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ARTICLE: “Indian Firms Increasingly Look Beyond Borders to Add Scale: Cheap Capital, Bolder CEOs Help Fuel Acquisition Spree; Year’s Deals on Record Pace,” by Peter Wonacott and Henny Sender, Wall Street Journal 1 May 2006, p. A6.
ARTICLE: “Gazprom Makes an Energy Deal With BASF,” by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 28 April 2006, p. C4.
COLUMN: “Russia’s Power Play Has High Stakes: The West Is Urged to Counter Moscow’s Bold Energy Plan; ‘Our Core Values’ Are at Risk,” by Frederick Kempe, Wall Street Journal, 2 May 2006, p. A9.
JOURNAL: “Daring to Use the Silver Screen to Reflect Saudi Society,” by Hassan M. Fattah, New York Times, 28 April 2006, p. A4.
ARTICLE: “Intel Invests in Developing Nations: Pledge of $1 Billion Made Over Five Years to Improve Access to Web, Computers,” by Don Clark, Wall Street Journal, 2 May 2006, p. B2.
You take your connectivity where you get it.
India is stunning Europe by showing up and buying companies. CANYOUBELIEVEIT?
Meanwhile, Putin’s Microsoft-like arm-twisting to buy Gazprom’s (and others’) way into downstream energy markets is just beginning to roll. Scary stuff to some, but to me, a good development. Russia doesn’t end up being Saudi Arabia if it owns the gas station down the street from your house.
Hell, I’ll even give it up to Saudi cinema (Quick! Name your favorite Saudi movie of all time? Hell, name any Saudi movie from any time!).
The Saudi film in question sounds like every Bollywood musical I’ve ever seen: daughter from traditional family wants to marry modern man, but family set on traditional suitor, so “family members find themselves torn between modernity and tradition.”
Ah, it hurts so good!
“The plot may seem mundane but in important ways, “Keif al Hal” is a landmark project with big ambitions. It is the first feature film from Saudi Arabia, a country with not a single legal movie theater.”
Well, that explains the novelty factor…
But it also explains why traditional U.S. firms increasingly look to the Gap as the area of long-term serious growth. I mean, how many more theaters can you build in America? Or how many more computers can you sell?
I got a question today at Hudson: “What makes you think aging Boomers are going to pay for postwar reconstruction inside the Gap?”
My reply: “Your addiction to the good life will take care of that, as will your fund managers. Stop thinking quagmire, start thinking virgin markets.”
Yes, yes. Less Clausewitz, more Sun Tzu. And take the connectivity where you can get it.
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