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Monday, April 30, 2007

Private CIAs

JOURNAL: Private CIAs

By John Robb

A strong sign that the nation-state is in decay is the frequency we see announcements of companies that are replicating some of the most sensitive government services. The most recent mover is Walmart, which is in the process of putting together its own intelligence arm (it's being built by a former CIA/FBI officer Kenneth Senser). For those unable to afford their own global intelligence unit, Blackwater's Cofer Black is building one called Total Intelligence Solutions.

If you want to get up to speed quickly, the background for this is available in BNW.

This makes sense, of course. As these companies plan long-term deployments across the globe they can little afford not to know the risks involved. And the intelligence fiasco of Iraq WMDs showed how unreliable government intelligence can be. This looks, to me, like another area where oligopoly control of a market makes sense. I wonder how the potential for shared intelligence organizations, and perhaps shared risk, will alter the oligopoly landscape?

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 10:22 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Business & Finance, Strategy

Friday, April 27, 2007

Where's the Chocolate?

Chocolate or Mockolate?
Big world's biggest confectionery companies, including Nestle and Hersheys, are doing what oligopolies do beat, influencing government regulation in their favor. At stake is the very definition of chocolate. According to a Bloomberg article ("Hershey Battles Chocolate Connoisseurs Over Selling `Mockolate'". April 24):

The Chocolate Manufacturers Association, whose members include Hershey, Nestle SA and Archer Daniels Midland Co., has a petition before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to redefine what constitutes chocolate. They want to make it without the required ingredients of cocoa butter and cocoa solids, using instead artificial sweeteners, milk substitutes and vegetable fats such as hydrogenated and trans fats.

The reason for the requested change is the great expense of cocoa butter, a required ingredient. Big Candy would like to substitute cheaper stuff, included the dread trans-fats. [...]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:06 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Business & Finance

Thursday, April 26, 2007

The "Chrysler Unit"

How Many Chryslers?

Truly the Daimler-Benz purchase of US-automaker Chrysler in 1998 was a stupefying disaster. Through the alchemy of its business acumen, Daimler management transmuted the value of Chrysler from an estimated $40 billion to a value of, to judge from the current bidding, around $5 billion, give or take a few hundred million.

[...]

But some good can come out of the merger. Based on what seems to be the approximate price of the company, we will describe big mergers and acquisitions henceforth in terms of Chrysler unit, that is to say, in $5 billion increments. For example:

• AstraZeneca bought MedImmune for three Chryslers ($15 billion).
• The latest bidding for ABN Amro has raised the price of the bank to nearly 20 Chryslers.
• Nestle bought Gerber for a little over one Chrysler.
• Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya bought an Alabama bank chain for almost two Chryslers.
• State Street Bank bought IFS for bit less than a Chrysler.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 8:37 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Business & Finance

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