Domino's president David Brandon set fire to a cease-and-desist letter it had received from Subway during a spot that ran on Fox's "American Idol" Jan. 21, Kenneth Hein reports. The letter states that claims Domino's has been making in its advertising about the superiority of its baked sandwich product line are misleading and that consumer taste tests conducted on behalf of the No. 2 pizza chain are not legitimate. Brandon had challenged his marketing team and lead agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky to come up with a plan to leverage the letter after it arrived earlier this month. "I said, …

In a deal that "would redraw the boundaries of the global drug industry," Pfizer is negotiating to acquire Wyeth in a deal that could be valued at more than $60 billion, Matthew Karnitschnig and Jonathan D. Rockoff report. Spokesmen for both companies refuse to comment on "rumors." Analysts say Wyeth has products and businesses that complement Pfizer's lineup, and it has established a foothold in biotechnology. It has had strong success with Prevnar, its pediatric pneumococcal vaccine, for example. Another strong biotechnology seller is the anti-inflammatory biologic Enbrel, which Wyeth co-markets with Amgen. Wyeth also would bring an animal-health …

Even with 13 Oscar nominations, the costs of making, marketing and distributing the "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are so high that its auditors may never be writing with black ink. Claudia Eller writes that the hurdles facing "Button" underscore how risky so-called "prestige pictures" -- even ones showered with accolades -- have become for the major Hollywood studios. The film stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story about a man who ages in reverse. Paramount Pictures and co-financing partner Warner Bros. spent $150 million to make "Button," and the companies …

Travel companies are slashing prices on flights, cruises, and hotel rooms, Nicole C. Wong reports, as leisure travelers opt to stay home and conserve their financial resources. Southwest Airlines is offering 50% savings on fares to Seattle, for example, and Princess Cruises is promoting a "2-for-1 Escape the Economy" sale on nearly 200 European or Alaskan sailings. Low-cost carrier AirTran Airways shot off a three-day sale on Tuesday as "a way of getting people thinking about traveling again," according to spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver. British Airways launched a sale the same day. Hotels also are discounting heavily, and "the cruise …

True that. Then again, maybe it won't. And that's the gist of Troy Wolverton's retrospective look at the first 25 years of Apple's trendsetting Macintosh computer. "The biggest question Apple faces is how it operates in a world of ... cloud computing," says Charles Smulders, an analyst who covers the PC industry for Gartner. "We expect a lot of change in [that area] in the next two to five years." The industry has become standardized, making it harder to introduce earthshaking changes, Wolverton points out, and many of Apple's recent changes to the Mac line have been the …

Sitting amidst all the doom-and-gloom layoff headlines this morning, this one definitely stood out like a beacon of Panglossian optimism. Bryan Yurcan reports that 91% of 600 small business owners surveyed by phone in September and October for UPS Business Monitor United States expected their company to be in the same or better financial shape in one year. A follow-up survey of 151 respondents in mid-December showed 86% still felt that way.