We are anxiously waiting to end this long year that had been quite challenging for the business leaders of the world. I say it long year because there were so many challenges during this year that everyone wants this to end. There were not many serious problem in the world politics so it was good for the business but there were continuous tension between United States of America and Iran and it was one of the reason for high fuel prices. Though the main reason for the high fuel prices was high consumption was some of the developing economies. At this time of point OPEC countries are also worried about the rising fuel prices but they are reluctant to increase the output or to start new facilities. Perhaps they want to avoid the repeat of the 80s when over production caused steep downfall in the oil prices. Input cost for most of the manufacturing, service industry has gone up as well but somehow overall economy is doing well.
One of the major problem of this year has been subprime lending and it caused most of biggest investment to write down billions of dollars in last few months. CEOs, chairmen and top management at many of these investment banks (Meryl Lynch, Citibank etc) lost their jobs and new management is facing horrendous task of resolving these problems. it is not easy task and lost of money will be lost because of this subprime lending. Only Goldman Sachs seems to be a clear winner in this time of extreme turmoil. Federal bank is trying to help these banks by providing loan (through auction) without creating excessive liquidity in the market. Recently Singapore's fund have also come forward to help Merill Lynch. These major will help these investments in short term but they need to do a lot more to clear bad debts, increase profitability and performance. Not a good year for these investment bankers.
For some of the major technology companies, Google and Apple, this year has been fantastic. They have launch new product and customers are accepting them willingly with open arms. Apple has entered a domain of mobile with the launch of iPhone this year. It has also become popular as other products of Apple. Though price tag may be an issue for further growth but Steve Jobs has learn the art of making money. They will reduce the price later on as they did in case of Apple iPod. on youtube, Google has recently made a strategic alliance with the Queen Elizabeth II, http://www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel. this channel may not bring anything in terms of revenue for the Google but it will make surely make too popular online (it is already popular though) but the traffic will drastically increase and in future many more rich and famous people choose the same way to go online through youtube. A wonderful move! Microsoft has no major good news this year. Vista is not being accepted by many as MS might have hoped. Many of the copies of Vista will be sold because it is pre-installed on many notebooks and PCs. People are not finding it as user friendly as it was believed to be. there are lots of hardware and software integration/upgrade requirements and these are not very good for average user. there are so many version of MS office and all of them are not compatible with each other that is a problem for Microsoft. I think it has created so many different versions and probably it is danger of losing to itself. Recently it also lost EU competition case. Now it will not be in strong position in future when more and more anti-competition law suites will be filed against it. And Bill Gates wants to retire from Microsoft soon.
These are some of the thoughts come to my mind in this morning. I have already talked about growth in SE Asia in my other blogs. Wish you all a Marry Christmas and a very happy new year.
One of the major problem of this year has been subprime lending and it caused most of biggest investment to write down billions of dollars in last few months. CEOs, chairmen and top management at many of these investment banks (Meryl Lynch, Citibank etc) lost their jobs and new management is facing horrendous task of resolving these problems. it is not easy task and lost of money will be lost because of this subprime lending. Only Goldman Sachs seems to be a clear winner in this time of extreme turmoil. Federal bank is trying to help these banks by providing loan (through auction) without creating excessive liquidity in the market. Recently Singapore's fund have also come forward to help Merill Lynch. These major will help these investments in short term but they need to do a lot more to clear bad debts, increase profitability and performance. Not a good year for these investment bankers.
For some of the major technology companies, Google and Apple, this year has been fantastic. They have launch new product and customers are accepting them willingly with open arms. Apple has entered a domain of mobile with the launch of iPhone this year. It has also become popular as other products of Apple. Though price tag may be an issue for further growth but Steve Jobs has learn the art of making money. They will reduce the price later on as they did in case of Apple iPod. on youtube, Google has recently made a strategic alliance with the Queen Elizabeth II, http://www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel. this channel may not bring anything in terms of revenue for the Google but it will make surely make too popular online (it is already popular though) but the traffic will drastically increase and in future many more rich and famous people choose the same way to go online through youtube. A wonderful move! Microsoft has no major good news this year. Vista is not being accepted by many as MS might have hoped. Many of the copies of Vista will be sold because it is pre-installed on many notebooks and PCs. People are not finding it as user friendly as it was believed to be. there are lots of hardware and software integration/upgrade requirements and these are not very good for average user. there are so many version of MS office and all of them are not compatible with each other that is a problem for Microsoft. I think it has created so many different versions and probably it is danger of losing to itself. Recently it also lost EU competition case. Now it will not be in strong position in future when more and more anti-competition law suites will be filed against it. And Bill Gates wants to retire from Microsoft soon.
These are some of the thoughts come to my mind in this morning. I have already talked about growth in SE Asia in my other blogs. Wish you all a Marry Christmas and a very happy new year.
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