Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jimmy]

Hooray for capitalism!

Sadly this is all completely legal. People who invest in businesses do so at their own risk, and simply looking at the profit and loss statement for a business isn't enough to provide a realistic interpretation of the actual strength of it within the market. Caveat emptor.

[Loud Whispers]

Jesus Christ what a trick

To Forager’s credit, they were sounding the alarm bells about Dick Smith from the start, writing in September 2013, before the float that:
    The oldest trick in the retail-turnaround book is to write your inventory down to zero one year, sell it for 50 cents in the dollar the next and report yourself some handsome profits (the amazing thing about Billabong was that they got part 1 right and still couldn’t manage a profit).
    Presumptuous of us, yes – we haven’t even seen a balance sheet – but our bet is that this is exactly what has happened with Dick Smith.
So who’s to blame for the demise of a once popular brand?
Today, Forager just pointed the finger on Twitter:

    If you bought Dick Smith shares and are looking for someone to blame, find a mirror. We all make mistakes, and it's not ASIC's fault.
    — Forager Funds (@ForagerFunds) January 6, 2016

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-dick-smith-was-called-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-time-2016-1

Never throw your money at something you haven't researched at all

The stakes are high and refunds don't exist

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Rofle
Too fucked

[Reelya]

The smartest part was that they bought the company from Woolworth's Supermarkets chain for $115 million, paying only $10 million up front, then they immediately gouged the company they just bought to pay the remaining $105 million. After that they did the crooked books and a share float to boost it's share value to the $520 million, managing to sell the last of their own shares before the shit hit the fan. In total :52x profits on $10 million and a $115 million company destroyed. Nice work if you can get it.

[Loud Whispers]

I still remember Woolworth's closing down sales, saddest spot of shopping outside funeral procurements, fitting considering it was the death of the chain - I do regret not buying their shelves, as everything about the stores was for sale for however much. Store clerks at least had a last week of fun before they had to seek a new job

[Reelya]

It's kinda weird, there are three Woolworths retail chains around the world (well, two now that you know what happened). They all take their name from retailer FW Woolworth in the USA. Only the UK one is actually connected with the American company.

The Australian one actually got named on a dare: one of the founders suggested Wallworths, a play on Woolworths (a well known American retailer at the time - this was ~90 years ago), but another founder dared him to go whole hog and register Woolworths, and it stuck.

[Jimmy]

Does the UK count as non-EU yet?

Anyway, thanks to some celebrity chef stirring up trouble, they've got a new tax on sugar in soft drinks as part of their budget. I've no doubt Australia will follow suit, given how happy we are to tax the hell out of vices in the name of public health, despite the noise we currently have to the negative from those in the position to do so. Since we already pay near the highest tax in the world on the rum, why not on the cola too?

[Loud Whispers]

Does the UK count as non-EU yet?

Spoiler: SOON (click to show/hide)

Anyway, thanks to some celebrity chef stirring up trouble, they've got a new tax on sugar in soft drinks as part of their budget. I've no doubt Australia will follow suit, given how happy we are to tax the hell out of vices in the name of public health, despite the noise we currently have to the negative from those in the position to do so. Since we already pay near the highest tax in the world on the rum, why not on the cola too?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/news/sugar-tax-what-does-it-mean-and-who-will-be-affected/
Obesity currently costs the NHS £5.1 billion per year which is projected to rise to £9.7 billion by 2050, with wider costs to society estimated to reach £49.9 billion per year.
A recent report claimed the NHS could save almost 80,000 lives in a generation by weaning the public off its sweet tooth. Today's children and teenagers are consuming three times the recommended level of sugar (adults fare almost as badly).

Understandably Coca Cola is quite butthurt about this as they don't care about children becoming obese walking coffins
Drinks maker says production of lower-calorie beverages, not price hike, is better strategy to reduce obesity.
Citing the example of a similar tax in Mexico, he added: “If the objective is to reduce calorie intake on a daily basis then the example in Mexico show it doesn’t work.” Den Hollander said Mexico’s tax on sugar drinks, introduced in 2014, had only reduced average intake by six calories a day.
But sales in Mexico have fallen 12% since it imposed a 10% surcharge on soft drinks in 2014. Similar schemes have also been introduced in France, Finland and Hungary.
Also interesting to note is that switching from coke to diet coke means you lower your calorie intake but suffer an increased risk of cardiovascular disease; not like they care though, they get money either way :P
Nah, only way to reduce it is to reduce the taste for caramel soda corps altogether. Also them actually paying their taxes for once would be great :D

Jaime Olliver was dancing
Nice lad

Aussie gov will probably follow suit because more taxes and less strain on healthcare is good, one of the big problems the UK national health service faces is that in this time where budgeting is a serious issue there is literally not enough money in the country to deal with obesity
Which is ridiculous as people should just stop living so unhealthily
Alas

[Ukrainian Ranger]

There are an escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh with dozens dead. I think there are a high chance that cold war between Armenia and Azerbaijan can become hot. It can be an ideal opportunity for a proxy war between Putin and Erdogan

[sprinkled chariot]

Wooo! One more pointless war for motherland !

[Descan]

could we just like

kidnap all the government officials of every country in the region, put white-out on all the maps and globes in the world of the Middle East, and just ... wait half a century for more natural states to carve themselves out? put up an political (but not economic!) interdiction field or something in the meantime so no superpower can influence the area until everything's worked out?

probably exclude israel from this though. might not go well for them if they had to fend for themselves.

[Helgoland]

wait half a century for more natural states to carve themselves out?

Well, considering that this carving-out process would essentially be a gore parade of genocides, it might not be the best course of action.

[Shadowlord]

Sugar tax? We have a sugar tariff in the USA and the only thing that does (as far as sodas go) is ensure that our sodas are made with corn syrup instead.

[Culise]

probably exclude israel from this though. might not go well for them if they had to fend for themselves.

Might not go well for anyone.  "We are not willing to state whether or not we have nukes, but we will annihilate anyone and everyone we can in nuclear hellfire should we be threatened with extermination again."  I suppose glass is technically a natural state, though...

But my inclination is with Helgoland in either case.  I suppose, though, that if we went with that, we wouldn't hear much more about Assyrians, Yazidi, Shabaks, or the like.  Not a pleasant thing to consider.

[smjjames]

wait half a century for more natural states to carve themselves out?

Well, considering that this carving-out process would essentially be a gore parade of genocides, it might not be the best course of action.

Not to mention that at least three MidEastern states have been there for centuries, Egypt in all it's incarnations, Iran AKA Persia, and Turkey (the spawn of the Ottoman Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire ). All of the trouble spots are in the Fertile Cresent region and the main Arabian penninsula, and previously, all of that area was ruled by the Ottomans.

But yeah, there would be massive genocide and wars as groups fight over resources, which would probably leave it no better off than when it began.