Month: October 2004

Categories
ipo

Build-A-Bear Stuffs Coffers with IPO Gains

The Enquirer: Walnut Group Scores Big for Backing Build-A-Bear. An initial public offering has turned the small bears at Build-A-Bear Workshop into big business for the retailer’s long-time backer, Cincinnati-based Walnut Group. While the Thursday IPO on the New York Stock Exchange reduced the equity group’s position from 18 percent of outstanding shares to 8.8 percent of the St. Louis-based retailer, nobody at Walnut Group was complaining very much.

Build-A-Bear Workshop contracts are now online. Includes many employment agreements, leases, and services agreements. Recently, Shopping.com also had a successful IPO. I’ve also posted Shopping.com contracts online as well.

Categories
ipo

Finding Oscar

Reuters: DreamWorks Animation Set for IPO. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. will find out this week if box office success can be turned into Wall Street cash in a widely anticipated initial public offering that could raise up to $725 million. The sale would separate the animation group that has made films like “Shark Tale” and “Shrek 2” from the live-action unit of DreamWorks, formed by moguls Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg and home to movies like “The Terminal.”

Bug’s Life. Antz. Finding Nemo. Shark Tale. The Incredibles. Will DreamWorks follow with a superhero movie too? DreamWorks Animation contracts have finally be released, including Jeffrey Katzenberg’s employment agreement, Steven Spielberg’s consulting agreement and David Geffen’s consulting agreement.

Categories
litigation

Puttering Around

Motley Fool: Is Marsh Ringing the Value Bell? Marsh & McLennan has the highest yield this company’s share price has offered since 1988. The dividend has risen every year for the past 10 years at a 12% clip. The company is sporting its lowest P/E in its lifetime. So, why not buy?

After last year’s Putnam fiasco, you would think that parent Marsh & McLennan would clean up their act or stop doing business in New York. Well, neither of those two happened, so New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Marsh – this time for bid-rigging. Damages? So far, over $10 billion in market cap. Ouch! BusinessWeek also has an interesting article about this: The Secret World of Marsh Mac.

You can find the employment agreement for Jeffrey Greenberg of Marsh & McLennan on the web site. I’ve also posted the employment agreement for Evan Greenberg of ACE Ltd., which was also named in the suit. AIG contracts are also available, but no employment agreement from dad Maurice Greenberg.

Categories
corporate buzz ipo

If We Stopped Exporting Cars…

Time: China’s Quest for Oil. Motorists bemoaning high prices at the pumps—oil rose to a record $55 a barrel on Oct. 15, up 65% this year—can with some justification point an accusatory finger toward the mainland. Its booming economy and burgeoning appetite for cars and other modern conveniences have caused energy demand to soar.

You think gas prices are high right now? Here’s the sobering message from the article above: “The number of cars on mainland roads – about 20 million – is expected to increase by 2.5 million this year alone.” For a country with a population of 1.3 billion people, China only has 20 million cars on the road. California, alone, has almost 30 million vehicles. The numbers all point to higher and higher gas prices in the future.

I’ve added Brilliance China Automotive Holdings contracts and China Automotive Systems contracts to the web site. I’ve also added contracts from eLong, a Chinese online travel web site that recently filed for an IPO.

Categories
corporate buzz

Reality TV: The Candidate

CBS MarketWatch: Sinclair to Air Anti-Kerry Show. Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns the largest chain of TV stations in the United States, has told its stations to broadcast a documentary accusing Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of betraying American prisoners during the Vietnam War, according to a news report Monday.

I guess this is the conservative answer to Michael Moore’s “documentary.” Sinclair includes 20 FOX stations – for those seeking fair and balanced coverage. So much for the pretense of an unbiased and impartial media. I’ve added Sinclair Broadcast Group contracts – including a number of employment agreements – to the web site.

Categories
litigation

PeopleFired

Red Herring: Conway to Take the Stand. Less than a week after he was booted from the top spot at PeopleSoft, Craig Conway is expected to face tough questions from Oracle lawyers in a Delaware courtroom on Wednesday.

You can find Craig Conway’s Employment Agreement and other PeopleSoft contracts on the web site.