Rare Air
Article :
May/June 2007
When is a $40 million private jet a bargain? When it’s the Dassault Falcon 7X, the world’s most advanced bizjet By Robert Goyer
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Night Timers
Article :
Premiere Issue
How to set yourself apart in a room full of tuxedos? It’s all in the wrist
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Bottle Rocket
Article :
Premiere Issue
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Bay Windows, Buyer's Market
Article :
Premiere Issue
San Francisco’s hippest neighborhood has moved from dot-com bust to real-estate boom
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Paradise Found
Article :
Premiere Issue
An unspoiled island teeming with an unlimited array of diversions, the new Turks & Caicos Sporting Club offers the respite for the restless
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Singularly Exceptional
Article :
Premiere Issue
To master the distinctions between Scottish single-malts, one must take a tasting pilgrimage through its many regions — or simply buy these six superior bottles
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Long Hauler
Article :
Premiere Issue
The new Bombardier Global Express XRS has extremely long legs — and knows how to use them
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Retro Chic
Article :
March/April 2007
With their distinctive to-and-fro motion, these retrograde watches literally turn back the hands of time
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Swinging London
Article :
March/April 2007
Pulling Big Deals in the City no longer means leaving the Big Bertha at home. A guide to 48 hours of luxury and links in the land of Big Ben
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Hollywood Ending
Article :
March/April 2007
Seagram
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Hot Issue
Article :
March/April 2007
Can a luxury high-performance machine like the new Jaguar XKR be judged by the cold, hard metrics of the pitchbook? We took the big cat out to determine if it’s worth your venture capital
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A Batch Made in Heaven
Article :
March/April 2007
When it comes to these single-barrel and small-batch bourbons, less is clearly more
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Southern Comforts
Article :
March/April 2007
The South rises again in Atlanta’s exclusive Buckhead section, in the form of a spate of luxury properties
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Flying Home
Article :
March/April 2007
Want to seal your deal while you’re sitting on the tarmac? The new Boeing BBJ3 is spacious enough to be your palace — and your office — in the sky
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A Riviera Runs Through It
Article :
March/April 2007
A prime piece of tropical paradise is yours for the purchasing at the new five-star resort-residences of Mayakobá
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Money Train
Article :
May/June 2007
It was a head-on collision in the making: Ten years ago, three railroad giants were bickering about price in a deal that would redraw the nation’s rail maps.
By Teri Buhl
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A Very Good Year
Article :
May/June 2007
Can the wildly heralded 2005 Bordeaux — still in barrels — match its unprecedented hype? We jetted to France for an advance taste By Anthony Giglio
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Highlands High Life
Article :
May/June 2007
In the rugged northernmost reaches of Scotland lies a land of savory cuisine, one of the world’s most exclusive sporting clubs — and an unrivaled collection of spectacular links
By Ty Wenger
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California Dreaming
Article :
May/June 2007
The subprime scare may be dwindling the audience for the nation’s real-estate show, but in L.A. a few big-budget projects are still poised for blockbuster openings By Lisa Selin Davis
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Getaway Car
Article :
May/June 2007
Could the luxurious new Bentley Continental GTC help an Atlanta-based Citigroup V.P. escape from a big weekend — and big allergies — in the big city? By Marty Padgett
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Sweet Carolina
Article :
May/June 2007
Retreats
High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a new ownership resort balances world-class amenities with a devotion to preserving the environment — and your peace of mind By Nick Kolakowski
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On The Whole, Not Helpful
Article :
Morning Call: September 5
Goldman slashed its rating on Merrill Lynch, which has already lost more than 50% of its value so far this year, to ``sell'' as worries mounted that the bank could post more writedowns tied to the credit crunch. Adding insult to injury, the share-price estimate on the stock also was lowered 23%.
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It’s Getting Unruly
Article :
September 2008
Forget about private-equity lock-ups. Try all-out incarceration.
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Head Butler -- Books: Childhood's End
Posting :
Jesse Kornbluth
:
08/29/2008
It's probably the greatest opening in all of science fiction.
Earthlings are going about their lives when they suddenly notice movement in the sky.
And there they are -- alien spaceships, miles above the clouds but slowly descending:
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Snapping Up On The Cheap
Article :
July 2008
Perhaps you’ve noticed the weak dollar is spurring a feeding frenzy of foreign companies mounting bids for valuable U.S. assets in the multibillions (recent cases in point: InBev’s play for “King of Beers” Anheuser-Busch and Roche’s offer for biotech company Genentech). So why should today be any different? Only this time, the acquirer can be found in Japan.
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Genentech: Dazed, Confused?
Article :
July 2008
Read on for the story of how the quote-unquote staunchly independent California biotechnology firm was taken completely by surprise when it received a $44 billion, full-ownership bid from Roche Holding. Will the companies be able to find a suitable middle ground – or has their delicate power balance been upset for good?
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When $40 Billion Is Just Not Enough
Article :
July 2008
Inflation’s a killer. Especially when you pony up that kind of lumber and your shares still fall. But we expect a suitor as mammoth as Basel-based Roche Holding, the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs, won’t be put off so easily in pursuing its American target. Read on for all you need to know about this merger-in-the-making.
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Best Foot Forward
Article :
July 2008
The closing meeting is much like a first date: Stride into the room, and the first things they'll notice are your winning personality...and your shoes. Why run the risk of undoing the deal by donning a pair of desultory loafers? These high-end Oxfords will help ensure that you've got a leg (or two) up on the competition.
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Coal-Miners' Daughters Never Had It So Good
Article :
July 2008
With demand for raw materials raising the roof across the board, here's why North America's biggest producer of iron-ore pellets, Cleveland-Cliffs, saw it prudent to snap up coal miner Alpha Natural Resources for a cool $10 billion.
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A&L Reveals Secret Admirer
Article :
July 2008
Stocks were galvanized overseas as the U.K.’s Alliance & Leicester let slip that it accepted an all-share takeover offer from a secret suitor it finally revealed as Santander of Spain (the nation’s largest bank and a deal-making machine whose association with A&L this morning boosted the latter’s shares by as much as 52%). How the two banks, which tried and failed to hook up last year, finally got it right.
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Buffett Involved in Dow Deal
Article :
July 2008
Dow Chemical Co., under pressure from record oil prices, agreed to buy Rohm & Haas Co. for about $15.4 billion in cash to increase sales of more lucrative electronics materials and adhesives in its biggest acquisition ever. Dow will pay $78 for each Rohm & Haas share. Financing includes equity investments of $3 billion by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and $1 billion by the Kuwait Investment Authority, Midland, Michigan-based Dow, the biggest U.S. chemical maker, said today in a statement. Berkshire will become Dow's largest shareholder.
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SPACs: Back In The Fast Lane?
Article :
July 2008
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China Expands to the North Sea
Article :
July 2008
Taking advantage of a worldwide oil boom, China Oilfield Services has agreed to buy Norway’s Awilco Offshore for 12.7 billion kronor. While still pending approval from the Norwegian Competition Authority, it will be interesting to see if Norway scuttles the deal, as the US did similarly to Unocal in 2005 when the Big Red Machine CNOOC tried taking that over (it was eventually sold to Chevron).
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Fresenius to Buy APP Pharmaceuticals
Article :
July 2008
Fresenius, the giant German maker of dialysis services and products, said Monday that it will buy APP Pharmaceuticals for for about $4.6 billion including debt, giving it control of one of the biggest makers of generic injectable drugs.
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Antler-Crashing In The Kingdom
Article :
June 2008
As crude oil futures shoot to a fresh record high above $141 a barrel in New York (prompting talk of energy-exploration companies drilling just about anywhere – not excluding celebrity-clotted LA and even Beverly Hills) a scary debate is cropping up in the world’s oil capitol, Saudi Arabia. Inside the oil-rich nation’s titanic energy company, Saudi Aramco, two figureheads are now at loggerheads over what, exactly, lies in store. Is oil really running out or not?
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Closing Dinner: Prime Choice
Article :
June 2008
Why, at Del Frisco's in Rockefeller Center, the secret ingredient isn't the aged beef – it's the vault dining room.
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Perhaps You’ve Heard That Corn Is Hot…
Article :
June 2008
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Sanofi: What You Can Get For 30 Billion Koruna
Article :
June 2008
Fact: the market for generic medicines is now growing at twice the rate of patent-protected products. So, what’s national titan like France’s Sanofi-Aventis, whose generics sales only account for about 2% of its revenue, to do? Elementary, nab the rest of Czech drugmaker Zentiva, which already provides Sanofi with 180 generic medicines. Even though another suitor is after it.
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Barclays Scores Biggest Surge In 16 Years
Article :
June 2008
And why? Because the U.K.’s fourth-largest bank indicated that last month’s pretax profit was "well ahead" of last year. Plus, it revealed a little something about a potential equity issue. But will this be enough for it to overcome having one of the weakest capital ratios of any bank in Europe?
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Fuld’s Big Moment?
Article :
June 2008
Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm, is scheduled to release financial results today that it has already cautioned will include bigger-than-expected losses. As Dick Fuld, the longest-serving CEO on Wall Street, prepares to effectively walk the plank, market observers brace for what they expect will be a strong defense.
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B of A: Countrywide Deal Still On Track
Article :
June 2008
While we’re pretty sure no major bank really wants to be known for parting with billions in order to buy gargantuan money-losers, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, is cutting a resolute profile. In remarks made yesterday, here’s why he’s calling the purchase a good strategic move, once the towering credit and legal costs are paid.
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Tough Break For Pandit’s Brainchild
Article :
June 2008
Stories have been swirling over the troubles of hedge fund Old Lane Partners (co-founded, incidentally, by Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit) for almost as long as the bank has owned it (11 months, to be exact). Or it sure seems that way. But what could have been the final nail in the coffin for a fund that, just last month, announced to its trading partners it had secured a "substantial" amount of fresh capital?
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Best Foot Forward
Article :
June/July 2008
The closing meeting is much like a first date: Stride into the room, and the first things they'll notice are your winning personality...and your shoes. Why run the risk of undoing the deal by donning a pair of desultory loafers? These high-end Oxfords will help ensure that you've got a leg (or two) up on the competition.
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Top 10 Deal Spots
Article :
June/July 2008
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Not Your Father's Financial District
Article :
June/July 2008
The canyons of Wall Street are lined with condos. Dog walkers on strolls outnumber hung-over assistants on cigarette breaks. Gilded-Age moneymaking monoliths now house spas, sushi joints and luxury retailers. What happened? Coming to terms with Lower Manhattan's makeover.
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Are They Next?
Article :
June 2008
In the throes of the Bear Stearns collapse nearly three months ago, sans the Fed, the smart money was betting on a good old fashioned domino collapse that would take down the next most overleveraged broker on the street. Like its peers, Lehman is apparently globetrotting around to keep itself afloat, and cannot seem to get a break from relentless short-seller David Einhorn. Will another renowned shop be gobbled up by the next best positioned bank? Having lost all of its market value since the US economy emerged from its last recession, it has a very long way to go.
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Patience Pays Off
Article :
June/July 2008
When shareholders (and other bankers) called for a sale, Bill MacDonald called my firm, Watch Hill Partners. Together we devised a creative financing solution to unlock the company’s true value.
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Prime Choice
Article :
June/July 2008
At Del Frisco's in Rockefeller Center, the secret ingredient isn't the aged beef -- it's the vault dining room.
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NRG’s Fond Ambition
Article :
May 2008
Borrowing loosely from Madonna, "Poor is the company whose merger depends on the permission of another." (Guess what song inspired that line and get a free car wash.) Aiming to become the largest independent power company in the U.S., NRG Energy (you’ve gotta’ love the double homonym of that moniker) swooped in on Calpine with an unsolicited $9.6 billion stock bid. More on the score here.
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Capital Everybody Wants
Article :
May 2008
AIG CEO Martin Sullivan says that after raising more than $13 billion as of last week, the insurer now plans to drum up about $20 billion total to fight off two quarters’ worth of losses in the wake of the subprime debacle. He made his announcement today in London, where yet another company is scrambling to raise several billion to fund a takeover that it’s increasingly finding hard to handle.
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Cure For A Microsoft Microbid
Article :
May 2008
If Yahoo seriously hopes to squeeze more money out of Microsoft, it first needs to get serious about boosting its value. No time like the present, and what could be a better time than when Long or Short Capital is offering up a smattering of free tips? Amusing, if not necessarily effective.
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Under Rug Swept?
Article :
May 2008
Despite a worldwide push among the major investment banks to write-down massive chunks of bad debt in an effort to clear the subprime slate, many are still resorting to jamming an awful lot under the bed. Taking losses on a balance sheet rather than in an income statement is, of course, allowed – as accounting distinguishes between so-called trading books and long-term investments – but to what ultimate end? Here, an in-depth story that offers up the hard numbers and names names about how certain banks are still biding their time, treading water with accounting tricks. But time is running out.
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CBS Bags CNET For $1.8 Bil
Article :
May 2008
But will this scuttle the ongoing proxy fight at the Internet media concern? A quick and dirty analysis of this breaking news.
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Thunder Down Under
Article :
May 2008
And this one’s actually confirmed. Australia's Westpac Banking Corp. says it has approached competing lender St. George Bank Ltd. with a takeover offer that would likely value the latter at more than $14.15 billion, setting the stage for industrywide shakeup.
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Structured? Forget It. Infrastruture? That’s More Like It.
Article :
May 2008
Morgan Stanley just closed on a $4 billion new infrastructure fund, handily topping its original target of $2.5 billion and proving, once again, that plenty of people have the cash to cough up if the investment is right (as in light on the “structure,” heavy on the “infra”). A detailed piece out today on just how this fund plans to thrust itself into the already packed field of betting on roads, airports and public-works projects on a global scale.
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Big Brother: Bigger Than Ever?
Article :
May 2008
The SEC is sick and tired of hearing that it supposedly messed up by falling asleep at the switch ahead of the subprime crisis. And now everyone is going to have to pay. We know the White House’s top economist also is on the case (Edward Lazear, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, is saying the U.S. is “not in a recession” and that "the data are pretty clear”) but no one is listening. A look at what investment banks likely will be forced to do differently in the future.
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San Francisco: Active Escapes
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http://www.dealmakerdaily.com/travel/sanfran_activeescapes.html
Credit Crisis: Closer To Closing In On A Near-End?
Article :
May 2008
Lo, a brighter crunch picture awaits! Whatever that is. We know it; we feel it…it’s coming. We are not carrying on. You clearly don’t have our keen grasp of the complex, interlocking financial mechanics at work here. When UBS sells $15 billion of mortgage assets to BlackRock and announces job cuts of 5,500 by mid-2009 (as detailed in the following piece) that’s merely the sweet remedying of a gangrenous one-off. This is the rise of the fall. Legends of the rise. It is almost upon us. The definitive (possible) near-ending of the end. You heard it here first.
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San Francisco: Active Escapes
Posting :
Travel
:
05/05/2008
The combination of deluxe food and golf makes San Francisco a weekend wonderland.
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Genuine Bid – Or Stealth Play?
Article :
May 2008
London ad-research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres has spurned the $1.87 billion unsolicited bid of ad-holding juggernaut WPP, opting instead to continue on its merger path with German rival, GfK. Why many suspect that WPP may only be out to make trouble.
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Powerscene: Early Birds
Article :
April 2008
If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the power breakfast could prove the most important meal of your career...
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A $6 Billion Deal Is A Happy Thing
Article :
April 2008
Small insurers are grappling with extreme pricing pressure on policies and a wave of automobile accident and natural disaster claims (the former, we do not doubt, caused by subprime consternation – and perhaps even the latter). But this trend has an upside: more deals for 2008 and a silver lining for one major U.S. auto and home insurer.
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This Week In Wall Street History April 21-27
Posting :
This Week In Wall Street History
:
04/21/2008
The lucky number 13 was crossed and held- as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 13,000 for the first time in history, this week on April 25th, 2007.
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Grand Dame: Closing Dinner
Article :
April 2008
A relic of Old New York, how La Grenouille recaptures the glamour and indulgence of French classics.
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Another Day, Another Cash Infusion
Article :
April 2008
National City Corp., Ohio's top bank and subprime lender, could seal a deal in a manner of hours with a buyout firm and a handful of shareholders to add a much-needed $7 billion to its balance sheet, people with knowledge of the situation told the Journal, the FT, B’berg, et all. To which we had only one question: how does JP Morgan fit into all this? We were heartened to learn we did not ask it in vain.
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Mobius’s Big Bank Bet
Article :
April 2008
Amid the subprime sturm und drang, George Soros reckons losses could easily top $1 trillion. But after just $245 billion of reported bank and brokerage losses, Templeton Asset Management Ltd.'s Mark Mobius says he thinks the credit-market crisis is ``near the end.'' Who’s right – and just how much money are they staking on it?
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Resistance Is Futile
Article :
April 2008
Overshadowing today’s utterly ludicrous revelation that gaffes on the part of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now threatening to strip the U.S. of its triple-A credit rating, is the Delta and Northwest hookup – a union that might not save our dunderheaded economy from its own credit faux pas, but certainly has sought to make the best of things. Assuming that this merger is not tripped up by airline regulators or employees, the combined carrier would boast revenue of $35 billion and very likely change the fabric of the entire airline industry (just look at today’s news of Sir Richard Branson’s run at a U.K. airline, Dubai sovereign wealth fund possibly in tow).
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Lehman: Another Statistic?
Article :
April 2008
More than 45 of the world's top banks (we didn’t even know there were that many) including Citigroup and UBS, have posted a combined $232 billion in asset write-downs and credit losses since the beginning of 2007. And now the fourth-largest securities firm in the U.S. is deep-sixing three investment funds by taking the value of their assets onto its own beleaguered balance sheet. Here, the latest on how much of a hit is being taken – and why.
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Somewhere Between Japan, Massachusetts $8.8 Billion Is Being Spent
Article :
April 2008
And we don’t mean that in a metaphysical way. Even in a credit crunch, you can’t stop the big spenders from spending. The buyer: Takeda Pharmaceutical. The buyee: Millennium Pharmaceuticals. The result: Japan’s largest-ever drug acquisition. But that’s not the entire story. There is a special reason why Japanese companies are scrambling to expand beyond what is considered to be the world’s second-largest medicines market.
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Yahoo: Further Complicating Your Complicated Flow Chart
Article :
April 2008
Yahoo is talking to Time Warner AOL. Microsoft is talking to News Corp. Yahoo is also talking to Google. Microsoft and News Corp. are both talking to Yahoo. Time Warner is happy to talk again…if anyone wants it to. But with all this talking and nothin’ doin’, increasingly puzzled onlookers are beginning to wonder whether this coruscating landscape isn’t just going to tick off Yahoo’s already somewhat-peeved shareholders.
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Fashion
Article :
April/May 2008
Whether you’re piloting your turboprop to Bimini or counting down the minutes to the ETA of your IPO, the aviation watch is a trusted capitalist tool. And when it comes to these sensational collector’s chronos, they’re also the height of fashion.
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