|
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN?and into the toilet. US, European and Asian stock indices endured their worst one-day sell-off of the year midweek when investors got nervous - once again - about the state of the US property market. The correction flushed 5% out of most markets, including Dublin.Although investors steadied their nerves somewhat by the end of the week, analysts and economists were comparing the shake-out of arrears from the sub-prime lending market to the dotcom bust.
PAPER PROFIT Smurfit Kappa strode con"dently through the wreckage on the trading floor last Tuesday with an oversubscribed flotation that raised Euro1.3bn for the company, which is now valued at Euro3.4bn. The paper and packaging firm didn't stop there either. On Friday the company exercised an over-allotment option and raised another Euro200m.
ONLY A MORON WOULD BUY YOUTUBEMark Cuban's famous verdict on Google's $1.65bn acquisition of YouTube sounded prophetic after Viacom sued the web apps company over copyright infringement at the video sharing site last week. Contrarian take: this is just a shoving match before an inevitable profitable embrace of user-generated content by big media.
Paranoid take: Viacom must kill to know it's alive.
TURN OFF THE LIGHTS Sanofi-Aventis joined the parade of multinational firms moving jobs to other countries with the announcement that it would be closing its Waterford plant with the loss of 200 jobs. You're not a real county in Ireland Inc until your local multinational takes a walk - just ask Cork, Carlow, Limerick?
|
YOU ARE HERE: 11 November 2007 / tribune.ie / 2007 / 03 / 18
Terms & Conditions 
