MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Judge Puts Price Waterhouse at Maxwell Helm: Aligning U.S. and British bankruptcy court actions, a federal judge in New York stripped Maxwell Communication Corp. executives of influence, putting the accounting firm in charge of the company, one of two major publicly held units of the late media baron Robert Maxwell’s collapsed empire. MCC holdings include Macmillan Inc. and Official Airline Guides, which continue to operate outside bankruptcy protection. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that Maxwell had told MCC’s British directors months before his death in November that he had transferred almost $500 million from the firm to his private companies. Such siphoning is the focus of criminal investigations in both the United States and Britain.