Financial Times

"Canal, the word is out, for the worst, this time. Because, contrary to what he claimed in the Financial Times, Vincent Bolloré has settled in the heart of the machine, as soon as he saw the accounts in the red. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, he is present at 7 a.m., in the office of the former CEO, Bertrand Méheut, fired in the summer, without delicacy but with comfortable compensation, like twenty-two of the management executives. A statement from the new owner-boss, uttered in front of a union representative-"The top management of a large house deserves a bit of terror"-will become the symbol of this takeover. As Bolloré says, "I create an atmosphere"..."

"On the eve of Christmas, Vivendi announced that it had acquired 3% of Mediaset's capital, then increased it to 12% without ruling out reaching 20%. The French group eventually stopped just below 30%, the trigger threshold for a takeover bid. The investment is relatively small (1.3 billion euros), compared to the enormous funds that Vivendi had obtained from the earlier sale of SFR. However, the impact in Italy is immense. "We will defend ourselves against what is not a normal market operation, but a serious deception that undermines the very laws of the market," Fininvest, the parent company of Mediaset, reacted. Silvio Berlusconi explosively stated in the Financial Times that "Mediaset will remain Italian." And privately added, "They speculated on my death." This is because the former Prime Minister had undergone a delicate quadruple bypass surgery when Vivendi unleashed its attack. The issue has become so sensitive that La Stampa, the voice of the Piedmont industrialists, takes a stand: "To betray Silvio Berlusconi like this is to betray Italy.""

"I said to him, “Look, we’re not happy. And you know we’re not happy. I’ve asked you to step down—over a reasonable period of time. I’m not trying to embarrass you or otherwise sully your reputation, but I’ve got a shitload of money invested in this business. You have some options which are frankly of nominal value. I should be appointed chairman of the business or we should agree on some succession plan, which we can announce, that will see me be chairman.” And he wasn’t happy with that. So I said, “Look, here’s the deal: I’ve got to vote for you legally, but I’m standing up at the meeting tomorrow and I’m telling the meeting that you do not enjoy my confidence. And you can imagine that will be front page news in tomorrow’s edition of the Financial Times. Is that what you want?” So, of course, that was a pretty powerful threat. I’m not a threatening kind of guy. That’s not my style. But on the other hand, what are you going to do? If you’re going to be an active manager, you’ve got to be an active manager."

"Articles Austin, K. L., “Ivar Kreuger’s Story in Light of Five Years,” The New York Times, Mar. 7, 1937. Barman, T. G., “Ivar Kreuger: His Life and Work,” The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 150, Aug. 1932, at 238-50. Blystone, Richard, “The Crash Heard ‘Round the World,’” The Associated Press, Oct. 29, 1979, AM Cycle. Cannon, Arthur M., “Kreuger, Genius and Swindler,” Journal of Accountancy, Sep. 1961, at 94. Childs, Marquis W., “Sweden: Where Capitalism is Controlled,” Harper’s Magazine, vol. 167, Nov. 1933, at 749. Citron, Bernhard, “America Sinks; Russia Rises,” Litter’s Living Age, Jun. 1932, at 315. Crum, W. L. and J. B. Hubbard, “Review of the First Quarter of 1932,” Review of Economic Statistics, vol. 14, May 15, 1932, at 66-73. Done, Kevin, “Swedish Match Strikes Back in Royal Style,” Financial Times, Mar. 31, 1987, at 6. Fane, Malachy, “The Swedish Juggler,” New Republic, vol. 71, Jul. 13, 1932, at 239. “Financial World Not Yet Sure What Kreuger Suicide Means,” Business Week, Mar. 19, 1932, at 5. Flesher, Dale L. and Tonya K. Flesher, “Ivar Kreuger’s Contribution to Financial Reporting,” Accounting Review, vol. 61, no. 3, Jul. 1986, at 421-34. Flynn, John T., “Kreuger: Another Holding Company Debacle,” New Republic, vol. 71, May 25, 1932. “Four Masters of Fraud,” Newsweek, vol. 49, Apr. 11, 1957, at 94. Galbraith, John Kenneth, “How to Become an International Swindler,” Reporter, vol. 16, Mar. 21, 1957, at 45. “German Matches; Strike a Light,” Economist, Jan. 22, 1983, at 66. Hertzberg, Sidney, “Aftermath of the Kreuger Crash,” Current History, vol. 39, Nov. 1933, at 239. Hertzberg, Sidney, “Ivar Kreuger’s Liabilities,” Current History, vol. 37, Nov. 1932, at 233. “High Finance: The House of Matches,” Time, vol. 46, Nov. 5, 1945, at 88. “Kreuger Finale,” Time, vol. 28, Jul. 13, 1936, at 66. Labaton, Stephen, “Archives of Business: A Rogues Gallery; Ivar Kreuger: Sweden’s Match King,” The New York Times, Dec. 7, 1986, sect. 3, at 23. Lambert, Richard, “Shady Dealings on the Grandest Scale,” Financial Times, Aug. 15, 1984, at 9. Lazar, Maria, “Is Kreuger Dead?,” Littell’s Living Age, vol. 344, Mar. 1933. Lebergott, Stanley, “The Shape of the Income Distribution,” American Economic Review, vol. 49, Jun. 1959, at 328. Lewinsohn, Richard, “Second Thoughts on Kreuger,” Littell’s Living Age, Jun. 1932, at 318. Lundberg, Erik, “The Rise and Fall of the Swedish Model,” Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 23, Mar. 1985, at 1. Lyons, Eugene, “Interviewing the Titans,” Saturday Review of Literature, vol. 18, Oct. 22, 1938, at 6. Marcosson, Isaac F., “An Interview with Ivar Kreuger,” Saturday Evening Post, Apr. 2, 1932, at 3-5. Marcosson, Isaac F., “The Match King,” Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 12, 1929, at 3-4. Marcosson, Isaac F., “The Swedish Recovery,” Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 22, 1936, at 23. “Matches: Cigarettes Light Way for Continued Diamond Profits,” Newsweek, vol. 7, Jun. 13, 1936, at 34. Olson, Alma Luise, “Kreuger is Called Victim of System,” The New York Times, Mar. 26, 1933, at 2. Picton, John, “The Death of the World’s Greatest Swindler,” Toronto Star, Aug. 21, 1988, at A0. Ross, Nancy L., “Yesterday’s Financial Failures, Today’s Successful Souvenirs,” Washington Post, Mar. 1, 1981, at F1. Rydbeck, Oscar, “Was Kreuger Crazy?,” Littell’s Living Age, Jun. 1932, at 321. Shaplen, Robert, “Annals of Crime: Kreuger - I,” New Yorker, vol. 35, Sep. 26, 1959, at 51. Shaplen, Robert, “Annals of Crime: Kreuger - II,” New Yorker, vol. 35, Oct. 3, 1959, at 108. Shaplen, Robert, “Annals of Crime: Kreuger - III,” New Yorker, vol. 35, Oct. 10, 1959, at 51. Simons, Rodger L., “The Garden of Sweden,” North American Review, vol. 238, Nov. 1938, at 414. Smith, Geoffrey, “The Legacy of Ivar Kreuger,” Forbes, vol. 136, Dec. 2, 1985, at 143. Soloveychik, George, “The Tragedy of Ivar Kreuger,” Nineteenth Century, vol. 111, Apr. 1932, at 421. “Swedish Stockmarket; Too Hot to Handle,” Economist, Apr. 30, 1983, at 106. Taylor, J. R., “Some Antecedents of the Securities and Exchange Commission,” Accounting Review, vol. 16, Jun. 1941. “The Diamond Match Co.,” Fortune, vol. 19, May 1939. “The Kreuger Case Again,” New Republic, vol. 73, Jan. 25, 1933, at 284. “The Kreuger Saga,” Littell’s Living Age, vol. 355, Feb. 1939. “The Passing of Ivar Kreuger,” Literary Digest, Mar. 26, 1932, at 56. “The Week,” New Republic, Mar. 23, 1932, at 1. “The World Over,” Littell’s Living Age, vol. 342, May 1932, at 189. Thompson, Howard and Anita Gates, “Movies: Critics’ Choice,” The New York Times, Dec. 5, 1999, at 6. Thompson, Ralph, “Sweden’s Losses in Kreuger Crash,” Current History, vol. 36, Jul. 1932, at 501. Thompson, Ralph, “The Unfolding of the Kreuger Scandal,” Current History, vol. 36, Jun. 1932, at 361. Unstad, Lyder L., “Sweden: The Middle Way,” American Economic Review, vol. 26, Jun. 1936, at 304. Visser, W. A., “Who was Ivar Kreuger?,” Christian Century, vol. 49, May 11, 1932, at 617. Webb, Sara, “Stora Offers 541 M Pounds for Swedish Match,” Financial Times, Mar. 10, 1988, at 48. “Why the House of Kreuger Fell,” Literary Digest, vol. 115, Feb. 4, 1933, at 40. Whyte, Frederic, “An Interpretation of Ivar Kreuger,” Contemporary Review, vol. 143, Apr. 1933, at 465. Winkler, Max, “Playing with Matches,” in Foreign Bonds: An Autopsy, (Beard Books, 1999), at 93-103. Winterich, John T., “Swindler Extraordinary,” Saturday Review, vol. 40, Feb. 2, 1957, at 20. “World’s Greatest Swindler,” Time, vol. 69, Jan. 28, 1957, at 106. Wuorinen, John H., “Kreuger’s Vanished Millions,” Current History, vol. 26, May 1932, at 241. Zeff, Stephen A., “How the US Accounting Profession Got Where It is Today: Part I,” Accounting Horizons, vol. 17, no. 3, Sep. 2003, at 189-205."

"Kingsley’s office is a reminder that while he might have made more of a name for himself and more money on Wall Street if he had left Icahn’s shadow, at Icahn and Company he has been free to be—himself. Stacks of the Financial Times, waiting to be clipped, climb halfway to the ceiling on one side of the room; the window behind Kingsley’s desk is nearly obscured by mountains of 10Ks, annual reports, prospectuses; and Kingsley himself is barely discernible behind the cascading piles of papers that rise from his desk. “Mount Everest,” remarked a secretary as she tossed a letter onto the top. From beneath his desk, on his visitor’s side, papers spill. And there, too, rest unpacked cartons from the peregrinations of Icahn and Company over the past two decades—one from 42 Broadway, one from 25 Broadway. Out of this strange, unsightly chaos has come what Kingsley says with some pride is the “overwhelming majority” of Icahn’s targets. He selects, then he proposes, debates, sometimes is rejected by Icahn. But they have been together for twenty years, and he has a good sense of what will persuade. When Kingsley was arguing for USX, where chairman David Roderick and the steelworkers’ union had been at each others’ throats, he said, “You know, Carl, you could do again with the unions what you did in TWA.” And he is more than Icahn’s analyst. Once Icahn is in the midst of a deal, Kingsley is his constant sounding board, really his co-strategist, and they often attend negotiating sessions together."

"In the second half of 1986, American Barrick, a newcomer that had existed for less than four years, took a run at the mighty Britishbased Consolidated Goldfields, a company that had been founded by Cecil Rhodes in the previous century and that was a member of the Financial Times 100 index. With a market capitalization of more than £2 billion, compared with American Barrick’s puny couple of hundred million dollars, Consgold was startled, to say the least, at the Canadian company’s chutzpah. Munk built a position of 4.9 percent of Consgold with purchases on the open market, but failed to consummate the takeover when the stock price took off in response to his initiative. The gutsy move, however, paid off in the long run. Not only did Barrick end up with a profit of $9.4 million when it sold its position, but the takeover bid attracted the attention of some of the biggest stock-market players in the world—people like the Oppenheimer family and Sir James Goldsmith, who became part of Munk’s network and led him to great opportunities later on."

"But it was the small things which hurt most. With his usual eye for detail, Weinstock carried a cost-cutting regime to extremes, cancelling the orders for the directors’ newspapers and magazines — in Lindley’s case, the Financial Times and Yachting and Motor Boat Weekly. Curiously, this was the one move which really rankled with Lindley, who accosted Weinstock one morning, saying: ‘You stopped me getting them.’ Weinstock said: ‘No, I stopped the company paying for it.’ That was the end of Lindley. In November 1963 Weinstock cemented his position by bringing in David Lewis, Sobell’s lawyer, who had advised on both family and commercial matters. Lewis was just as bright and hard as Weinstock, several years his senior, and, as a colleague put it, ‘101 per cent straight’."

"∆OQ = 0. This means that W anticipates that their entry into N will cause no additional volumes losses in their base business O. Then δ = 0. This would result in SLM = 0 so there is no CP. What is going on, of course, is that there is simply no collateral damage. Thus a commonly observed behavior is that Counter-Positioned incumbents will seek customer segments in which they induce no additional loss of O customers by offering N. For example, a Financial Times article of Oct. 24, 2015: Walt Disney’s most beloved characters and stories are going digital in a new streaming service that launches in the UK next month. DisneyLife bundles books and music with its animated and live action films, making Disney the biggest media company yet to stream its content directly to consumers online. Disney will expand the service across Europe next year, with the goal of launching in France, Spain, Italy and Germany, and would add content as it becomes…"

"“Apple is playing with fire,” Marco Rubio, Republican vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the *Financial Times* in September 2022. “It knows the security risks posed by YMTC. If it moves forward, it will be subject to scrutiny like it has never seen from the federal government. We cannot allow Chinese companies beholden to the Communist Party into our telecommunications networks and millions of Americans’ iPhones.” In Congress, a bipartisan group of senators including Democrats Chuck Schumer and Mark Warner had urged the Biden administration to put YMTC on a Commerce Department blacklist that would effectively bar US companies from providing technology to the Chinese group. Apple acknowledged it was “evaluating sourcing from YMTC… to be used in some iPhones sold in China,” but it was adamant these chips wouldn’t be used in iPhones in America. Yet that’s almost beside the point. As Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, put it: “Apple will effectively be transferring knowledge and knowhow to YMTC that will supercharge its capabilities and help the CCP achieve its national goals.” Apple, under pressure from US lawmakers, said it had suspended the partnership."

"During the summer of 1995, the Swiss Bank Corporation reviewed its operations, and by August their appraisal was complete. According to the Financial Times, it concluded at nearly 81 billion kronor. When the appraisal was presented to the brothers, Gad suddenly said: “Then I’ll buy.” Gad’s three children, Kirsten, Finn, and Jörn, who had been informed about what was happening, had made it clear to their father that they wanted to take over. Hans, who was completely unprepared, was very surprised but said that saying no was impossible according to him. The transaction was relatively simple, the foundation controlled by the Gad branch transferred 40.4 billion kronor to Hans’ foundation."

"The fact is that in the late spring of 2016, the French send an emissary to Milan to have a coffee with Leonardo. The two meet a stone's throw from the fashion district at one of the most elegant hotels in the city, which bears a hope for the future in its name: Palazzo Parigi. The boss doesn't believe in it much, he asks Francesco to take care of it, setting only one condition: he wants to count for his entire share. Instead, Milleri finds the right solution. The evolutionary leap is ready. The big day has arrived. It is a cold January night in 2017. The Financial Times breaks the news just after midnight. "Luxottica and Essilor have reached a 50 billion euro merger deal.""

"By early 1992, with Sky’s subscriber numbers grinding upwards but not reaching forecasts, revenue consistently lower than expected, the company in debt and its shareholders still having to put in more money, Sky was desperate for some wins. Heatley was convinced that rugby was the answer. On 11 March 1992, his eye was caught by a short Australian Associated Press report from London in that day’s *New Zealand Herald*. Just three paragraphs long, the article said that the Cricket World Cup, which was at the time being hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and in which the England team was a favourite, was leading to bumper sales of satellite dishes in Britain. ‘The form of [England batsman] Graham Gooch and the England team have sparked tremendous interest in the cricket extravaganza, shown exclusively on satellite television station British Sky Broadcasting,’ the article said. ‘According to the latest figures by the *Financial Times* satellite monitor, sales of new dishes were 78,000 last month, up from 41,000 for the same period last year.’[4](private://read/01jectdbce729daxqkxt7cbe8r/#mn27) This was exactly the evidence Heatley was looking for. He immediately fired a copy of it off to Nate Smith. ‘Nate, if the powers that be in America want any more evidence of what we need to do here, send them this,’ he wrote, attaching a copy of the AAP story.[5](private://read/01jectdbce729daxqkxt7cbe8r/#mn28) If Sky could get exclusive rights to the All Blacks tour of Australia and South Africa it could attract another 20,000 to 30,000 subscribers at least, he added, seemingly making up numbers in his enthusiasm."

"By early 1992, with Sky’s subscriber numbers grinding upwards but not reaching forecasts, revenue consistently lower than expected, the company in debt and its shareholders still having to put in more money, Sky was desperate for some wins. Heatley was convinced that rugby was the answer. On 11 March 1992, his eye was caught by a short Australian Associated Press report from London in that day’s *New Zealand Herald*. Just three paragraphs long, the article said that the Cricket World Cup, which was at the time being hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and in which the England team was a favourite, was leading to bumper sales of satellite dishes in Britain. ‘The form of [England batsman] Graham Gooch and the England team have sparked tremendous interest in the cricket extravaganza, shown exclusively on satellite television station British Sky Broadcasting,’ the article said. ‘According to the latest figures by the *Financial Times* satellite monitor, sales of new dishes were 78,000 last month, up from 41,000 for the same period last year.’[4](private://read/01jectdbce729daxqkxt7cbe8r/#mn27) This was exactly the evidence Heatley was looking for. He immediately fired a copy of it off to Nate Smith. ‘Nate, if the powers that be in America want any more evidence of what we need to do here, send them this,’ he wrote, attaching a copy of the AAP story.[5](private://read/01jectdbce729daxqkxt7cbe8r/#mn28) If Sky could get exclusive rights to the All Blacks tour of Australia and South Africa it could attract another 20,000 to 30,000 subscribers at least, he added, seemingly making up numbers in his enthusiasm."

"Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Economist, Barron’s, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Forbes, along with more abstruse publications like American Banker and the International Railway Journal."