Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Donald Trump buys the Doral Golf Resort and Country Club

Donald Trump has big plans for Doral golf resort


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Bad News for Billionaires: Greed is actually bad



In the 1987 movie "Wall Street," Michael Douglas' famous character Gordon Gekko says: "Greed, for lack of a better term, is good."

In keeping with the times, Michael Douglas, circa 2012 now points out: "Greed is actually bad."

Monday, February 27, 2012

Carl Icahn reduces stake in Motorola Solutions

Motorola Solutions, Inc. Purchases Approximately $1.2 Billion of Its Common Stock from Icahn - Business Wire - SunHerald.com



Motorola Solutions has purchased 23,739,362 shares of its common stock (the “Shares”) at a price of $49.15 per share, for aggregate cash consideration of $1,166,789,642 [from Icahn and affiliates].

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/02/27/3779555/motorola-solutions-inc-purchasesapproximately.html#storylink=cpy


Thursday, February 23, 2012

Chris Christie: fed up with Warren Buffett


"He (Warren Buffett) should just write a check and shut up!" 



Christie: "I'm tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give the government more money, he's got the ability to write a check -- go ahead and write it!!!"

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Dell continues to experience global market pressures


Dell Inc. (NYSE: DELL) opened gap down today in trading and stayed gap down in response to yesterday's global revenue forecast for the world's No. 3 personal computer maker as coming in well below market expectations.

Dell closed down $1.05 a share for the day to 17.15, a drop of nearly 6%.

Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell continued to smile his unblemished smile and explained how Dell is continuing to add value to customers on a world-wide basis.


Dell Inspiron i14RN-1227BK 14-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Oprah Winfrey Cooks Neilsen Ratings


On Twitter Sunday night, billionaire TV diva Oprah Winfrey apparently recklessly violated Neilsen's policy against openly lobbying Nielsen box owners to watch a specific TV show or network.

But it was just one of those accidental honest slip-ups.

The TV diva  tweeted to her followers: "Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Neilsen [sic] box."

Later, Oprah Tweeted: "Commercial Grammy people..u can turn to OWN." - only to delete everything later.

Oprah ended the whole fiasco by saying: "I intended no harm and apologize for the reference."

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Mexico's Monopoly Man Mints Many Pesos


In Economics 101, one eventually learns the definition of a monopoly as "one firm or producer in an industry or market sector."

Outside of class, and in life, one learns that the somewhat educated news media throws around the term 'monopoly' without any regard to a standardized definition (9 times out of 10). And, of course, this is the same news media that calls bloggers into question for journalistic integrity issues.

So, we have to give The Economist some professional and journalistic credit for recently writing that Carlos Slim enjoys "two near-monopolies" ("Let Mexico's moguls battle"; The Economist, February 4, 2012).

Note for future billionaires: it helps to become a billionaire with occassionally achieving a near-monopoly on a market or two. Call Bill Gates about this.

So here we have Carlos Slim owning both Telmex and Telcel, both with huge near-monopoly market shares in the broadband and mobile markets in Mexico.

And because The Economist is interested in economic fairness (among other things) it is suggesting that Carlos Slim, or the government, or somebody allow a little competition into the marketplace for the benefit of Mexican consumers.

Fat chance. Pun intended.

As they say in Mexico: "it is impossible to go a day without putting pesos into Carlos Slim's pockets."

Enjoy the pesos Carlos!




Monday, February 6, 2012

A supermodel, the quarterback and the Super Bowl


Another Super Bowl has slipped away for the husband of Brazilian supermodel (and nearly a billionaire) Gisele Bundchen.

Tom Brady has lost another Super Bowl to the New York Giants 21-17.

 “I think it was just the missed opportunities,” Brady said.

Gisele Bundchen post game remarks (to heckling Giants fans):
 "You (have) to catch the ball when you're supposed to catch the ball. My husband cannot [expletive] throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times."

Thursday, February 2, 2012

All Hail, King Zuckerberg!

Beware the king: Zuckerberg’s voting power a risk to shareholders | VentureBeat

As VentureBeat’s Jolie O’Dell pointed out yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg managed to strike a deal with some key investors and friends that gives him 57 percent of the shareholder voting power. For a public company, it’s an almost unheard of concentration of authority, a troubling sign for those who focus on shareholder rights.
“The public has no say in the control of the board, which in my view is terribly harmful to any notion of accountability,” Charles Elson, a University of Delaware corporate-governance professor, told Bloomberg. ”It’s very troubling to investors, and it’s a bad bet for them.”