FINANCE
• Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has stockpiled 50 million Yahoo! shares, might start a proxy fight to replace the Internet company’s board members, and the exclamation point in the company’s name makes the headlines look really fun and exciting. [NYP]
• JPMorgan might cut 4,000 of its own as it gets ready to take on Bear Stearns staffers. [DealBook/NYT]
• Blackstone has a hip (read: awkward) photo of the buyout shop’s five principals in its firm’s annual report. [WSJ]
MEDIA
• Barry Diller, who reached an agreement with John Malone that will let Diller spin off IAC into five companies, admits that he was wrong about his media-plus-Internet idea: “We were kidding ourselves if we thought we could pull off an integrated conglomerate that acts like G.E. or P&G in anything less than 10, 20, or 30 years. It took them 100 years to get there.” [Portfolio]
• The Wall Street Journal’s editorial-features editor doesn’t think the New York Times is the broadsheet’s main competition. [ReasonTV via Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• The Newsday newsroom gets off to an interesting start with the Dolans. “They’re the only owners who could make you wish for Murdoch,” one staffer said. [NYO]
REAL ESTATE
• Phew! There’s now a chopper service to the Hamptons, so you’ll be able to get to your summer home without sitting in all of that traffic. [NYS]
• The West Side rail-yards project is off now that Tishman Speyer Properties failed to come to terms with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on a $1 billion deal. [NYT]
• A West Village townhouse on Leroy Street that was once inhabited by Will Smith has been flipped for $13.82 million. Meanwhile, Vogue editor-at-large Hamish Bowles buys a $1.5 million pad in the East Village, close enough to Daily Intel editor Chris Rovzar that he can see him bobbing his head to the Spice Girls in the shower. [Real Deal, NYO]
LAW
• Some lawyers think Wall Street banks will have a tougher time defending auction-rate suits than claims related to mortgage-backed securities. [WSJ]
• Owing to the current economic situation, summer law associates might not have enough client work to do and will likely end up going more “internal research projects.” Translation: They’ll be surveying the office to find out who wants what from the Balthazar lunch menu. [WSJ]
• New York judges are squabbling over their paychecks, but the court warned that they can’t use recusals as a bargaining chip for salary increases. [Law.com]
