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CVRD muscles in with cash

JACQUIE MCNISH AND ANDY HOFFMAN

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 8:15 PM EDT 13/08/06

Inco attracts $19.4-billion offer from Brazilian mining giant, trumping rival bids from Teck Cominco and Phelps Dodge ...Read the full article

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  1. Vern McPherson from Toronto, Canada writes: Execs the world over play with assets like kids play with monopoly addresses and hotel properties, fun paper assets that don't exist. In the takeover world synergy is sought. Savings. Efficiency. Revenue growth and lower costs. Shareholder value. Whose shares ? Whose value ? The takeover enevitably means the whole will be smaller than the parts and ensures execs will be handsomely rewarded no matter who takes over what or who sells to whom. Break up fees, which milk assets, are in the hundreds of millions. Success fees for execs in the tens of millions abound. Lawyers for Boards and large shareholder groups earn fantastic fees. Bankers earn fantastic fees. Financial advisors earn fantastic fees. Reporters are kept busy following all the maschinations of various deals, phantom deals and possibilities, the latter left to the opinionists and analysts. Competition is narrowed with fewer players. Prices for products like stainless steel and its main ingredient rise to pay for it all in the end. Everyday consumer products containing the materials in question rise in price to pay for takeovers and all the driven speculation. It's like a giant long term mortgage on nickel with the consumer paying the tab. Like a great epic historical movie or a complex stage play with gigantic scenery and extravagent costuming, takeover battles are one of the few activities in human endeavour where form usually greatly outweighs content. That is because we little players already know the result. Capitalists win in the end. They always do and that is a good thing for the most part. And like the audience in theatre we little-win, non-playing shareholders are, we relish the thrill while we watch exactly who, what, how, where - happens. The 'why' we already know. The big players always win. The audience contents itself with a few dollars gained and a cheap thrill. For big players it's a career. For small individual shareholders, the audience, it's a one night stand.
  2. Terry O' Shaughnessy from Bring Cash (BC), Canada writes: Are we going to retain control of any resource based company in this country? With all these companies swallowing each other up, the only thing I can see is our diminished economic sovereignty!
  3. ralph shapiro from toronto, Canada writes: can someone please tell me what happened to the idea that canadian companies would grow to become world champions in their field of expertise? is it our psyche? our tax laws? our fear of those getting rich? our jealousy of the rich? why cannot we grow aggressive, powerful worldclass companies and leaders? is it our political leaders or parties? what will we own of our own country within the next 10 years? no i would not stop this take over, but i will ask why is it not the other way around?
  4. M. Overton from Calgary, Canada writes: God bless free market economies and no silent hand of government meddling as the above posters would like! Also, better Inco going to a company with a simplified share structure then one like Teck where a family owns little of the company but can manipualte the comapny through their special structured voting shares.
  5. Terry H from Moncton, Canada writes: Another disgusting takeover is in the works for yet ANOTHER Canadian company. When are we ever going to learn? Soon, Canada will be nothing but a branch office full of natural resource whores, selling off everything for a few coppers in the bank. All the while making the owners of foreign companies and Arabs richer and richer. Hang your head you Canadian CEO's and shareholders, because you should be ashamed of yourselves for letting it happen. We are fast becoming the laughing stock of the global business world. No, wait. We ARE the laughing stock of the business world already. I can hardly wait to see who gets our water.

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