Business Week Magazine

The Walt Disney Co. has earned the ignoble distinction of having one of the 25 worst boards of directors in corporate America. That's the conclusion of Business Week magazine, which in its Nov. 25 issue lumped the company in with 24 other laggards in its first-ever ranking of corporate boards. Business Week dissed Disney for packing its board with insiders and friends--potentially a recipe for passivity and rubber-stamp decision-making.

In a major victory for the press, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday that a lower court judge erred in sealing documents in a corporate lawsuit and then barring BusinessWeek magazine from publishing details from the materials. The ruling, which BusinessWeek attorney Kenneth Vedder said includes language of "landmark stature and significance," could slow the efforts of judges and corporations to seal documents in civil cases such as this one.

In court documents unsealed Tuesday, Procter & Gamble Co. alleged that Bankers Trust New York Corp. defrauded P&G and eight other customers, causing them to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. The 750-page documents are the most detailed account of the company's dealings with Bankers Trust to be made public. They paint a picture of greedy and deceptive practices.

The law firm representing Bankers Trust New York Corp. said it was the source of the documents provided to BusinessWeek magazine for a story that was withdrawn under court order. In testimony in U.S. District Court here Wednesday, Steven Holley, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and the lawyer who provided the papers to the magazine, said he was unaware they had been sealed by court order. The documents contain information pertaining to a lawsuit Procter & Gamble Co.

Until recently, the legal wrangling between Bankers Trust Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. was probably not a candidate for Court TV. Without sex, drugs, homemade bombs or bloody gloves, this civil lawsuit seemed destined to be little more than a blip on the public record. Then a federal judge in Cincinnati declared that the record wasn't public. And he ordered BusinessWeek magazine not to publish an investigative story about the case.

Even with the recession, it seems hope persists that high-tech industries can generate new Silicon Valleys, or regional "hot spots." In the Oct. 19 issue of Business Week, the magazine's cover story focuses on 15 regions where particular technology industries, from telecommunications to medical instruments, have concentrated and generated new jobs. Orange County isn't on the list.