Category: corporate buzz

New York Times: Behind China’s Bid for Unocal: A Costly Quest for Energy Control. From the dusty plains of East Africa to the shores of the Caspian Sea, China is seeking to loosen the grip of the United States on world energy resources and secure the fuel it needs to keep its economy in overdrive.

There certainly is a lot of commotion over foreigners buying American oil companies. However, BP did acquire ARCO, and the B in BP stand for British. Maybe that one doesn’t count since the Brits are members of the coalition of the willing. They’re practically American. They even speak English. How about Shell? Oops, they’re not American, they’re Dutch and are members of the coalition as well. I guess if CNOOC really wants to acquire Unocal, it should petition the Chinese government to join the coalition, if it’s not too late. I guess that all depends on whether or not the insurgents are in their last throes. Here’s a funny tidbit:

White House Press Release on Coalition Members:

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2004 (Uganda):

What next? Will Saddam be joining the coalition of the willing to liberate the North Koreans? Anyways, I’ve added Unocal contracts to the site, including the merger agreement between Unocal and ChevronTexaco.

Xinhua: Haier Raises Bid to US2.25b for Maytag. Chinese home appliance maker Haier Group had raised its bidding price for U.S. appliance group Maytag Corp. to US$2.25 billion from the previous US$1.28 billion, the China Business News reported.

The floodgates will really open if China accedes to Washington’s demands and relaxes the fixed dollar-RMB peg it currently maintains. Imagine, American companies suddenly becoming 10-30% cheaper. I’ve added Maytag contracts to the site, including the original merger agreement between Maytag and Ripplewood, which sparked this bidding war.

InformationWeek: Phishers Jump on Credit-Card Breach. When MasterCard went public last week with news that a security breach exposed more than 40 million cards to fraud, customers weren’t the only ones interested. Phishers picked up on it, too, and quickly launched a campaign to piggyback on the blunder.

Just take a glance at Google news and you’ll see that the identity theft worries over the MasterCard security breach have jumped overseas. Welcome to the next American export. I’ve posted MasterCard contracts online.

Other recent additions include Infodata Systems contracts, Celsion contracts, Salmedix contracts and Rackable Systems contracts.

Legal SEO Blog: PodCasts – Directories for Legal PodCasts (BlawgCasts), Software, How-to and…Adam Curry. Now to promote your PodCast… Let’s start with Adam Curry – Mac User – who has set up a directory I use called iPodder.org, where you can have your RSS 2.0 feed listed in the PodCast Directory… and it is just one of many PodCast directories to find and submit your PodCast.

Adam Curry, an ex-VJ at MTV, formerly worked for THINK New Ideas, Inc. Anyways, I’ve added THINK New Ideas contracts to the web site, including Adam Curry’s Employment Agreement.

I’ve created a new industry group for sports contracts. I’ve also added Paragon Sports Group contracts, Millennium Sports Management contracts, Global Entertainment contracts, and Continental Sports Management contracts to the site.

I’ve just added Renaissance Entertainment contracts to the site. Count me in as one of the many who didn’t realize that this organizer of Renaissance faires was a public company. You can pick-up a share of this company for 8 pence.

I’ve also posted Blue Moon Group contracts.

Motley Fool: Can Payday Lenders Survive?. Payday lenders (PDLs) and pawnshops are tremendously profitable businesses. I’ve written about some of these companies before, but because of new guidelines from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that may affect the entire payday-lending industry, the time has come to do a thorough comparison among them.

Latest additions include Advance America contracts, ACE Cash Express contracts, EZCorp. contracts and Cash America contracts.

International Herald Tribune: Heiress. Actress. Singer. Mogul. After years of being an ubiquitous presence on the global night life scene, dancing on tabletops and sauntering down red carpets from Australia to Los Angeles, Paris Hilton says she is eager to leave her Red Bull-fueled evenings behind and make the leap from globe-trotting sex kitten to savvy business titan.

I’ve just added Parlux Fragrances contracts to the web site, which includes a licensing agreement between Parlux and Paris Hilton. However, you’re more into a whiff of Wimbledon, there’s also licensing agreements with Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova.

CNNMoney/Dow Jones: Sources:Langone May Bid for Archipelago. Financier Kenneth Langone is mounting a rival bid to buy electronic trading platform Archipelago Holdings, a move rich in Wall Street politics that threatens to derail its proposed union with the New York Stock Exchange, according to people familiar with the matter.

I’ve added Archipelago Holdings contracts and Instinet Group contracts to the web site. NASDAQ contracts were already up.

Happy for the IRS, that is. To celebrate this joyous occasion, I’ve posted some IRS contracts online. You can find them on the Official Payments Corp. contracts page. Other recent additions include Tier Technologies Inc. contracts and a few Link2Gov contracts.

On a totally unrelated matter, I’ve also added Butterwings Entertainment Group contracts, which includes a franchise agreement with Hooters.