New York Times

"New York Times is going to throw a stone in the pond23. In a lengthy article, the newspaper displays unprecedented severity towards Arnault's strategy. "Although he has invested money in his new treasures-often without counting-Mr. Arnault runs a decentralized empire, with no more synergies than if they were autonomous," the newspaper writes: "Several brands compete with each other, leading skeptics to wonder if Mr. Arnault has not collected well-known names for reasons of personal vanity.""

"While other venture firms seek out executive talent for their clients, Andreessen Horowitz goes further. It develops ties with the Valley’s best software engineers, designers, and product managers, helping them with introductions and career counseling. At times it connects these engineers and managers to one of its portfolio companies, but often there’s no direct payoff. It does the same for top Valley executives, much as CAA negotiated employment contracts for studio executives. Andreessen Horowitz aims to forge long-term relationships that might eventually prove helpful at a future start-up, or as part of future deal flow. And Marc and Ben’s thesis has worked brilliantly. They have rapidly established themselves as one of the nation’s top five venture firms, with prescient investments in Facebook, Skype, Stripe, Airbnb, GitHub, Instacart, Lyft, and Pinterest, among many others. As Marc told the New York Times, “We’ll wire up talent first with the goal of knowing and building relationships with all the best people. It’s more like a Hollywood talent agency.”"

"The other problem of the lawyerly society is a systematic bias toward the well-off. Lawyers are too often servants of the rich. They help wealthy homeowners block construction projects or get creative with their taxes. It is sometimes puzzling to follow along intellectual property cases, many of which seem to be a thrilling game invented for lawyers. American judges have to deal with bewildering disputes, like hedge funds pursuing sovereign governments on debt payments. Litigation offers endlessly tantalizing possibilities for settling scores. And motivated parties are willing to pay top dollar for superstar lawyers. Lawyers aren’t just defenders of the rich; many of them *are* the rich. “[On Wall Street, Lawyers Make More Than Bankers Now](private://read/01k3jwt46q240aq6fe12mqkyr0/16_Notes.xhtml#_idTextAnchor290)” was a headline from the *Wall Street Journal* in 2023. “[Pay for Lawyers Is So High People Are Comparing It to the NBA](private://read/01k3jwt46q240aq6fe12mqkyr0/16_Notes.xhtml#_idTextAnchor291)” claimed the *New York Times* in 2024."

"[A 2012 story](private://read/01k3jwt46q240aq6fe12mqkyr0/16_Notes.xhtml#_idTextAnchor358) in the *New York* *Times* reported that Apple needed to hire nearly nine thousand industrial engineers in the earlier days of iPhone production. The company’s analysts expected recruitment to last nine months to hire that many engineers in the United States. In China, they were able to do it in two weeks. A large pool of good labor increases the speed of design and production cycles. As Tim Cook once said, “[In the US, you could have](private://read/01k3jwt46q240aq6fe12mqkyr0/16_Notes.xhtml#_idTextAnchor359) a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we could fill the room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields.”"

"Hitting these numbers required escalating coercive tactics. The first measure in the official toolbox was browbeating. Local officials would visit pregnant women as part of “persuasion groups.” This posse of up to ten men seldom appeared as sweet-tongued advocates. One American academic witnessed a group of women in Guangdong separated from their husbands and sent to the village hall. There, they were given unceasing lectures to give up their pregnancy for the good of the country, and then were called upon one by one to give their consent to an abortion while being [prohibited from returning home](private://read/01k3jwt46q240aq6fe12mqkyr0/16_Notes.xhtml#_idTextAnchor410) until they had done so. A 1982 *New York Times* report quoted a family planning official from Guangdong saying, “On average, each person takes 10 times to be persuaded. The most difficult person can take up to 100 times.” The piece also cites women [hauled before mass rallies](private://read/01k3jwt46q240aq6fe12mqkyr0/16_Notes.xhtml#_idTextAnchor411) and harangued into consenting to an abortion."

"Independent opticians, who represented 90% of the American market, rebelled, no longer wanting to buy Luxottica's frames, which had now become a direct competitor, a "major competitor," as the New York Times wrote."

""When I find something that fits me the way I really want, I hardly ever change my style, I update it perhaps," he would explain to the New York Times thirty years later to celebrate the new version of the famous frame."

"On April 18, the agreement is reached. Luxottica acquires US Shoe for 1.4 billion dollars, as written in a lengthy article by the New York Times. Italy, for the first time, openly celebrates the timid Leonardo. "Luxottica, winning move in the USA," opens the economics section with a full-page headline and a callout on the front page in Corriere della Sera."

"perspective and relationships to the table. I put up $38.5 million for 60 percent of the stock, while my fellow investors contributed around $30 million, and we borrowed $70 million from Chase Manhattan Bank. Members of the art press, especially Rita Reif of the New York Times, were apoplectic over the $139 million purchase price, which they considered far too high. Their analysis of the deal reminded me of the early reviews of my Irvine Ranch acquisition. For the record, as I write this book (October 2006), I sold a portion of my Sotheby’s stock in 1992 for about $100 million, received dividends over the years the company has been public of $100 million, received $168 million in September 2005 for hall my remaining stock, in April 2006 sold 3.98 million shares for $110 million, and still own a 4.9 percent stake valued at more than $100 million (based on the company’s share price as of January 16, 2007). Even when you lactor in inflation, that’s not a bad performance for an initial investment of $38.5 million. I re¬ spect Rita anci her art journalist colleagues very much, but rarely consult with them for stock tips."

"When the Nixon Watergate tapes were released, I was at last able to fill in some of the missing pieces of the story. On a Saturday in July 1977, in the back pages of the New York Times, a story appeared that quoted several of the newly released tapes. In one of them, Nixon tells Erlichman that he had never met Harold Geneen and had no interest in ITT. But nevertheless he was incensed over McLaren’s antitrust policies. He couldn’t tolerate his anti–big business bent."

"This information is in stark contrast to the plan Berggruen announced in Germany. Here he expressly talks about the investment of 400 million euros in the renewal of the Karstadt stores "coming from the cash flow". The approximately 73 million euros mentioned in the New York Times are not, in fact, a capital investment into the Karstadt company, but rather a loan of 65 million euros, which Berggruen had allowed himself to be repaid shortly after the acquisition. Did Berggruen himself manipulate the facts, fib, or boast? Against such accusations, he can easily defend himself with the indication that he was misunderstood by the New York Times. The journalists are to blame."

"Earning high rankings from critical sources, such as the New York Times and the Zagat Survey, not only increases business; it improves our chance of fielding better and better teams. These teams further perpetuate our ability to perform with excellence and they polish our public image."

"Afghanistan had been a nice diversion. Back in London, however, not everything was going according to plan for the Aquada. The cars were being built, and the invention had received numerous golden accolades. *Time Magazine* named it as one of the ‘Best Innovations of 2003’. A feature on design in the *New York Times* highlighted the car.[19](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477408-606132179-19) Leader writers fought over good lines to tell the story. The *Daily Telegraph* alighted on ‘Drink Driving — could Aquada be the ultimate plaything?’[20](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477408-606132179-20) But Gibbs’ basic business plan, to wow the world and then find a car manufacturer to make it under licence, wasn’t coming off. To his great annoyance every company they approached said that he hadn’t demonstrated the size of the market, therefore they couldn’t measure whether there’d be a return on their investment. They also worried about the effect of US product liability laws on such a radically new product. On reflection Gibbs concedes, ‘Quite naturally, people were sceptical as hell; would it work in salt water, could it handle rough conditions, would its complexity frighten customers, was it too expensive?’ Jenkins laments, ‘Our licensing idea fell on stony ground at that point; we needed someone with the balls to create the market and no one materialised. So Alan had to do it himself.’[21](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477408-606132179-21)"