Bain

Throughout the pages of Walter Kiechel III's The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World, the author tells how one management fad succeeded since the mid-1960s. In doing so, Kiechel paints a picture of a culture where ideas, more than deeds, are the central product.

Citigroup (C) may sell its private equity operations, Citi Private Equity, for $10 billion. The reason for the sale is simple. Citigroup is still trying to rebuild its troubled balance sheet and the $10 billion would come in handy. Of course, getting $10 billion may be easier said than done.

The clash between Chinese companies and the governments in countries where China is shopping for assets has heated up recently -- and it is likely to get much worse. The U.S. effectively blocked a takeover of 3Com by Bain Capital and Huawei Technologies. Some of 3Com's assets were deemed...