Clear Channel's Intimidating Voter Fraud Billboards: Coming to a Black Neighborhood Near You

An anonymous "family foundation" has paid for nearly 150 threatening voter fraud ads to go up around the Midwest, often in predominately black and Latino neighborhoods (the one above looms across the street from a housing project in Cleveland). The ads, 85 of which have appeared in Milwaukee and 60 of which are now…
Bain Capital Wants a Piece of Gawker
After we published nearly 1,000 pages of Bain Capital's confidential financial records—including audits revealing for the first time that Bain employed a potentially illegal tax dodge currently under investigation by the New York attorney general—we thought we might hear from the good folks at Mitt Romney's former…
New York State Attorney General Reportedly Investigating Bain Capital's Tax Strategy
According to the New York Times, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating Bain Capital, along with several other major private equity firms, to see whether the firms used tax loopholes to avoid paying hundreds of millions in taxes. Schneiderman reportedly issued subpoenas to Bain Capital as…
The Bain Files: Inside Mitt Romney's Tax-Dodging Cayman Schemes
Mitt Romney's $250 million fortune is largely a black hole: Aside from the meager and vague disclosures he has filed under federal and Massachusetts laws, and the two years of partial tax returns (one filed and another provisional) he has released, there is almost no data on precisely what his vast holdings consist…
A Brief Critique of the Rich Man's Philosophy
The New York Times Magazine's cover story this week is about Edward Conard, a wealthy private equity titan and former business partner of Mitt Romney's, who has written a book arguing that income inequality is actually good for the middle and lower classes, because the promise of great wealth spurs more investing and…
The Republican Assault on Capitalism and Its Cherished Leader, Mitt Romney
Well it's about time that these losers got around to knocking the dickens out of Mitt Romney, that great labor liquidator of the shareholder value revolution. Everyone, right and left, is pointing and laughing the sad galoot over this clip, in which he says he likes firing people. No, scratch that: He says he likes…
Top Democrats Giddily Distribute Mitt Romney's Embarrassing Old Photo
Just five days ago we published a tacky old Bain Capital photo of Mitt Romney and his swanky private equity buddies playing with money, and wondered how long it would take for one of Romney's many enemies to put it to use, attackwise. And sure enough, guess what's included in today's widely-distributed DNC memo? Stern…
The Old Mitt Romney Photo That He Probably Wants Destroyed
Time's Michael Scherer digs up this photo from the Romney media archives showing our man Mittens and his old Bain Capital buddies playing with money.
Nasdaq tumble stops LinkedIn stock sale plan
Conventional Valley wisdom: The chaos in the public stock markets won't affect private companies, right? Wrong. In August, LinkedIn had set plans to let employees sell some of their shares to investors. Interest in the company had been keen, given its stated plans to wait to IPO rather than sell out. But the…
Citi Takes Wachovia, Bailout Goes to a Vote
♦ President Bush turned up outside the White House early this morning to urge lawmakers to pass the $700 billion bailout and a vote is expected later today. Bored today? The full text of the bailout is here. [NYT, WSJ]
♦ Citigroup has agreed to buy Wachovia in a deal brokerered by the FDIC. [Dealbook]
♦ The…
Street Talk
NBC Universal buys Weather Channel
NBC Universal and two private equity firms, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, acquired the Weather Channel and Weather.com from Landmark Communications over the weekend for a rumored $3.5 billion. Yes, we're not shocked either that NBC figured out Weather Plus wasn't taking over the meteorological universe. […
Street Talk
3Com buyout by Huawei falling apart
Microsoft's Yahoo bid is not the only one in trouble. The $2.2 billion offer for 3Com made by the private-equity firm Bain Capital and Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies is no longer on the table. The company has been unable to work out a compromise with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the…
And we thought that Congress was going to be the main stumbling block for 3Com's buyout by Bain Capital and Huawei. Shareholders are suing 3Com, its directors, a former director, Bain Capital, Huawei Technologies, and the Easter Bunny over the "insufficient" purchase price. Just shut up and take the money. No one else…
3Com has agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital for about $2.2 billion in cash — a 44 percent premium over Thursday's closing price. Included in the deal is a minority stake in 3Com for Chinese network giant Huawei Technologies, which is getting control of H3C, the companies' joint venture. By shutting out Nortel,…
