Jobs Report: Best Gig on Wall Street? Lloyd Blankfein’s Driver

(Kyle Stock writes for WSJ’s FINS Finance.)

It’s pay season in corporate America, and look who’s got a stellar gig: the driver for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. The Wall Street firm forked over $185,110 for Blankfein’s car and driver, more than double what it paid to shuttle him around in 2009. One of Blankein’s sons, who also works at the firm, was paid about $170,000, according to the company’s proxy filing.

Traders were emboldened this week by 216,000 new jobs, but Wall Street was fascinated with one position in particular: the head of Nomura’s Americas investment bank.

The company abruptly announced Tuesday that Greg Schiffman, 41, left the position after only about a year. Jim DeNaut, who was hired from Deutsche Bank in August, has taken over.

The buzz built quickly among bankers and brokers: was this a sign that Nomura’s latest bid to break into U.S. league tables is unraveling? After all, it has pulled back from the U.S. before.

Is This Warren Buffett’s New Chosen One?

Maryam Omidi, Financial News, reports:

David Sokol’s surprise resignation from Berkshire Hathaway this week has reignited the debate over Warren Buffett’s successor.

With Buffett’s top lieutenant, Sokol, out of the picture, it looks as if there’s a new contender in the running: Gregory Abel, who is far more elusive than his former boss. A search through news archives reveals just a few mentions of him….

Blockbuster Bankruptcy: Why Does DISH Want In?

There are plenty of confusing things about Blockbuster, which is operating under bankruptcy-law protection. Why, for example, are there 96 copies of “No Strings Attached” and zero copies of “Black Swan”? Just sayin’.

Now add to the confusing things about Blockbuster the list of possible buyers for the video rental chain.

Korean telecommunications company SK Telecom wants a piece of Blockbuster. Financier Carl Icahn, who has had a long and largely painful investment in Blockbuster, is trying to buy in.

And now Deal Journal colleague Mike Spector is reporting Charlie Ergen, the man behind satellite-TV companies Dish Network and Echostar, also has submitted a bid to buy Blockbuster out of bankruptcy.

No, this idea doesn’t really make sense to Deal Journal, either.….

The NYSE Name Might Not Die After All

Big props to Nasdaq OMX CEO Bob Greifeld. Not only has Greifeld performed a magic trick by pulling together a complex takeover bid for the New York Stock Exchange, but he already has consulted Dr. Spock and picked out a name for the combined company.

Welcome to: NASDAQ NYSE Euronext Group Inc.

Sure, it’s a bit of a mouthful. It shortchanges the Scandinavians (OMX’s origins are in Sweden and Finland.) But at least Nasdaq has made a choice.

Deals of the Day: It’s Here — Nasdaq, ICE Bid for NYSE

Deals of the Day gathers all the biggest news of the morning related to mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies, financing and private equity. Deal Journal’s homepage is http://blogs.wsj.com/deals. You can see real-time updates of our posts and our favorite deal-related articles on other Web sites through our Twitter feed athttp://twitter.com/wsjdealjournal.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Nasdaq goes all in: Nasdaq and IntercontinentalExchange launched an $11.3 billion bid for NYSE Euronext, topping a rival offer from Deutsche Börse. Nasdaq would get stock markets in the U.S. and Europe, while ICE would get the derivatives business. [WSJ]

Telesat: The Canadian satellite company is weighing takeover offers from EchoStar and Carlyle, and may decide on a possible sale in the coming days. [Bloomberg]

Terra Firma: The PE firm run by Guy Hands is putting the Odeon & UCI cinema chain up for sale in a deal likely to be valued at between £700 million and £1 billion ($1.1bn-$1.6bn). [FT.com]

Mentor Graphics: The chip-design software maker rejected Carl Icahn’s offer of a $220 million loan and said it plans to go ahead with a convertible debt offering. [Reuters]

Buyside

TPG: Private-equity powerhouse TPG Holdings has reached a deal to sell nearly 5% of itself to sovereign-wealth funds operated by Kuwait and Singapore. [WSJ]

Nasdaq-NYSE Deal: Translating the News Release

Stock exchange operator Nasdaq OMX Group has a long list of reasons why its rival bid for the New York Stock Exchange is waaaay better than a takeover offer from the Germans at Deutsche Börse.

Deal Journal has translated the Nasdaq/ICE news release to bring you what the companies probably meant to say, if they weren’t handcuffed by corporate jargon and lawyers.

1) The joint Nasdaq/ICE offer for the NYSE, “Offers greater long-term value for stockholders by putting existing businesses under managements recognized for integration capabilities and efficiency.”

Translated: Do you really trust foreigners and Duncan Niederauer, the current NYSE Euronext CEO and the proposed CEO of a combined Deutsche Börse-NYSE, to handle a big and important integration of major global finance centers?…

Exchange Wars! Nasdaq OMX Offers Rival Bid for NYSE

Nasdaq OMX is trying to bust up a takeover of fellow stock exchange NYSE Euronext.

Nasdaq, with the aid of Atlanta’s IntercontinentalExchange, just lobbed an $11.3 billion offer for NYSE Euronext. The bid, valued at $42.50 in cash and stock, is the long-awaited rival offer for the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

NYSE already has agreed to a $35-a-share takeover deal from Germany’s Deutsche Börse, a deal that has sparked nationalistic hand wringing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Nasdaq, of course, thinks its offer is far superior…..

Dealpolitik: Does Buffett’s Defense of Sokol Make Sense?

David Sokol started buying shares of Lubrizol the day after he asked Citigroup to arrange a meeting with the CEO of Lubrizol to talk about a transaction with Berkshire Hathaway. A robust debate has developed on both the propriety and legality of those trades.

For those of you who have come embroiled in this ongoing debate, I have a quiz for you (your comments are most welcome, of course.) All of these are hypothetical situations. They are not based on any facts and are for the purpose of making my point. They address Sokol’s fundamental defense as articulated on CNBC and in Warren Buffett’s press release:  That Sokol was not in possession of material non-public information about Lubrizol when he bought shares….

Read Excerpts From David Sokol’s Book

Before David Sokol became the world’s most famous ex-employee of Berkshire Hathaway, he was a self-published author.

Sokol in 2007 issued a 127-page business guide, “Pleased but Not Satisfied” which is packed with personal biography and anecdotes (go karts and irate shoppers returning fatty roasts, for example) and business aphorisms influenced by some of Sokol’s mentors.

Deal Journal plucked a few choice nuggets from “Pleased But Not Satisfied.”

Sokol on integrity: