If you've ever wondered whatever possessed you to shell out hard-earned cash for that huge machine that purportedly vibrates your abs into a six pack, you've got an idea of what the folks at Microsoft have been going through as they took a discerning look at the online display advertising business that was supposed to put them in fighting trim against Google. It essentially declared yesterday that its $6.3 billion acquisition of aQuantive is worthless by announcing a $6.2 billion "goodwill impairment" write-down that it says is "substantially the result" of buying the firm in 2007.

Marcus Agius, the chairman of Barclays who joined the board in 2006 after a distinguished career as a banker at Lazard, resigned this morning in what a statement acknowledges as his failure to protect the institution's reputation after it agreed last week to pay $450 million in a settlement with British and American regulators over its attempts to manipulate interest rates.