Monthly Archives: May 2009

Neelie Kroes acquires a free-market American fan

May 28, 2009 5:22 pm by John Gapper

There is what I found a rather remarkable piece in the FT this morning by Irwin Stelzer, director of economic studies at the free-market Hudson Institute, praising Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner and taking an anti-trust dig at Anton Scalia, the right-wing Supreme Court justice.

Mr Stelzer’s support for the EU’s action against Intel may be influenced by his consulting role to AMD, which complained to the EU about Intel’s pricing strategy and aggressive use of discounts. Even so, such a strong stance in favour of the European style of anti-trust is striking: Read more

Posted in Management, Technology | Permalink

Rampant Twittering in parliament and at work

May 28, 2009 5:09 pm by John Gapper

Somehow it was bound to happen. The “Twittergate” scandal involving German members of parliament who leaked the result of the president’s re-election is symptomatic of the current craze for Twitter among the world’s politicians, business people and media types.

As the FT reports this morning: Read more

Posted in Media | Permalink

When not cutting prices becomes a luxury

May 28, 2009 4:43 am by John Gapper

My column in the FT on Thursday is about luxury and premium good in the downturn: Read more

Posted in Aerospace, Food and Drink, Management | Permalink

Oil companies explore management instability

May 27, 2009 1:36 pm by John Gapper

It has always struck me that lengthy face-offs among internal candidates within companies to become the next head, a tradition popularised by Jack Welch when he was about to step down as chairman and chief executive of General Electric, are internally destabilising.

Having two or three senior executives publicly duking it out in something akin to a medieval joust for a king’s or queen’s approval absorbs a lot of energy and exacerbates internal fiefs. Read more

Posted in Management | Permalink

Wolfram Alpha asks searching questions of the web

May 22, 2009 10:08 pm by John Gapper

I have written a column for the Weekend FT on internet search:

For years, there has been little competition in the business of enabling people to find out things on the web: Google led and a bunch of its would-be rivals lagged behind. Suddenly, however, internet search is becoming lively again. Read more

Posted in Technology | Permalink

Can local papers become global industry websites?

May 21, 2009 3:31 pm by John Gapper

For some reason, the headline “Why journalists deserve low pay” caught my attention (via Roy Greenslade) and I have read the essay on the topic by Robert Picard.

I think his analysis that the economic value of general news content has diminished because local papers no longer have a distribution monopoly is correct. However, I am not sure about his solution – that such papers should reconfigure themselves as digital providers of specialist information. Read more

Posted in Media | Permalink

Score one for shareholders’ rights in the US

May 21, 2009 3:04 pm by John Gapper

The financial crisis has at least had one good effect, finally pushing over the top the right of US shareholders to nominate directors to company boards. I am not sure whether that is strictly logical, since there has not been a broad failure of corporate governance – just one on Wall Street – but so be it.

Since I hail from a country where shareholders have more explicit rights than in the US, I have always found the US system of corporate governance hard to grasp. In particular, the notion that investors need either to sue or to mount a public battle to displace directors in order to be heard strikes me as odd. Read more

Posted in Business, Management | Permalink