake in Eastern Broadcasting Company, Taiwan’s biggest broadcaster, and is seeking as much as $700 million, people familiar with the matter said,†Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS
Influx of Tech Riches Prompts a Backlash in San Francisco  | The New York Times writes: “As the center of the technology industry has moved north from Silicon Valley to San Francisco and the largess from tech companies has flowed into the city â€" Twitter’s stock offering unleashed an estimated 1,600 new millionaires â€" income disparities have widened sharply, housing prices have soared and orange construction cranes dot the skyline. The tech workers have, rightly or wrongly, received the blame.†NEW YORK TIMES
Shares of Vince Surge in Market Debut  | Shares of Vince, the fashion retailer owned by Sun Capital Partners, jumped more than 40 percent in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange. DealBook »
Echoes of the Dot-Com Boom  | “Is this time different? Out in Silicon Valley, many insist it is. But for the average investor, there are reasons for caution,†Nick Bilton writes in the Disruptions column on the Bits blog. NEW YORK TIMES BITS
Corporate Incubators Appear in Europe  | Big corporations in Europe are offering office space, contacts with prospective clients and often early stage investment to technology start-ups â€" aiming to strike tech gold, Mark Scott reports on the Bits blog. NEW YORK TIMES BITS
Swiss Voters Reject Limits on Executive Pay  | Swiss voters on Sunday rejected a measure that would have put severe limits on executive pay, despite opinion polls showing widespread dismay about huge executive paychecks, The New York Times reports. NEW YORK TIMES
Government Adviser Says R.B.S. Profited From Struggling Businesses  | The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is majority owned by the British government, “has been accused by a government adviser of pushing struggling small firms into its turnaround unit so it can charge higher fees and take control of their assets,†Reuters reports. REUTERS
