Murdoch's War on Google

Are Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Microsoft (MSFT) plotting to take down Google? That's the big question this morning as news emerged over the weekend that News Corp. and Microsoft are in early discussions to forge an exclusive online editorial partnership that would essentially pull all of Murdoch's globe-spanning news empire from the Google (GOOG) News index. According to Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, News Corp. content would continue to be featured on Microsoft's Web properties even if it eventually pulled its articles from Google News, giving Microsoft's Bing search engine exclusive access to a quality news source while giving Murdoch cash for his news.

The WSJ credits the Financial Times with the scoop, which calls the move a possible savior for troubled print media companies, "setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry." The logic that squeezing out Google would save newspapers has its doubters. The WSJ itself notes there is a huge trade-off. Would a check from Microsoft make up for the lost traffic delivered by Google's popular news index? it wonders. Or, more likely, is it just a way to derail Google's business model? "This is all about Microsoft hurting Google’s margins," an unnamed Web publisher familiar with the News Corp. plan told the FT.

The New York Times delivers an ominous report about our nation's staggering $12 trillion debt, warning that the Treasury "now face[s] a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal" from the "too good to be true" rates Uncle Sam is enjoying now. The Times reckons that Uncle Sam's debt situation is not unlike the "payment shock" that sunk "legions of overstretched homeowners" into mortgage defaults. The federal government now pays $202 billion annually to service its mountain of debt. That figure will soar to $700 billion annually (or the equivalent of a Wall Street bailout each year) by 2019.

The latest salvo in the chocolate wars was sounded this weekend, with the FT reporting that Cadbury, already under siege from a $16.7 billion hostile Kraft (KFT) bid that it vows to fight, would, however, be "sweet" on a rival offer from Hershey "if a bid comes at the right price." Why the double standard? It all comes down to shared values and a cultural fit. "These are people who know each other," a person close to Cadbury told the FT. "I don’t think anyone doubts the logic of it." It doesn't hurt that Hershey may outbid Kraft by $300 million. And still more suitors could be lining up at Cadbury's door, the NYT reports. Also in the Cadbury mix are Nestlé and Italy's Ferrero. Both firms "are pondering their options, according to people briefed on the discussions at the companies," the newspaper writes.

From chocolate now to that other black gold, oil. Italy's Eni is expected to announce, possibly as early as today, that it will buy two oil fields in Uganda for $1.3 billion, "underscor[ing] the intense interest the world's major oil companies are showing in Uganda, one of sub-Saharan Africa's most promising hydrocarbon provinces," the WSJ reports. There's yet more money sloshing around the energy industry this morning. According to Bloomberg, the owners of one the world’s largest oil-refining complex, Reliance Industries, will bid up to $12 billion for bankrupt chemicals and fuel maker LyondellBasell Industries AF, "in what may be the biggest acquisition by an Indian company in two years."

And finally, a trio of Harvard professors believe they have proof that Bear Sterns and Lehman Bros. executives profited handsomely in the collapse of their companies last year. According the NYT, the professors have published a study that concludes "it is an urban myth that executives at Bear and Lehman were wiped out along with their companies." The stock holdings of these executives may show a combined loss of $900 million, but when you add in other perquisites, Lehman's ex-chief Dick Fuld and his contemporaries came out well ahead, the study says.