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Daily Brief

Posted: May 15 2008 6:15AM EDT

Tony James: Tellin' It Like It Is

Tony James is not afraid to take swipes. Whether they're directed at his boss, or at the media, you've got to give the guy credit for speaking his mind in front of a roomful of financiers and reporters. The president ... Continue
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Posted: May 14 2008 4:55PM EDT

Putting the D Block Back on the Block

Trying again after an auction of a wide swath of radio frequencies failed, the Federal Communications Commission has approved a new framework for the sale of the so-called D block. The March auction of the D block -- frequencies that ... Continue
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Posted: May 14 2008 2:01PM EDT

Gary Parr Hits a Bogie on Bear

Ask Gary Parr whatever you want about sovereign wealth funds. Just don't ask him about what happened to Bear Stearns. Actually, the Lazard vice chairman did tell a roomful of finance types this morning what happened to Bear, but he ... Continue
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Posted: May 14 2008 11:28AM EDT

Business 2008: The Year of the Lumpy

Could you describe the state of business in a single word? How about lumpy? The adjective "lumpy" -- to describe the uneven changes, quarter to quarter, in a company's revenue, capital expenditures, gross margins, etc. -- is being used ... Continue
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Posted: May 13 2008 7:25PM EDT

Inside the Clear Channel Trial: What is Unique?

[UPDATE: The two private equity firms and the six banks have reached an agreement over the financing of the Clear Channel Communications buyout. The new deal lowers the price to $36 per share, from $39.20 per share. In the annals ... Continue
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Posted: May 13 2008 5:19PM EDT

Facebook Loses Face Again

Early this afternoon, Gawker.com exposed a new (as yet unannounced) feature on Facebook: Put your cursor in the 'search' box, press the down arrow, and a list of five names will appear. The early speculation was that the list represented ... Continue
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Posted: May 13 2008 4:24PM EDT

Another Municipal Wi-Fi Plan Dies

Question: What ever happened to municipal Wi-Fi? Answer: Not much. Unless you want to count Earthlink's announcement today that it will discontinue its municipal wireless network in Philadelphia, an experiment once touted as a new model of low-cost, public wireless ... Continue
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Posted: May 13 2008 2:30PM EDT

Apple Trademarks the Rectangular Box

Apple has been granted a trademark for the shape of the iPod, essentially giving it exclusive rights to make a box with a screen and a wheel: [T]he design of a portable and handheld digital electronic media device comprised ... Continue
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Posted: May 13 2008 9:59AM EDT

Peeling the Banana

A trial pitting Chiquita Brands International against hundreds of Colombian families, who claim Chiquita-backed militias murdered their relatives during a decade of civil conflict, will enter its preliminary phase Friday in a West Palm Beach, Florida courtroom. "We've been in ... Continue
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Posted: May 13 2008 8:11AM EDT

The Great Retirement Salad Bar

Too little spinach, too many of those crispy noodles and bacon bits. Left to our own devices, most of us are bound to make bad choices, whether at the salad bar or with our retirement plans. So concludes a new ... Continue
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Posted: May 12 2008 7:30PM EDT

Back to the Future, Presented by Xerox

It's the 21st Century, and — as you know — we all have flying cars! I got a ticket form the sky police the other day for not wearing my cloud belt. Actually, no. I didn't. No flying cars ... Continue
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Posted: May 12 2008 5:30PM EDT

Michael Jackson's Neighborly Real Estate Deal

Over the weekend, the King of Pop narrowly averted foreclosure when the billionaire real estate investor Thomas Barrack struck a deal to buy a $23.9 million loan on Neverland Ranch from Fortress Investment Group, which was ready to auction ... Continue
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Posted: May 12 2008 1:55PM EDT

Sometimes, Experience Can Be a Bad Thing

When IVAX Corp. chairman and chief executive Phillip Frost named Zachariah P. Zachariah to his company's board, he trumpeted the new director's "great knowledge and experience." Zachariah did have several decades of experience as a cardiologist, something from which a ... Continue
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Posted: May 12 2008 8:49AM EDT

Deep in the Valley: Digging and Baby-Sitting.

Sarah Lacy, a columnist for BusinessWeek, has spent the past several years covering Silicon Valley for insight into the world of web 2.0 startups. Her book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise ... Continue
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Posted: May 9 2008 4:14PM EDT

How to Spend Your Weekend

Once upon a time the world was one, at least geographically. All land masses on Earth were united in a supercontinent that scientists have named Pangaea. The unity suggested by that idea has been adopted to promote a one-day ... Continue
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Posted: May 9 2008 3:15PM EDT

MySpace, YourSpace

MySpace has unveiled a new plan to turn the site into a central storage hub for users' personal data and profile information by allowing them to access and use that information when they visit other websites. The idea is ... Continue
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Posted: May 9 2008 1:26PM EDT

A Dream Deferred?

Critics cried foul last year when a 28-foot sculpture of slain civil rights leader Martin Lurther King Jr., proposed for the National Mall's Tidal Basin, was commissioned to a Chinese sculptor. Now, a powerful arts commission says the colossal ... Continue
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Posted: May 9 2008 11:29AM EDT

Guinness! My Goodness!

For beer drinkers, it is not just