The Australian
 reports, Lion Nathan has a fight on its hands if it is
to succeed in wrestling control of the last of the family run brewers,
Coopers of South Australia. Australia’s No.2 brewer launched a $260 cash per share takeover for
Coopers, valuing the small brewer at $352 million.

Lion Nathan has bought into the mother of all family feuds by making a
takeover offer for all the shares in Coopers, says Elizabeth Knight in the SMH. Like most family-owned companies that have been operating for
three to four generations, one branch has ended up dominating the
management of the operations while others have become
disenfranchised and want to cash in the inheritance – this will be a hostile bid with
a lot of emotion and vested interest thrown into the melting pot.
Certainly one worth watching, says Knight.

Woodside’s Don Voelte has made no secret of his view that the
group had to either build its presence in the Gulf of Mexico or get
out of the region, says Stephen Bartholomeusz in The Smage. And after yesterday’s announcement that it had paid
$US296.9 million ($A394 million) for Houston-based Gryphon
Exploration, Woodside is now committed to building a major presence
in the gulf.

The battle for Myer has begun, reports The Age. In anticipation of an early start to the sale
of the department stores, investors have sent the Coles Myer share price to a record
high. The company is believed to have received
up to 13 expressions of interest from a variety of parties, including a
large number of private investment companies, since John Fletcher
announced an “internal review” to look at selling or even breaking up
the 105-year-old Myer chain.

And The Fin Review reports that Australia’s top law firms are
slashing cost
and partners in a relentless drive towards the new holy grail: $1.5
million in the pockets of the firms’ most senior partners and top
performers.

On Wall Street, US stocks ended mixed overnight as energy prices
ticked higher and investors weighed the possibility of a temporary halt
to the Federal Reserve’s cycle of interest-rate hikes following
Hurricane Katrina and a batch of weak economic data. The Dow Jones fell
21.97 points to 10,459.63 – MarketWatch has a full report here.