Business blog

Page proves himself the right chief for Google

John Gapper — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:20:00 +0000

As Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, launches a new music subscription service and the company’s share price continues to climb, it’s worth nothing what a success he has so far been in the role – despite the doubters, including myself.

FT column: Bloomberg cannot take Wall Street for granted

John Gapper — Wed, 15 May 2013 23:31:13 +0000

In the three decades since Michael Bloomberg launched his electronic terminal to supply financial information and analytics, his company has been called many things: ambitious, competitive, brilliant, fearsome, relentless and totalitarian. Until now, it wasn’t known as stupid.

The consumer as founder

Ravi Mattu — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:25:08 +0000

When US businessman Victor Kiam tried a Remington electric razor, he liked it so much he “bought the company”, and spent the rest of his life telling the rest of the world about it. But for some entrepreneurs a bad customer experience can be an equally powerful spur.

This was the case for Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, co-founders of London-based money transfer start-up TransferWise, which announced this week that Valar Ventures, the fund launched by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, had made the company his first European investment.

L’exception culturelle: just when you thought it was safe…

Andrew Hill — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:03:25 +0000

Seen from outside France, the country’s “cultural exception” – which protects its art, music and movie industries in trade negotiations – is like a long-running film franchise.

In the new sequel – Exception Culturelle 3D, if you will – Pierre Lescure, author of a government-commissioned report, has given the story a great new twist by suggesting a tax on smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and e-readers to fund French cultural output.

FT column: An odd corporate vehicle for doing business in China

Andrew Hill — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:54:09 +0000

In 2010, seven managers from PSA Peugeot Citroën and five from Chang’an Automobile met in Shenzhen, southern China, to lay the groundwork for a new car factory. Three years later, Capsa, a 50-50 joint venture between the French and Chinese companies, is in the final stages of preparing a 1m square metre plant for the September launch of Chinese-made premium cars under the DS brand. “Because we were beginning from a blank sheet, people wanted to make it as perfect as possible,” says Gilles Boussac, Capsa’s president, between meetings with his team of mostly Chinese managers. “So often in China, if you’re trying to rework or improve something, it takes years to achieve.”

Dimon should lose his chairmanship, not his job

John Gapper — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:01:25 +0000

My views on Jamie Dimon’s dual roles as chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase have not changed since a year ago, when I called for him to give up the chairmanship, but the stakes are much higher.

Mr Dimon faces a shareholder vote at the bank’s annual meeting next week to enforce a split of the two roles in the company bylaws. According to the Wall Street Journal, he has hinted that he might give up both jobs and leave if that passes.

FT column: Microsoft has just blown its oldest trick

John Gapper — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:18:20 +0000

In the browser wars that began in the 1990s, it took more than a decade for regulators to stop Microsoft exploiting its dominance with users of Windows software. In today’s mobile battles, customers have done so themselves in six months. Microsoft’s rapid retreat over Windows 8 – the latest, mobile-inspired, version of its operating software – shows wise flexibility rather than its traditional obstinacy. But it also demonstrates that Steve Ballmer, the company’s chief executive, has lost the power to “embrace and extend” the Windows hegemony into new fields.

Sohn Investment Conference 2013

Dan McCrum — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:55:47 +0000

It’s the 18th annual Ira Sohn Investment conference, the must-have ticket for Wall Street investors. Held in New York's Lincoln Center, money managers crowd the cultural heart of the city as the Philharmonic gives up its stage to the virtuosos of the hedge fund world. They are here to pitch their best ideas in public, all in the cause of cancer research (the most expensive tickets top $100,000).

There have been big calls at the conference before, David Einhorn's (left) big short against Lehman brothers for one, and even SAC's Steven Cohen appeared in 1999. This year the cast of 18 includes: Elliott Management's Paul Singer to start proceedings, Bill Ackman of Pershing Square and investing legend Stanley Druckenmiller either side of lunch. Jeffrey Gundlach and Mr Einhorn will finish off the day.

The FT's Dan McCrum and Arash Massoudi will be there to capture all the tips and report back on repercussions out in the market.

The Pope, the Queen, the Sage and the football manager

Andrew Hill — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:48:30 +0000

Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement as manager of Manchester United gives the management world another example of how to bow out when you are, frankly, getting a bit elderly.

On this topic, we now have four great templates – the Pope, the Queen of England, Warren Buffett and Sir Alex – each of which could be applied by organisations whose leaders are grappling with questions about the frailty and mortality of their leaders.

Will “Windows Classic” be Microsoft’s Coke Classic?

Andrew Hill — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:12:01 +0000

No doubt, if Microsoft reverses course over Windows 8 – for instance, by restoring the familiar “Start” button to the opening screen – it will provide abundant fodder for the writers of business school case studies.

But is the comparison with Coca-Cola’s famous 1985 marketing U-turn, when it brought back “Coke Classic” following a consumer backlash against its “New Coke” recipe, correct?