The Benefactor

Mark Cuban hasn't blogged since the airing of the first episode of the Benefactor, a show where he gives $1 million to whomever he decides he likes the best.

Perhaps this is because the show has gotten nearly universally panned.

I didn't see the show, but critics were scathing in their reviews. And apparently ABC accidentally revealed the final four contestants right after the credits rolled. Kinda takes away the drama, doesn't it?

Being rich and having options

Kirk Kerkorian has bought and sold MGM three times.

Instead, Kerkorian has treated the famous studio as he has every other property he's owned -- as a business asset he buys low with the intention of building, but will sell high at the right price.

So Kerkorian put MGM on the market, and Sony snatched it for $2.9 billion. Kerkorian's team paid $1.3 billion for the studio in 1996; his cut alone from the Sony sale is worth more than $1.7 billion.

I also like details like this:

(His first marriage lasted 10 years; his second, to a Vegas showgirl, lasted 29 and produced two children, Tracy and Linda, whose names he combined to create his company name -- Tracinda. His charity is called the Lincy Foundation.)

Small biz stats

Small biz optimism:

U.S. small business optimism dipped slightly last month but remained near record levels, suggesting a strong outlook for growth, a survey released on Tuesday showed.

The National Federation of Independent Business said its monthly small business optimism index fell 3.0 points in August to 102.9, its 17th straight reading of 100 or more.

My own admittedly anecdotal experience is that many of my peers are also increasingly considering entrepreneurialism. Not exactly a direct correlation to small biz optimism.

Don't believe the hype

When I was young -- that is, younger than I am now, or 13ish -- I started getting into investing. I was investing the money I made mowing lawns, so it was paltry amounts.

One of the first things I learned was: don't believe the hype.

I saw this report today on Campbell's Soup:

Food conglomerate Campbell Soup Co. posted a 20 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits as the company began its latest restructuring effort. (emphasis mine)

Campbell's Soup was named Board of the Year by BusinessWeek in December 1996. Many of the business magazines at the time wrote glowing articles about the company and its management.

Don't believe the hype.

Around this time, Campbell's Soup board spun off Vlasic Pickles and some of their other poorly performing brands. Vlasic soon went into a very expensive bankruptcy, sold off its brands, paid lawyers, and then had a couple cents left over for shareholders (my memory is vague on the point).

In April 1998, Campbell's analyst consensus projections for fiscal year 98 sales were about $8 billion, with earnings at about 950 million, or $2.10 a share. The stock was selling in the mid 50s. These were enthusiastic numbers (the 97 numbers were $1.67 EPS), but they were the consensus.

The EPS has since stagnated and been restated a few times. The stock now sells at $25.

Never forget

September 11th changed everything. Freedom is expensive, and we must fight to keep it.

Selling wine samples

Via John Moore:

At Tuscany Market, a "gourmet market and eatery
located in north Austin, shoppers can sample one-ounce tasters of 32 red and white wines through the first computerized wine sampling system of its kind in the United States, reports Dale Rice in the Austin American Statesman (9/8/04). Tuscany co-owner Mike Sattler says, "There are a lot of times I would like to buy a bottle of wine that's a little more expensive, but I'm afraid to get it home and find I don't like it. This creates the ability for people to taste wine, experience it, learn, and go."

I may have to go check this out.

I'm not surprised at the success of the idea. There's definitely many young professionals who want to become more wine savvy. And the only way to acquire that savviness is to drink a wide selection of wine.

A great idea. I wonder if this would be possible to turn into a bar, rather than a super market. A nice upscale, romantic date spot/married couple spot.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

In the past few weeks I've been researching how to get high rankings on google and yahoo. It turns out that there is a whole industry called SEO which tries to get websites into the top 10 of Google.

The industry is mainly self-employed consultants who help small businesses and ecommerce sites crack the resulsts pages for their desired searches. Some of these people appear to make a very good living doing so.

There are also some consultants who help less reputable sites that try to make money by affiliate programs of porn, viagra type supplements, illegal drugs, gambling, etc. Most of these consultants are going for spam ways to get their site to the top of the rankings as quickly as possible. Sure, they realize that their site may get banned in the future, but in the meantime they make a quick buck.

But here's the funny part of it: as far as I can tell, no one has really figured out Google's algorithm. These professional consultants just clean up a website's code and help websites create inbound links. The more seedy consultants do similar things, but they employ alot of spam in order to get their inbound links.

I've successfully gotten several sites to #1 on google before, with some search terms being fairly competitive. In all my research the past week, I've picked up some techniques to fine tune websites (non-spam techniques, mind you, I wouldn't do that), but nothing groundbreaking.

It's surprising to me. I guess I could start an SEO business as well, as I know how to get to the top of the rankings.

Business books

It was much remarked recently when the Economist published an article commenting that "so many business books are awful."

One problem is that most books are given positive reviews.

I think this is something that probably has very little to do with any book itself. When reading, the reader takes time to sit down and think. They get a chance to let their mind wander on a subject and find a new angle.

I'm hardly an expert on business, and it's certainly true that I could use more formal business education. But most business books seem very good to me at the time, but the lessons I've "learned" are as longlasting as lightning in the sky.

So I've come to view business books as good for inspiration and new perspective. Sometimes that's worth my $20.

(inspired by John Moore's review of "The Pirate Inside," which I confess does look interesting).

Capitalism is hard

Wikis -- and the popular Wikipedia -- is discovered by the old media:

The free Wikipedia also features a publicly authored current-events page recapping the day's top news, and it is rapidly expanding into other languages -- more than 10,000 articles have been created in each of roughly a dozen languages besides English.

Yet some worry that because it charges users nothing, this new-age reference work may siphon readership away from old-school encyclopedias and take a devastating bite out of their revenue -- without delivering the same levels of accuracy and quality.

People who are hurt by competition always start crying. Technological advances render the old ways obsolete. We don't have many cobblers anymore, because now machines make shoes. Same with coopers.

Capitalism is tough. Why don't schools teach this?