Time Magazine's Best Lists: Worst Business Deals

I have been summarizing my thoughts on Time Magazine's Best Lists over the last several weeks and hadn't even touched their business lists. Until now. I found the magazine's Worst Business Deals" very interesting.

* The Blackstone Group going public. It looked hot after years of some rather amazing deals, but lost 38 percent of its value in no time after going public. In my experience, VC firms are the epitome of feast and famine. It isn't the kind of place one puts the family nest egg in. However, you can't count these guys out yet. The stock market is a long term game. It is only a bad deal if you cash in from the early highs.

* DaimlerChrysler pays to unload Chrysler. After an amazing array of mathematic antics, Daimler actually paid $2 billion to unload the company to Cerberus. With mathematic geniuses like this, is there any question as to why Daimler was going broke?

* Microsoft overpays for Facebook. First it was MySpace and Murdoch, then it was Google and YouTube. Microsoft simply had to get into the social networking phenomenon. The one it bought a stake in was Facebook for $240 million. The deal gives Facebook an implied value of $17 million, but is only expected to make $30 million a year. Time Magazine fears it looks like AOL a few years ago. I agree.

* KKR and Goldman Sach's pull the plug on Harman Industries International. Time notes that "Private equity shop Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group's private equity unit pulled out of their $8 billion offer to buy high-end audio equipment manufacturer Harman Industries International, claiming a "material adverse change" in Harman's business. Harman's stock plummeted more than 20%." Harsh indeed!

* Bank of America dumps $2 billion dollars into Countrywide. "Better make that $1 billion — at least that's what B of A's investment was worth as of December 1. Bank of America thought it had picked an opportune time in August to invest in Countrywide's mortgage machine, but the mortgage mess hadn't bottomed out yet." Bank of America was already limping along due to its troubling approach to providing credit to its clients. This situation only makes matters worse.

Some of these stories are not as entertaining or as sexy as some of the others covered, but their implications are far reaching financially. And they are far reaching to investors, customers, and obviously the employees

Time Magazine's Best Lists: Commercials

In my recent "list of lists" on Time Magazine's "Best" series, I have been pretty critical. I have to admit though, I did like some of their choices for commercials in 2007.

On the upside for commercials, I love their choice of the David Letterman and Oprah Winfree "love fest" while watching TV together. The two have had a much publicized chilling relationship for years and to get them together made for an eye catching and humorous ad.

The "Impossible is Nothing" ad for Adidas made you laugh (when you saw the cute, little soccer player), made you cry (when you understood the challenges the subject had gone through), and made you proud (when you read how that person over came such). Great stuff!
One ad campaign that I love, but didn't get much air time, was Gatorade's "Thief" campaign. It is funny, smart, and memorable. A must see.

American Express' "Tina Fey" examines the numerous challenge facing a business woman, any of which could be devastating and how refreshing it was that someone rescued her from one without her having to break a sweat.

On the down side, they didn't include any of the great Geico conspiracy ads (like the one on the Flintstones) or any of the Cavemen ads that birthed a TV show (which died quickly, but still, leading to a TV show is impressive!). This is because Time Magazine tries to be some what "high brow" in the way it approaches things, I must conclude.

But overall, I was pleased with Time's choices in this category. I will be reviewing magazine covers in a future post.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Receive that free ezine by clicking here.

Time Magazine's Best Lists: The Top Bad Choices, Nonfiction Books

I've had plenty to say about Time's choices of religious stories for 2007 and am now going to look at a couple of its choices for nonfiction books.

It's number one choice, The World Without Us (by Alan Weisman), actually makes the case that the planet would be better off without humans. It is the typical environmental extremism discredited by the mainstream of society, with a more sophisticated writing style. The message is the same. According to Weisman, we need to leave. I wonder if he would be the first to volunter to leave?

Then there is Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (by Tim Weiner). Another in the untold thousands of books trashing US intelligence. I've reviewed several such books on the topic and this is no more impressive than the others. When you read such you almost conclude that we would be better off without the resources such agencies provide. Such critics of the agency offer few suggestions on how to make it better. We need intelligence, develop something better than the CIA and don't merely be a critic.

There are a few choices that I liked and saw their value (especially Steve Martin's Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life). But the obvious political agenda in its other choices and incredibly overtly liberal agenda, made this list difficult to stomach.