Security Pie

The wine industry (as we are told) is in crisis. At a recent conference (Vino2010 in New York) a group of panelists discussed the future of luxury wine (see the excellent read at http://www.vinography.com/archives/2010/02/the_future_of_luxury_wine.html). I, for one, am happy. Prices are falling. Not neccessarily for the uber wines, but very decidedly for anything else. I can walk into wine shops and pick up decent wines that in 2006 were asking for very unreasonable prices.

It is a buyers market, and picking the wrong wine is no longer a very costly mistake. It literally take me back to the 90′s, right before (and perhaps as) the asian and US markets conspired to jack up the prices of wines. Now that both the Asians and Americans lost their funding sources, they stopped paying exorbitantly for wine.

This is so good. The bubble has funded extensive knowhow in wines. How to extract as blockbuster a wine as possible from newly planted berries: and make a killing in the process. So there are many great wines out there. And they have no buyers, so some great ones sell for 30c on the dollar. Their future prospect is questionable: They may fold, they may redo their business model, who knows. But for now, run out and get them!

Now I do have to watch the calories, though…

A friend forward me the following article from the Consumerist with links to Zynga’s CEO Mark Pincus Youtube movie. So here’s what he said on the video (I guess that he did not know that someone is recording):

I knew that i wanted to control my destiny, so I knew I needed revenues, right, fucking, now. Like I needed revenues now. So I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business…So control your destiny. So that was a big lesson, controlling your business. So by the time we raised money we were profitable.

Personally, I do not see ANY problem with that. In fact, despite the somehow graphic langue and maybe some over bragging, I think that Mark Pincus was/ is doing the right thing. All we have to do is wait and see how it goes…

The Heroes

So Marvel is getting acquired by Disney ($4 billion and some change). Personally, I like the idea. It will make life easier as now I do not have to think who owns a specific comic character. If Marvel shareholders approve the deal, they would receive $30 per share in cash and 0.745 shares of Disney for each share of Marvel that they hold. The deal is valued at $50 per Marvel share, more than a 29% premium, based on Friday’s closing price. Shares of Marvel (MVL) soared 26% in morning trading.

But the story is even better. Marvel, once a bankrupt company and the target of a how-to-mess-a-company book that was acquired for $82 m (and change) is now sold.

“When Ron Perelman bought Marvel in 1989, he described the company, home to heroes like Captain America and the Fantastic Four, as “a mini-Disney in terms of intellectual property.” His junk bonds and grandiose expansion plans swiftly raised Marvel’s market value to over $3 billion, but also brought its debt past $600 million, at which point corporate raider Carl Icahn smelled blood. He managed to wrest control of the company from Perelman, but the takeover process dragged Marvel through bankruptcy court for years. “

As a person interested in business strategy, I can only admire the level of thoughts, planning and execution my colleagues delivered. (I’m also jealous for the amount of fun and satisfaction they had during this fun ride).

Brownnose

Yellow brownosed G’s spot. G, as result, was convinced Yellow was leading the pack. Yellow, as a result, too home the Q trophy.

Congrads to ES on yet another smelly victory.

/al

Assaf wrote about the need to have a consistent message. Let’s remember that it is even more important to set the right message.  Using Rafael’s “one of the worst marketing movie”  as an example:

If you believe Rafael’s marketing director, they are pretty consistent in the way they think about marketing movies:  ”We try to make the movies about the place where the defense expo is located,” the company source said, adding that in previous years Rafael had won prizes for its pavilions and marketing techniques. 

Whether you think that the movie is bad and wrong or just not according to your taste, it proves again that there’s no bad marketing.  Just look at the youtube counter. 116,000 and growing..

Previously, we sent our reporters on a first class mission. Now, we are reporting from coach. Names removed to protect the innocent.

Hi, we had a delay of one hour. I’ll probably arrive to you place around midnight. If it’s too late can you please leave the keys outside?

No problem. I’ll wait for you. Is it tonight or tomorrow? 

Tonight… In flight internet is awesome…

Is it really IN flight internet? Can you see porn?

When my “neighbors” will sleep I’ll definitely try it…

You need protection.  For the next flight buy one of those 3com protection screens… 

So that’s the real reason you need it…

I’m thinking about a smart answer, since this conversation is being blogged….. 
 

In my opinion, this post speaks for itself.

So yesterday we went for dinner at The French Laundry, an upscale restaurant located in Yountville in Napa valley. It is widely considered to be one of the best restaurants in the world, and definitively the best in the bay area. It was an exquisite dinner, with great company, good wine*, and excellent food.

And the most interesting dish just happened to be on the Vegetable Tasting menu. Very interesting indeed.

Hmmm. Delectable meal. Hmmm.

 It was a dish labelled: Chickpea “Croquette” – Sweet Peppers, English Cucumbers, Sesame Seed Yogurt and Eggplant Confit. Now Larousse Gastronomique defines a croquette as a “small savoury or sweet preparation…… Croquettes are shaped into corks, sticks, balls or rechtangles. They are usually coated with breadcrumbs, plunged into very hot oil and fried until they are crisp and golden…”.

So why is a Chickpea “Croquette” interesting to a group of Israelis eating at the French Laundry?

Read the rest of this entry »

Security Pie’s chief chef was sent on a mission to examine the culinary conditions in Mongolia. Here are the first reports received from the front (seat):

First class is nice. Very nice. But XX (name removed to protect the innocent) G5 is still nicer. Much nicer.

More updates to come