FINANCE
• Now that Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid, it’s up to Microsoft’s self-described “gatekeeper of funding” Christopher P. Liddell to plot the company’s next chess move. [DealBook/NYT]
• Fearful that 90 percent of TheStreet.com’s franchise revolves around Jim Cramer, today the finance-driven Website launched Mainstreet.com, which will revolve around celebrities and personal finance. You think Britney’s psychological drama is intense? Wait until you hear about her bond portfolio. [NYP]
• France’s rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel might have had an accomplice. How did police find out? By sifting through 2,000 pages of instant-message traffic. Bet that was a gr8 time. [NYT]
MEDIA
• Oh it’s on! Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli compares his broadsheet to the New York Times: “Mr. Murdoch has said publicly that we will compete against the New York Times, the Financial Times and other general-interest newspapers. In the news department here, we believe there is no reason that people should have to go to another news source beyond the Journal to find news of consequence to them in any sphere — politics, economics, even culture and the arts.” [NYT]
• Did anybody else notice that Ed Kroft asked Barack Obama about serious policy issues on 60 Minutes, and Katie Couric only asked Hillary Clinton about how she “felt”? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• Meanwhile, Obama won a Grammy. And more important, he beat Bill Clinton to do it. [Billboard]
LAW
• Roger Clemens’s lawyer is under scrutiny for saying if IRS special agent Jeff Novitzky “ever messes with Roger, Roger will eat his lunch.” Now, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman, Representative Henry Waxman, is saying this could be interpreted as trying to intimidate federal law-enforcement official. Let’s get real: Novitzky should only be concerned if he has Oreos packed in his lunchbox. [ESPN]
• The New York Court of Appeals ruled that there is no longer a six-month limit on the amount of time people can claim they have been under duress while worrying that they have AIDS. [Law.com]
• The government might have prevented Amy Winehouse from entering the United States, but that didn’t prevent her from scoring big at the Grammys. CNN]
FASHION
Sadly, we will no longer be running fashion links in Company Town. For your full fix of news, gossip, and pictures, just hop on over to our newly permanent fashion blog: The Cut.
