DealZone

The world’s largest credit and debit card processor Visa is to pay some $2 billion for CyberSource, a company that helps retailers take online payments, including from mobile phones. Analysts estimate Visa already has 45 percent of the online market and the deal will only serve to boost the company’s position further.

The U.S.’s largest mall owner Simon Property Group has sent a revised recapitalization plan to rival General Growth Properties, which would see new investors, including Oak Hill Advisers, RREEF, ING Clarion Real Estate Securities and Taconic Capital, inject a further $1.1 billion into the business. Simon has already offered to invest $2.5 billion for about a quarter of its rival, while  Paulson & Co — the U.S. hedge fund that bet against Goldman Sachs Abacus mortgage product — injecting a further $1 billion.

Film moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein and backer Ron Burkle could reach a deal for Walt Disney’s Miramax Films within days, despite a rift between the Weinsteins and one of their minority shareholders Mark Cuban.

For more Reuters deals news, click here.

In other media on Thursday:

Private equity firm Advent International is frontrunner to buy sofa chain DFS. Despite claims from the company’s founder Lord Kirkham that he is already “loaded”, the 500 million pound auction of the business has continued, the FT reported.

The FT also wrote that online grocery retailer Ocado is poised to appoint JPMorgan Cazenove, UBS and Goldman Sachs to advise on a possible 1 billion pound summer flotation.

Simon Property says it is teaming up with hedge fund Paulson to try to unseat Brookfield Asset Management as the key investor in General Growth Properties as the mall operator angles toward an exit from its bankruptcy.

Simon said it and Paulson would invest $2.5 billion to help General Growth exit bankruptcy, and more importantly, make the investment without taking any warrants to buy shares like Brookfield and other investors have under its current plan, Paritosh Bansal reports.

Paulson, the $32 billion hedge fund run by billionaire investor John Paulson, has made a commitment to co-invest $1 billion with Simon. Sources told us earlier this week that Simon was looking at ways to revise its offer for GGP, which was seen getting hung up on anti-trust concerns.

Some investors may not be fully aware of the risks they face as career-conscious hedge fund managers plump for strategies that build a convincing-looking track record but occasionally backfire badly.

According to a paper by Yale academic Hongjun Yan, hedge fund managers are far more likely to choose so-called 'nickel' strategies than 'black swan' strategies, even if returns are ultimately lower and they risk the occasional huge loss.

Nickel strategies are -- rather like the contrived image of picking up nickels in front of a steamroller -- those that yield small returns most of the time with the occasional disaster.

Four of the world’s top hedge fund managers took home 10-figure paychecks last year, even as the loosely regulated industry delivered its worst returns and hundreds of firms were forced out of business.

The industry’s 25 best-paid managers collected a total of $11.6 billion, which marked the third-best year on record, according to an annual survey released by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. Top on the list was James Simons, a former mathematics professor who runs hedge fund group Renaissance Technologies, with estimated earnings of 2.5 billion.

The total number, however, marks a sharp decline from the $22.5 billion that the industry’s best performers took home in 2007. Analysts had expected the overall decline after the average hedge fund lost 19 percent and its size shriveled because investors pulled out roughly $150 billion in assets.

The once-booming hedge fund industry has shrunk rapidly over the past 9 months to roughly $1-$1.4 trillion, as investors have pulled out their cash following some pretty lacklustre returns.

However, according to Mark Kary, chief executive of Polar Capital, the industry never really deserved to have grown to the best part of $3 trillion in the first place.

He told today's Reuters Hedge Fund and Private Equity Summit in London that while hedge funds had become a "fashion item" in the good times, when it comes down to it there simply isn't enough talent to support an industry of $3 trillion.