Business

Nortels Woes Appear To Be Over After Out Of Court Settlements

Mulder

(disclosure) I own some Nortel stock.

For those of you out there who own or have owned Nortel stock, I think the worst is finally over. The company has it’s books back on track, and today we find out they have settled the two class action lawsuits for the tidy sum of $2.5 Billion. This is a big hit to the telecom/datacom giant, but should finally end the non business related worries.

How the markets take them and their products is all up to them. At least now their value will be riding the supply demand curves and not the legal curve balls.

Vancouver Games Heading Down The Path Of Montreal Games

Mulder

Here we go again. Vancouver Olympic costs are skyrocketing. Not a week from the start of the Winter Games in Italy, our 2010 version is coming out with cost expectations and it isn’t looking good.

In 2002, the bid was expected to cost $470 Million. Due to a booming Vancouver and global growth, the cost of materials and skilled labour have pushed that cost up to $580 Million. Calgary in 1988 was a profitable Olympics, but it took Montreal 30 years to pay off the debt from the 1976 summer games.

I am all for sport, but when costs go up 23% over the approved budget, bells should be going off for an audit or investigation on the costs.

Officially Screwed Taxpayers……again.

Despite My Dislike For Their Coffee, Starbucks Stock Price Skyrocketing

Mulder

I knew my ticker showing how much money Tim Horton’s has lost since the boycott began was effective, but I didn’t expect this. Starbucks stock price is skyrocketing!!!

Actually, this is due to increased sales in ginger bread and eggnog flavoured coffee over the holiday season, but who knows. Maybe there is a twinkle in the eyes of stock holders eyeing various blogs boycotting Timmy’s?

I don’t know. But Starbucks is up over 8% this morning already.

FYI, click the here for more info on the Timmy’s boycott.

Tougher Than Quitting Smoking, But I Am Putting Tim Horton's On Notice

Mulder

Well, I never thought I would say this, but I am going to join a couple of other bloggers, Wonder Woman and Brent Colbert in a boycott of Tim Horton’s.

Why you ask? Well you see, the 3000 plus troops being stationed in Kandahar are hoping for some creature comforts. The Kandahar air force base has other American fast food places, and our boys in tan… errrrrr…… bright green jungle attire, would like a bit of home as well. Tim Horton’s the mega-chain in Canada has said that a Tim Horton’s in Afghanistan does not fit into their business plan. They say that they give a care package to every deployed soldier at Christmas time.

But as Brent points out, Tim Horton’s has thrived on tying itself to Canadianism. They co-sponsored the special Poppy coins from our Dingwall run Mint. They brag that no matter where you go in Canada, Timmy’s is home.

Now for some statistics.

-There are over 2350 Tim Horton’s coffee shops in Canada.
-There are ~30,000,000 Canadians
-That comes to ~12,766 Canadians per store.

There are 3,000 Canadians stationed in Kandahar. This is nominal when you consider the other troops based there. The business model should stand up fine and Timmy’s should be able to outfit a mobile truck to move with the armed forces, and ship in the goods.

At first I thought an airport kiosk would be best (as I commented at NAP’s Site) but the more I think about it, the more I know this business model would work.

So until Tim Horton’s agrees to give our boys a taste of home, I am going to visit other coffee shops like Coffee Time, Second Cup, etc. (No Starbucks, they charge too much and I don’t need an Italian lesson to order coffee).

I highly urge everyone who reads this to e-mail Tim Horton’s and let them know you want them to support our troops.

Addendum – January 30th, 2006 – 10:53 am EDT

FYI, for those of you in Ontario you can Click Here For CountryStyle Store Locater and find one nearest you.

Something I also forgot to point out is that of that 30,000,000 Canadians, many are children. When you think that the 3,000 troops plus other nations soldiers are all adults, you can see the business case look better and better.

Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay Jurors To Be Selected Today

Mulder

Well the big boys are finally starting to get into the swing of a trial. Former CEOs of Enron Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay will have the jury selection process begin today for their upcoming fraud trials. Lay is being charged with 7 counts of fraud, and Skilling is being charged with over 30 counts. This is primarily related to the inflation of numbers by the Enron to the investment community.

If you want a good read, Kurt Eichenwald’s Conspiracy Of Fools, is an in depth look at what happened to Enron. It starts a few years before the debaucle, and via interviews with numerous employees and outside workers who dealt with Enron, Eichenwald creates an easy to read, enjoyable book. Considering the content is a business going bankrupt, it is written like a novel.
(Note: if you pick it up via the link above, you will, in a very minute way, help keep this site operational.)

For those who are new to this story, Enron was a large US based conglomerate that started building a mountain out of a deck of cards. They borrowed money on a financial base that was built on assuming profits from 20 years down the road. The year they made this reporting change their profits spiked. With a precedent set on the growth, they had to keep building the cards to meet or beat the earnings expectations.

I paid a little bit of attention through the whole commission which investigated this, and many know that the CFO Andy Fastow, a fast living, smooth talking, salesman with little or no financial experience, is sitting in a jail cell. That raises the stakes for Lay and Skilling. This trial will, definitely, be one I watch the details on.