avenue

Madison Avenue is running scared. Its recent "upfront" - a glitzy annual ritual in which broadcasters give sneak peaks of their upcoming seasons to advertisers and book billions of dollars in advance bookings for these shows - was a dud whose $8.95 billion take represented the third successive year of decline.

MetLife announced that a contract has been executed to sell its 200 Park Avenue property above Grand Central Station in Manhattan to Tishman Speyer for $1.72 billion.

SL Green Realty has entered into an agreement to acquire the fee interest in One Madison Avenue from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) for $918 million.

We all know by now that the internet is the global communicator. We still haven't dreamed of all the ways we'll use it five years from now. But there are certainly indications that we're going to have to be vigilant in recognizing the difference between honest business practice and the misuse of the net.