Sunday, January 5, 2025

WSJ: FINANCIAL FLASHBACK -- 25 YEARS AGO: The AOL-Time Warner Merger

By Simon Constable

In January 2000, Steve Case, CEO of internet provider AOL, agreed to merge with media conglomerate Time Warner for a record-breaking $156 billion offer for a public company. 

At the time, The Wall Street Journal noted that the 15-year-old AOL wasn’t old enough to purchase beer. 

On the other hand, Time was founded in 1923 and survived the Great Depression with many well-loved brands. “[AOL] has essentially swallowed an ancien regime media conglomerate that took most of a century to construct,” wrote The Wall Street Journal.

“This was supposed to be the proving ground of Old Economy meets New Economy,” says Pete Earle, a senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. AOL needed content, Time Warner had lots of it, and there would be synergies. “It seemed like a match made beyond heaven,” says Earle.

But that dream died fast.

A big part of the issue was the culture clash. “You have Time Warner, a conservative long-lived company added to AOL, an aggressive tech firm,” Earle says. “It hindered effective collaboration.” 

In retrospect, the deal’s announcement in January 2000 marked the peak of the dot-com bubble. 

Read more here.



Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or other work here.



Thursday, December 19, 2024

#FRANCE: Best moments for an Englishman living in the South of France. @RealConstable @BatchelorShow Occitanie

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Listen here.


Toulouse courtyard. Credit: Jennifer Reynolds

Daily Telegraph: Humiliation for Labour as ‘Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers’ song surges in charts
Broadcasters, including the BBC, are refusing to play the parody Christmas track

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/retirement/humiliation-starmer-parody-winter-fuel-raid-song-charts/


Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or other work here.



Thursday, December 12, 2024

#France: Fleeing Pack of Wild Boars in Hunting Season. @RealConstable @BatchelorShow, Occitanie

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

Listen here.


Clément-Bayard Grand prix de la ACF 1907
AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons




Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or other work here.



Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Darden Graduate School of Business: Worried About Artificial Intelligence? You Aren't Alone

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

When ChatGPT launched two years ago, it threw generative artificial intelligence (AI) into the media limelight. While many in business saw the opportunities for increased efficiency, others expressed serious concerns at both extremes.

Most Americans worry that AI will take their jobs. A recent poll by Gallup revealed that nearly seven out of 10 people believe this will happen over the long term. However, what’s less well known is that the people in the business of using AI are also worried. The problem they see is multifaceted but ultimately boils down to one thing: Trust. Read more here.



Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or other work here.




Barron's: NATO Is Taking Up Arms. These ETFs Stand to Gain.

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The West, along with its allies, is now growing its armories with munitions, tanks, and other war materiel. After decades of complacency from some countries, the spending surge could continue for the foreseeable future, experts say.

“The war continues to rage in Ukraine and is a serious concern,” says Seth Jones, president of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Defense and Security Department. “There will be a push for increased defense spending.” Read more here

F-35 Training Excercise
Staff Sergeant Alexander Cook, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or other work here.




Monday, December 9, 2024

FOX Business: Trump's France visit comes amid tariff threats and a country in economic turmoil

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

FRANCE – President-elect Trump's visit to France on Saturday for the re-opening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris might give people a moment to forget the present economic doldrums facing the country.

Indeed, France’s prime minister, Michel Barnier, stepped down on Wednesday, just 90 days after taking the job last September. It marks the shortest tenure in the republic since 1958.

Now the country has no fiscal budget for next year, no government, but it does have a lot of anxiety about what happens next politically and economically. And the law prevents another general election before next July. Read more here.

Dan Scavino Jr., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons





Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.





Saturday, December 7, 2024

WSJ: FINANCIAL FLASHBACK 30 YEARS AGO: The ‘Tequila Crisis’ in Currency Markets

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

In December 1994, what Wall Street called the Tequila Crisis—named after the country’s national drink—startled international investors as the Mexican peso fell sharply and then some more. 

Part of the upheaval was blamed on an armed conflict that broke out in January between Mayan Indians and Mexico. A cease-fire was reached, but in December, rebels threatened to break it.

At the same time, investors increasingly favored other emerging markets and redirected capital away from Mexico.

As a result, the peso’s value initially plunged close to its government-mandated lower limit. Mexico’s central bank tried to steady the peso with higher interest rates. But it didn’t last, and the government cut peso’s value further. 

Mexico had been “one of the bright lights of the world’s new panoply of emerging markets,” made more so by new trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, The Wall Street Journal reported on Page One. But investors’ confidence was damaged by the sudden devaluation.

In January 1995, the month after the peso crisis flared, the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. and others announced a $50 billion package of rescue loans for Mexico.  Read more here.

Image credit: The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 22, 1994


Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some other work here.