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Madoff: A buyer emerges for scandalized firm

The legitimate side of Bernard Madoff’s investment business has found a buyer, said Diana Henriques in The New York Times. Boston’s Castor Pollux Securities has agreed to buy Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, a dealer in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from the federal government, which seized Madoff’s businesses after his enormous Ponzi scheme came to light. Castor Pollux will put up only $3 million for the operation but could eventually pay up to $12 million more, depending on the unit’s earnings. Madoff called the trading operation “profitable and successful” when pleading guilty to fraud charges last month, claiming it was worth $700 million.

That could be another Madoff lie, said Lucinda Franks in TheDailybeast

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.com. An unnamed former employee of the trading business says the firm was actually a money loser, run “like a skit out of Monty Python.” Madoff “didn’t seem to care” whether the business was profitable, the former employee said. But he was “obsessive-compulsive” about neatness. All office furnishings had to be black, and “if you had a jacket over the back of a chair, he would take it off.”

Publishing: Sun-Times heads to bankruptcy court

Sun-Times Media Group, parent of the Chicago Sun-Times, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, said James Miller in the Chicago Tribune. The filing “can’t be characterized as a surprise.” Like most other big-city papers, the Sun-Times’ advertising revenue has evaporated. It is also saddled with “the mess left after former owner Conrad Black diverted millions of dollars of company revenue into his own pocket.” Tribune Co., parent of crosstown rival the Chicago Tribune, sought bankruptcy protection in December. Both papers say they plan to keep publishing.

Investment banking: Goldman bails out insiders

Goldman Sachs disclosed last week that it bailed out two senior executives who “needed some liquidity,” said Greg Farrell in the Financial Times. Goldman, which has received a $10 billion federal bailout, said it paid co-CEO Jon Winkelried and general counsel Gregory Palm a total of $58 million late last year to buy back their stakes in an internal investment vehicle. Goldman says it used its own money to repurchase the stakes, but critics say a recipient of federal bailout funds shouldn’t be rescuing its own employees.

Silicon Valley: Layoffs at Google

Not even Google is immune to the recession, said Nicholas Kolakowski in eWeek.com. The highflying Web search and Internet advertising company said last week it would lay off almost 200 people from its sales and marketing departments, “raising questions about its strength in the current recessionary environment.” The company “has seen its profitability dip thanks to growing softness in the online advertising industry.” Before the recession struck, Google had gone on an extended hiring spree, fueled by its rapid growth.

Autos: Peugeot CEO ousted

The CEO of France’s Peugeot Citröen has joined GM’s Rick Wagoner on the unemployment line, said Javier Espinosa in Forbes.com. The struggling automaker’s board ousted Christian Streiff, 54, after several top-level company executives complained of his “high-handed and abrasive” management style. Sources at the carmaker said the board was also concerned that Streiff had no vision for the company’s future, focusing on cost-cutting rather than on building sales or updating the Peugeot product line. Streiff called his dismissal “incomprehensible.”