What can you say about a company that just didn’t make hay from what now are the most sought after products in the world? Finally it appears that Renaissance has lost exclusive Apple distributorship in NZ, and I have to say that I’m glad. Their service was really not up to scratch, and they lost …
Category Archives: NZ Business
Infratil, Bogoievski and real estate
Interesting. Lloyd Morrison gets a COO for Infratil, and Bogoievski gets to stay in Wellington, stay in a job where political influence is important and work for a growing company that shares the spoils. Meanwhile Infratil have landed the ex-NZ boss of Lang LaSalle to boss Infratil Property. It looks like Infratil will try their …
Bond and NZ Cricket
Shane Bond is absolutely right to fight the cartel that is NZ Cricket and the ICC. The ‘loss’ of his talent should be a rude reminder to the NZ Cricket authorities that they have drifted from their mission. NZ Cricket are there to ensure we have the best cricket team, along with a great state …
Blocking Sky is bad for everyone
Sky may be forced to not bid for exclusive access to big events of “national significance”. Well, it’s one of several proposals apparently, so let’s not jump up and down yet. The result would be less incentve for sky to bid for those events, and therefore a lower final price. That means less money to …
How to deplane 13 passengers
There’s a right way and a wrong way to get 13 people off your flight and on to another one. The right way is to have an auction, where you gradually increase the incentives to deplane, starting with an additional free flight (which was the end offer by Clueless Pacific Blue), and adding flights, cash …
Solving the NZ and Australia housing crisis
It takes 18.6 years for the median household to buy the median house in NZ, and that’s excluding rates, taxes and maintenance. That’s via NBR, wo curiously neglect to mention that there is a giant photo of Don Brash on page 2 of the original Household Affordability report, as he is the Chairman of something …
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What’s in store for Lance in 2008? A manifesto
No new years predictions from me, as I can barely predict what I’ll be doing in a few months time, let alone markets and industries.This year though I am trying to spend more time starting and nurturing businesses, while continuing to consult, in both NZ and Australia. For now I’m still helping out at BHP …
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msn.nzherald.co.nz launches
So msn and APN have linked up. But to tell the impact you have to dig a little. The msn.co.nz page is unchanged: The msn news page has better news than before: But the links give it away – here’s the one beneath the main news picture: Indeed that news page is the NZHerald news …
Anti Free trade: BNZ and USA
Why is it so complicated to wire money from the USA to NZ? I know the US laws are convoluted, but BNZ certainly isn’t helping reduce barriers to free trade with these instructions: Dear Mr Wiggs Thank you for your enquiry about transferring funds from the United States to Bank of New Zealand. In order …
Was Bookabach a bargain?
AA bought into Bookabach – so what are they getting and how much is it worth? I’m arguing they got a bargain, even though I don’t know how much they paid for what % or even how much bookabach makes. Here’s the reasoning and estimation: The site looks great – very well laid out and …
eBay abandoning insertion (listing) fees?
The murmurs are that eBay is going to be dramatically lowering listing fees and increasing final value (success) fees accordingly. Bear Stearns was the first to come up with this, and others have said that apparently this will differ by category. Total rumour, but if true it is about time. The fees eBay charges are …
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Fantastic Air NZ promotion
What can you say – is there any other airline in the world doing this sort of stuff? Air NZ’s grab-a-plane promo is an excellent idea with superb execution. It won’t last forever, so I’ve grabbed some screenshots. Here’s the ad:
Air NZ lousy promotion
Great: AirNZ runs a giant charity Auction each year Dumb: using Sellmefree as the vehicle. Here, for example, is 2 month’s worth of Business Class travel for two people. It was added 3 days ago, and should be attracting a bunch of traffic. The value of this to the right buyer is big. It costs …
The vote is in: Housing prices are overvalued
I know internet polls are unscientific, but it seems that Stuff poll voters are pretty clear on housing prices these days: I agree. Just check your rent versus buy numbers. Over here in Perth I’m paying rent of a third of the mortgage payments required to buy this place. I should know – it is …
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Fairfax Digital – new head
MEDIA RELEASE 6 December 2007 FAIRFAX MEDIA APPOINTS NEW DIGITAL HEAD Fairfax Media has appointed Stephen Smith to the position of Group Head of Digital. Prior to accepting the Fairfax Media position, Stephen headed Vodafone’s media and entertainment operations. Stephen will be responsible for Fairfax Media’s Online division, which includes stuff.co.nz, rugbyheaven.co.nz, and the online …
Lance Wiggs 