Goldman’s play for Tokyo-based property investor Simplex Investment Advisors puts it squarely on the Japanese real estate map. Emerging from more than a decade of deflation, and boasting some $700 billion of investment-grade property, about two thirds of the Asia-Pacific total, Goldman’s move is part of a broader build-up. The investment makes up a huge chunk of the $1.7 billion this year that Goldman told Bloomberg this week it expected to spend this year in Japanese property. Sources told Reuters in August that Blackstone is opening a real estate office in Tokyo. It was seen putting together a $10 billion global property fund, while sources said Morgan Stanley and Goldman raised similar funds worth around $8 billion each.     

** NFL Networks’ Steven Bornstein, Western Wireless’s former CEO John Stanton and Verizon Communications president Denny Strigl are all potential candidates for the top job at struggling mobile-phone operator Sprint Nextel, according to the Wall Street Journal’s DealJounal.   
 
** Loans to finance KKR and TPG’s $32 billion purchase of Texas utility TXU Corp may start being sold next week, according to Bloomberg News. Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will seek buyers for at least $5 billion of loans, Bloomberg quoted three people as saying. The sources asked not to be named because the terms haven’t been set.  
 
** Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund run by activist investor Bill Ackman, has bought a stake in Sears Holdings, according to a source at the fund. Pershing Square disclosed ownership of a 9.6 percent stake in retailer Target Corp in July. It bought 5 million shares in Sears, according to the source. Pershing Square was instrumental last year in blocking Sears from acquiring the remaining minority stake in Sears Canada it did not own.