MEDIA
• Thomson agreed to buy Reuters for $17 billion, creating the largest financial-news service and the first major rival to Bloomberg LP. [Reuters via CNNMoney]
• Murdoch offered the Bancrofts a seat on the News Corp. board and asked to meet with the family personally. After an internal conference call, the Bancrofts seem unmoved. [NYT]
• Ron Burkle bought the Primedia Enthusiast unit for $1.2 billion and now owns 70 titles like Dressage Today and Popular Hot Rodding. [NYP]
FASHION
• Two companies bid on Valentino Fashion Group, and trading was suspended yesterday as a result. [British Vogue]
• The resort season has officially kicked off — with three models biting it on the Dior runway. [Fashionista]
• Nutjob Peter Braunstein fantasized about killing Anna Wintour, joining a long list of people who think evil thoughts about the Vogue editor. [NYP]
FINANCE
• Forget New York versus London, Moscow has us both beat: Big-time bankers are routinely offered pay packages of $7 million to $10 million [Bloomberg]
• Even though Euronext’s profit were nearly double NYSE’s last year, the European market’s top execs earned less than a third of their new American colleagues. [Financial News via DealBook/NYT]
• Why so much insider trading lately? It seems that the ever-excitable buyout crowd maybe has a harder time keeping mum about looming multi-billion-dollar deals than their corporate brethren. [DealBook/NYT]
LAW
• State court administrators are trying to gain support of the business community for judicial pay raises. So far, the business community isn’t interested. [New York Law Journal]
• Lawyers from Skadden get to charge $1 million for representing restaurant workers, even though the plaintiffs only won $699,374. [New York Law Journal]
• Two Cravath partners are behind an exchange program at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice in Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
