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.