LUXURY TIMES: Bernard Arnault is nothing if not tenacious. On Thursday, the chairman of luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton reiterated his intention to acquire French financial daily Les Echos from Britain's Pearson Group plc. It came as Fimalac, a French financial services firm, submitted a 245 million euro counter bid ($337.8 million at current exchange) to LVMH's 240 million euro bid ($331 million). LVMH has been facing mounting opposition in the press over its editorial ambitions, but in a statement, the company said it continued exclusive discussions with Pearson and countered charges it would impede editorial independence and cut jobs. LVMH already owns five publications, including rival financial daily La Tribune, and employs some 300 journalists. — Miles Socha

PICTURE STORIES: On the heels of Aeffe's IPO news, the company is rolling out ad campaigns for two of its key divisions, one with its regular photographer, Steven Meisel, the other using Peter Lindbergh for the second season in a row.

Alberta Ferretti's fall-winter print ads will spotlight Julia Stegner and Adina Fohlin, photographed by Meisel.

For Moschino, a group of unknown models were pulled together for this fall's Moschino ads, with lensman Lindbergh.

For the Ferretti campaign, the designer wanted to convey a sense of dualism by photographing the leggy brunettes as a twosome posing in and around a modernistic house in Los Angeles. "When I started to think about the fall-winter advertising campaign, I had in mind the idea of 'the double,''' Ferretti said. "My idea was to reflect the reality of contemporary life, in which women use the game of duality to better assert their complex personality."

This marks the first time in 11 years the designer has tapped Meisel to shoot her ads, which will run in the August editions of Vogue, W, Vanity Fair, In Style and Elle.

For Moschino, Lindbergh's work is reminiscent of what he did in the Nineties. The new ads feature all fresh faces who have yet to make their mark in the modeling world. There are ads with different combinations of 28 women wearing Moschino and Cheap and Chic. Patti Wilson styled the campaign, Odile Gilbert was the hairstylist and Ellis Faas handled makeup. The Moschino campaign will also launch in the August issues of national publications. Executives at Aeffe declined to comment on either campaign's media buy. — Rosemary Feitelberg