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Porsche Fleece Hedge Funds for 12 Billion Euro in Volkswagen Sting
Porsche There is No Substitute! The background: In September 2005 Porsche bought 20% of its larger but less profitable German rival Volkswagen. In March 2007 Porsche bought another 19.9% (to 39.9%) and launched a takeover bid. In October 2007 the law preventing the takeover of Volkswagen was scrapped. On 20 October 2008 Volkswagen’s share price…
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Credit Crisis Explained
A number of people have asked me if there is a simple explanation of the financial crisis. It is difficult to give a simple explanation that doesn’t paint the exclusive cause as naive greed. The credit crisis is one contributing factor to the financial crisis (I see these as two different issues). I see four…
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Warren Buffet: Buy American. I Am.
As part of my Corporate Finance class, Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway came up. Nobody had checked its stock price recently so I volunteered to do it. In doing so I came across the following op-ed piece Warren Buffet wrote in the New York Times. For the record BERKSHIRE HATH HLD A (NYSE: BRK-A) closed…
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Design Change
Finally I was forced to update the design of WealthEsteem.org The old theme has been around since before WordPress 1.0, I’ve kept it together by hacking it occassionally. Finally I needed a reliable and modern theme. So welcome to “fresh”. Let me know if anything has broken.
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MBA Term 2 course result
Wow I passed the Data Analysis and Statistical Modelling exam I wrote about in August. My term result was a solid Credit grade, so I didn’t do too badly given my inability to study for the exam. One of Corporate Finance lecturers said my trade-off of limited study time for family and a new job…
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URGEN MESSAGE FROM NIGERIA, ER, AMERICA
I received this overnight – what a hoot! Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of…
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Fee split etiquette
I am an active networker and I see many requests from recruiters to find a suitable candidate for a role. Sometimes someone replies with a request to split the fee. Can we talk about good etiquette for a fee split? If you work as a recruiter then it is quite reasonable to accept a fee…
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Just start!
Over the years I’ve attended various “… for beginners” Q&A’s for writing, film making, script writing, blogging, and other creative endeavors. I remember a fan asking Harlan Ellison what computer software he writes with and thinking “If you met Shakespeare would you want to know how he trimmed his quill?”. Sure that’s a but sarcastic,…
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MBA 2008 Term 3
I’ll be doing Corporate Finance for my next MBA (Executive) course. This is interesting as I’ll be doing a few mergers and acquisitions so hopefully I’ll learn some interesting ways to structure a deal. So far there hasn’t been a lot of M&A focused subjects at AGSM. Lectures start the week beginning 15 September 2008.…