Beth Herskovits

When Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler took the podium in January and announced that the struggling company would scale back and restructure its operations, he did more than just signal the end of an era. He proved that to turn around Pfizer-and in a way, the industry at large-companies need to hack away the parts that just aren't working anymore.

The suit draws a comparison to the newspaper industry: Even though papers profit from disseminating information, the information in question isn't commercial.