Private equity is caught in the crossfire. Rivals of the Republican nomination for the US presidency are leading a full-blown assault on front-runner Mitt Romney&rsquo;s track record at Bain Capital. The attacks won&rsquo;t stop Romney, but the collateral damage could hurt the buyout industry.

Bain of existence

Business Standard

The revolution is being Tweeted. Social media have enabled political uprisings in the Middle East, the global Occupy movement and even a swift blowback against banking fees in the United States. A logical next step would be for Facebook, Twitter and their ilk to intensify the voice of the investing masses.

Plug in, turn on

Private equity pay gawkers have had quite a spectacle of late. Leon Black personally pocketed over $100 million from his firm, Apollo Global Management, last year. Combine Black&rsquo;s earnings with the paychecks of Stephen Schwarzman at Blackstone and five others at KKR and Carlyle &mdash; and the haul tots up to some $900 million. Their enviable lucre is mostly derived from investment profits. Paradoxically, when it comes to valuing the firms they run, investors focus instead on management fees.

An alternative paradox

Vivendi&rsquo;s Universal Music feels good. The purveyor of Lady Gaga hits is so confident of getting approval to buy rival EMI that it agreed to pay the full $1.9 billion price even if the transaction is blocked by trustbusters. But beyond outright success or failure, another possibility &mdash; being forced to sell various pieces &mdash; could prove costliest.

Name that tune

The dystopian kill-or-be-killed world of &ldquo;The Hunger Games&rdquo; isn&rsquo;t the film&rsquo;s only apt metaphor for Wall Street. This weekend&rsquo;s smash box-office debut of the teen lit sensation makes Lions Gate the studio equivalent of a boutique investment bank landing the year&rsquo;s biggest deal. And Walt Disney&rsquo;s coinciding flop &ldquo;John Carter&rdquo; raises questions about Hollywood&rsquo;s bulge bracket. Independents from both industries are fighting to stay in the spotlight.

Lions' roar

Warren Buffett seems to have learnt something from a fellow corporate titan. The 81-year-old investing icon disclosed on Tuesday he was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer last week and pledged to keep shareholders updated about his health. The candour is a refreshing contrast to the way Steve Jobs guarded details of the illness that eventually killed him. Unfortunately, Buffett is shrouding his succession plan in the same sort of mystery the Apple boss did.

Health check

The battle between Walt Disney and Rupert Murdoch&rsquo;s News Corp is going global. The rival media empires keep ratcheting up their war to broadcast everything from baseball to soccer in the United States and Europe. Now, they&rsquo;re set to square off over cricket and more in Asia, after dissolving a 16-year partnership. The rising value of sports rights just got another bump.

Good sports

It was an important milestone for Facebook&rsquo;s timeline on Monday. The newly public $69 billion company made Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg the first female director. But joining a rubber-stamp board that Facebook&rsquo;s chief executive treats haughtily won&rsquo;t much enhance Sandberg&rsquo;s already sterling reputation. Leading women executives like Sandberg would be better off pushing for representation where they can make a real difference.

You've got female

The folly of investing in Facebook has been put on full display. Peter Thiel, who bet $500,000 on the social network back in 2004, took the first opportunity available following the company&rsquo;s initial public offering to unload more stock. He sold some 20 million shares, worth about $400 million. The decision cements the idea that Facebook&rsquo;s IPO was run by and for its early backers. Thiel&rsquo;s seat on the board is now a snub to new investors, too.

Jeffrey Goldfarb