peHUB First Read

* Private equity has not been good lately to big state pension funds (Bloomberg hyped this story most of yesterday, keeping it atop the homepage).

* Mark Cuban: What entrepreneurs should not do when making a deal pitch.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures rise ahead of Bernanke speech, London rises early, European shares climb on banks and utilities, the Nikkei drops 1.4% on automakers and China shares finish a down week up.

* Q&A on emerging markets private equity, with Paul Fletcher of Actis.

* In Memoriam: Brett Allsop, founder of VC-backed online travel site Yapta, was killed in an auto accident at the age of 38.

* Biz Stone tells VentureBeat that Twitter was in talks to acquire FriendFeed, but that the company ultimately opted for Facebook (for around the same price). Story points out interesting conflict, in that FriendFeed investor Peter Fenton (Benchmark Capital) is also on the board of Twitter. Doesn’t mention that Fenton’s prior firm, Accel Partners, is the lead investor in Facebook.

* Is Philadelphia going to feel like Orlando by 2050? Rocky would sure be hot in that sweatshirt…

* Vanity Fair: Shotgun magazine mergers you might see soon.

* Den White, an attorney with McDermott Will & Emery, on how a recent court ruling might affect a PE firm’s thoughts about putting a portfolio company up for sale.

* The NY Times joins the chorus of media outlets reporting that the FDIC is “planning next week to make it easier for private equity firms to buy insolvent lenders.” Ummm… No. The FDIC is planning to scale back proposed regulations that would have made it much more difficult for PE firms to buy insolvent lenders. There is no indication that the agency is going to loosen existing rules.