Boardroom botches call for checklist fix
By Jeffrey Goldfarb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
If checklists can save lives, surely they can help shareholders. The scandals at Yahoo, Green Mountain Coffee, Chesapeake Energy and other U.S. companies suggest boards of directors could do with some simple reminders to prevent them from making stupid mistakes. Breakingviews has drawn up a starter set.
Hong Kong’s LME bid is big bet on China flows
By Wei Gu
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Hong Kong is playing the China card in the bidding for the London Metal Exchange. Proximity to the world’s largest consumer of metals might make up for the Hong Kong Exchange’s relative inexperience in trading commodities. But Beijing may open up regardless of who owns the LME.
Buffett Rule divides Berkshire Hathaway faithful
By Agnes T. Crane
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Warren Buffett has built a career on finding value. And insurance-focused Berkshire Hathaway excels at calculated risks. But the ideological divide over a politically charged tax plan with Buffett’s name on it that marred Saturday’s annual shareholder love-fest this year suggests a temporary lapse when it comes to those two virtues. The Buffett Rule may be an unexpected liability for Berkshire.
Agnes,
I don’t think this is very balanced reporting. I’m not happy with the level of complexity involving this matter and the over-simplification with which it is being discussed. Look at the answer from the Greg Hershberger – this is typical conservative rhetoric (of which I am conservative – but come on, he isn’t even thinking) and misses the point that 65% of the rich are paying 30% or more. So it isn’t a matter of whether the people producing should pay more tax, it is more about whether the person that invests his money in an actual company should pay more than the person that just invests his money in the stock. If the person buying the company pays himself more as the company makes more, he will get taxed on payroll taxes (33% at the highest rate). It is nothing but the lobbying activy of the traders, hedge fund managers, and the investment comunity that has created this gap, and Warren is suggesting that it be closed. He didn’t ask to reform the entire tax code and he didn’t suggest that this would solve our financial crisis. What it would do is get rid of some of the concern that the rich are getting richer by changing the rules – not because they are working harder, or smarter (cheating excluded). It doesn’t matter how much logic we use, some people have no interest in playing by the rules. You also didn’t mention that the second applause was louder than the first, and people seem to forget that Warren’s father was a republican congressman. RW
Let News Corp keep BSkyB
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
News Corporation should be allowed to keep its 39 percent stake in UK pay-TV group BSkyB. British MPs may be right when they say founder Rupert Murdoch isn’t “fit” to run News Corp and turned a blind eye to wrongdoing in its UK operations. But a regulatory review of BSkyB’s fitness to broadcast isn’t the place to remedy these failings.
Monster shouldn’t be Coke’s tipple of choice
By Agnes T. Crane
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Coca-Cola is more than a century old, but it wants to be hip. Even so, the company says it’s not about to buy energy-drink maker Monster Beverages, as a Wall Street Journal report suggested. That sounds mature – in a good way – even if Coke did leave the door open to build on its existing distribution relationship with Monster.
Murdochs’ UK political friendships backfire on all
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The Murdochs’ UK political friendships are backfiring on all concerned. Fresh revelations about the media moguls’ relationships have created new uncertainty over News Corp’s part ownership of UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB. They also have the potential to throw the UK’s coalition government into a full-blown crisis.
Repsol nearly pricing in the worst
By Fiona Maharg-Bravo
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
How bad could it get for Repsol in Argentina? The Spanish oil and gas company has just had the bulk of its 57 percent stake in YPF expropriated by Buenos Aires. It’s far from clear whether Repsol will be properly compensated. Which way it goes could make big difference to its market value.
Int’l Power does well to get better buyout from GDF
By Quentin Webb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
International Power’s independent directors have done a decent job in securing a better buyout from GDF Suez. It’s not that easy to extract a big premium when a bidder is already a 70 percent shareholder. But the terms of the original tie-up helped, as did GDF’s evident keenness to take full control of the emerging-markets focused power generator.
Ducati could rip it up with VW
By Quentin Webb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Skoda cars and MAN trucks, meet your potential Volkswagen stablemates: 186-mph superbikes. No-one walks into a showroom after a cheap family car and screeches out on a blood-red Italian motorcycle. But Audi’s ambitions to buy Ducati would make some sense for VW’s luxury marque. And even with an appropriately macho price tag, the deal could pay off if Audi turbo-charges Ducati sales in emerging markets.
3D printing deal enhances sector depth illusion
By Robert Cyran
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Making physical items from digital files is a hot technology – maybe too hot if the market reaction to the acquisition of privately held Objet by Stratasys is any guide. Despite few synergies and an odd poison pill, the buyer’s shares rose nearly 25 percent, mainly on potential revenue synergies. But the future isn’t quite here yet.
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