Commentaries
Now raising intellectual capital
Saab and Volvo – made in China?
At this rate it might not be long before Sweden’s once mighty Volvo and Saab car marques come with “Made in China” stamped on the chassis.
After failing in the auction of Opel, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding (BAIC) is set to take a minority stake in supercar maker Koenigsegg, which is bidding to take over all of GM’s Saab. Meanwhile, Geely Automotive’s parent company Geely Holding Group Co plans to bid for Ford’s Volvo.
Chinese carmakers have had mixed fortunes in their attempts to buy overseas brands. SAIC Motor Corp snapped up 51 percent of Korea’s Ssangyong Motor Co in 2004 but made a hash of running an overseas operation and was later forced to write down the investment.
SAIC had more success with the acquisition of the historic British MG Rover. In the case of Rover,  SAIC simply boxed up the machinery, stripped the plants and took all the technology back to China where it produces the cars of the same design far more cheaply. But in MG’s case, the sportscar continues to roll off the assembly line at the UK’s Longbridge plant.
from The Great Debate:
Forget Microsoft, Yahoo’s value is overseas
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
The fate of Yahoo Inc has become intertwined in the public's imagination with the success or failure of its dealings with Microsoft Corp in recent years.
That's despite the fact that as much as 70 percent of the value investors put on Yahoo's depressed shares are tied up in its international assets or cash holdings -- factors that have nothing to do with Microsoft.
Apple-Google learn corporate governance 1.0
The resignation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board should come as no surprise to anyone with an inkling of what corporate governance means.
But then Silicon Valley’s idea of corporate boards has long consisted of cozy, interlocking directorships which would be considered collusion in most other industries.
-
The Wall
