Five Best Friday Columns
Daniel Larison on Republicans holding up Hagel, Ruth Marcus on Ted Cruz, Geoffrey Till on Asia's "arms race," Paula Dwyer on merger mania, and William Finnegan on the GOP's immigration fix.
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The just-approved marriage between Penguin and Random House holds that beleaguered publishers will now be able to stand up to bookselling goliath Amazon. But a publishing consolidation might be exactly what Amazon wants.
Daniel Larison on Republicans holding up Hagel, Ruth Marcus on Ted Cruz, Geoffrey Till on Asia's "arms race," Paula Dwyer on merger mania, and William Finnegan on the GOP's immigration fix.
After weeks of waffling and speculating, several news outlets report that the $11 billion merger between US Airways and American Airlines will arrive as soon as this week.
Earlier this month it seemed surprising that Answers.com was willing to pay $270 million for The New York Times Company's struggling About.com, but then along came Barry Diller and IAC with an even higher offer last week, and on Monday The Times confirmed it had sold to the Ask.com owner.
The Carlyle Group's $3.3 billion purchase of Getty Images came in below the seller's target price, but it still represents the latest in a spending spree for the world's largest asset management firm.
The noteworthy thing about the sale of Peet's Coffee to German conglomerate Joh. A. Benckiser is the large sale price: $1 billion for the company, which works out to 29 percent higher per share than its closing price on Friday.
Zynga, the company known for ripping off well-known games and calling them their own, is buying OMGPOP, a company that broke into the big time by ripping off Pictionary.
Despite part-owner Martin Peretz implying that the magazine isn't for sale, The New Republic is in the final stages of negotiations to sell a stake of its magazine -- perhaps the entire thing -- to a new investor.
Yahoo's not worth as much as it had hoped, receiving bids for a minority stake between $16 and $18 per share, far short of its high $20 expectations.
Months after announcing its sale and the ensuing speculation over buyers, Yahoo will reportedly sit down today and talk about the possibility of selling a minority stake in its company to one of various bidders.
Microsoft is continuing to flirt with the idea of making a bid to buy Yahoo, an aggressive move that experts think would sling the aging tech company back onto the cutting edge.
Adweek reports that the fledgling internet giant might want to break up
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