The colorful Sam Zell assumed leadership of the Tribune Company yesterday, after closing an $8.2 billion deal to take the company private.

Former chairman & CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons immediately stepped down, making way for Zell to assume both titles.

The Federal Trade Commission today approved Google’s $3.1 acquisition of DoubleClick, clearing the way for tremendous growth in the company’s online advertising revenues.

Microsoft and consumer privacy organizations had opposed the deal, arguing that it would create an advertising monopoly.

The shakeup at Oral Roberts University continues.

Last week, evangelist Creflo Dollar resigned from the board of regents and Benny Hinn lost his voting status.
This week, the university said that Louisiana televangelist Jesse Duplantis also resigned from the board, the Tulsa World reports.

Sue Payton, the senior acquisition official in the Air Force, is an unlikely military reformer. She has spent a career in the defense industry and recently completed a long stint under former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

When Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne swore her in 17 months ago as the service’s top weapons buyer, he said her charge was to infuse “integrity and transparency” into the acquisition process after a procurement scandal.

The Connie Mack dynasty extended its reach over the weekend.

After a two-year courtship, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV of Florida married U.S. Rep. Mary Bono of California.

The starring roles in the much-anticipated public offering of NetSuite belong to founder Evan Goldberg, president Zach Nelson and investor Larry Ellison.

But a behind-the-scenes player yields some insight into the corporate culture. Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, joined the company’s board of directors in January.

It has been an especially tough couple weeks for Leslie Alexander, the largest shareholder of The First Marblehead Corporation, a packager of student loans.

Alexander owns the Houston Rockets of the NBA. He also controls more than 18.2 million shares of First Marblehead stock.

In her first address as one of the aerospace industry’s top spokespeople, Marion Blakey, a former senior Bush administration appointee, said U.S. aerospace companies had a banner year.

“With good news in nearly every sector, I am pleased to see the American aerospace industry’s strong international presences continuing to keep pace with our domestic successes,” said Blakey, the new chief of the Aerospace Industries Association, the country’s top lobbying organization for military and commercial aviation companies.

It can be hard to measure the size of someone’s ego. But not that of venture capitalist Tom Perkins.

His ego measures precisely 289.1 feet long and is named the Maltese Falcon, a new class of super yacht.

Perkins co-founded in 1972 what is now Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the most successful VC firms in the world. At one point, Perkins was a director of 14 portfolio companies, three of which he chaired and which were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Connections can be good, but they can also become conflicts of interest.

Former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell released his report Thursday on the illegal use of steroids and other performances enhancing substances by Major League Baseball players.

Mitchell, 74, is widely respected, the sort of statesman who’s called in to fix problems others can’t solve. But he also has past and current links to baseball, including his role as director of the Boston Red Sox.