The news at a glance

Microsoft: Angling to lock up News Corp.

Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. may team up against Google, said Matthew Garrahan in the Financial Times. Microsoft, aiming to popularize its Bing search engine, has proposed that it become the sole search device to display News Corp. content, including stories from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and Fox News. In essence, Microsoft would pay News Corp. to insert code in its stories that would stop them from showing up in Google searches. Murdoch, who has accused Google of “stealing stories” published in his newspapers, views a deal with Bing as bringing him one step closer to charging for News Corp.’s online content.

If a deal goes through, it would put pressure on Google to start paying for other content that pops up on its search engine, said John Gapper in FinancialTimes.com. While that would be a blow to Google, it could be manna from heaven for newspaper publishers, which are desperately seeking to replace plummeting subscription and advertising revenues. By paying “for drawing visitors to Bing,” Microsoft’s plan, says one online publisher, “puts enormous value on content.”

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Commercial real estate: Morgan Stanley’s black eye

Morgan Stanley has handed its troubled Crescent Real Estate Equities to Barclays Capital, the unit’s major lender, said Jim Fuquay in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Crescent owns and manages 17 million square feet of commercial real estate, including major malls and spas in the Southwest. Morgan Stanley paid $6.5 billion for Crescent in 2007, “at what turned out to be the top of the market.” In return for the keys to Crescent, Barclays agreed to wipe out the $2 billion that Morgan Stanley owes it.

Takeovers: A bidding war for Cadbury?

“The contest for Cadbury could become a little more crowded,” said Michael de la Merced and Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. Hershey last week said it might offer $17 billion for the British candymaker, topping the sole offer now on the table, Kraft Foods’ $16.7 billion proposal. Switzerland’s Nestlé and Italy’s Ferrero are also “pondering their options.” The entrance of another bidder or two would provide additional negotiating leverage to Cadbury, which has “spent months stonewalling Kraft.”

The Internet: AOL swings the ax

Days before it completed its split from Time Warner, Internet service provider AOL said last week it would lay off 2,500 of its 6,000 employees, said Kara Swisher in The Wall Street Journal online. Employees face “a depressing rock-and-a-hard-place choice.” Those who volunteer to leave will receive severance equal to three to nine months of pay, compared with one to four months of pay for those who are laid off. AOL says the cuts will reduce its annual operating expenses by $300 million.

Investing: Ohio targets bond-rating firms

Ohio’s attorney general last week sued ratings agencies Fitch, Moody’s, and Standard & Poor’s, alleging that their faulty ratings of mortgage securities cost the state nearly $500 million, said Sheryl Harris in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Attorney General Richard Cordray says that the agencies, which evaluate the financial soundness of corporations and their bonds, “ignored their own policies to provide inflated ratings of mortgage-backed investments.” Cordray has filed eight major suits against financial firms to recoup losses in the state’s pension funds.