Telstra’s new chief executive Sol Trujillo has signalled an aggressive
stance against increased regulation and warned that staff cuts will be
part of his review of the company’s full privatisation, reports the Fin Review. And the new management has ruled itself out as a player in this year’s media ownership revolution, reports Jane Schulze in The Australian, focusing instead on its core business.

The
most revealing aspects of Trujillo’s cautious commentary on Telstra and
his plans lay in his reasons for taking on the role, says Stephen Bartholomeusz in the Smage.
At Saturday’s media and analysts’ conference he referred to the “unique
opportunity” the telco presents – he said he believed over the next few
years Telstra would do some things that no-one else in the world was
doing. However there’s no certainty that the potential that drew him to
Telstra can be readily unlocked.

The Oz reports that News
Corp has unveiled a US$3 billion share buyback in a sign there will be
no quick resolution to the ownership tensions between Rupert Murdoch
and John Malone’s Liberty Media.

Embattled Morgan Stanley CEO Philip Purcell has agreed to retire after
a lengthy battle with dissident directors weakened his hold on the Wall
Street investment bank, reports the New York Times.
His decision marks the end of a bitter and unorthodox public power
struggle between Purcell and a group of eight dissident executives that
laid bare festering divisions that tore at the fabric of the firm.

The
High Court of Canton Zurich will allow key documents, including the
Swiss banking records of Rene Rivkin, Graham Richardson and Trevor
Kennedy, to be sent to Australian authorities, reports Shraga Elam in
the Fin Review. Also in the AFR, the nation’s top
accounting bodies are in a spat over a campaign launched by the
Institute of Chartered Accountants aimed at highlighting how its
members are better than CPA Australia’s.

The Smage
reports that the Singapore Government has hit back at Qantas-backed
Jetstar Asia’s complaints about lack of access into key Asian markets,
questioning why the airline is not flying to the four extra
destinations for which it has been given permission.

On Wall
Street, US stocks ended slightly higher overnight despite a surge in
oil prices to a seven-week high with Morgan Stanley a standout as the
its shares climbed as much as 4.4% on Purcell’s departure. The Dow
Jones ended up 9 points at 10,522. MarketWatch has a full report here.