Check out a thoughtful post by Mark Clare on the Valuecruncher blog. He points out that Private Equity firms are able to raise debt (borrow money) at much lower interest rates than other potential Yellow Pages purchasers (such as Telstra, whose shareholders demand more return than low interest rates). By plonking a huge amount of …
Category Archives: NZ Business
Ferrit – 2 unsubstantiated rumours….
Last night in the pub I heard from someone, who overheard someone else saying: 1: Ferrit offered discounts to Telecom staff in the pre-Christmas period 2: Ferrit is now asking retailers to discount certain products and are picking up the tab In the style of Wonkette I’m just passing on these scurrilous rumours… but would …
Is Stuff down?
08:39 and I get this from Stuff… My ISP is Orcon, and everything else seems to work. Scoopit!
Scoopit – fair and balanced?
Why does this promotional post get rated in the Scoopit rankings when this promotional post already exists? (I previously did this related post) Moreover – count the votes on the Scoopits – this has 9 votes, but 6 voters. This has 6 votes, and 3 voters. Clearly Scoop members (e.g. althecat, graeme, scooper) get two …
telecom strategy
Some interesting things to glean from Telecom’s consumer strategy document, and the wholesale technology document – presented at an analyst day today. Read it – there is a lot there. (Juha found these) Firstly – it is actually not that bad – the strategy seems coherent. Secondly – The biggest source of retail income (page …
mobile phone promos
If I cannot understand it, why do you think I will buy it? The link is a landing page from a Vodafone ad in Stuff. It starts off with a ‘due to huge demand the blah blah blah has sold out”, continues on to list a confussingly long list of T’s and C’s and I …
Paymex paygo paypal paywhatever
The battle for payments in NZ is on. Or is it? We have a plethora of wannabe players, but nobody seems to get it. Paypal doesn’t care – after all eBay isn’t around and why support Trade Me? Pago is just woefully bureaucratically crippled, and they can’t spell Paymex looks ok, but who the heck …
Love Calculator – Vodafone and Google shame
I really hadn’t looked at the scam that is love calculator. Google ads are still displaying for these fraudsters. Juha has the full run down. Step one: click on a google ad (still displaying!) Step 2: enter your name, mobile number and star sign Step 3: enter a code that was txt’d to you. “Your …
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iBankers have to be real estate agents
Apparently, I read in the Independent Financial Review last week, people that receive a success fee for helping a company sell are required under NZ law to be licenced real estate agents. The “investment bank” that helped Trade Me sell was specifically mentioned as a candidate for this law. 1: Trade Me had no formal …
What is happening to Xtra?
On March 1 xtraMSN split to form Yahoo!xtra and msn.co.nz. Let’s track the results using Netratings data. (Alexa does not have anything interesting, and I do not have Hitwise data) The old Xtramsn site is now 1 page, which lets you choose between yahoo!xtra and msn. Neither of those new sites are yet tracked by …
No such thing as a free chocolate biscuit
Mauricio is upset that free biscuits are on the way out for AirNZ domestic flights. I’m glad. I have no desire to pay for everyone else’s biscuits (coke, beer, hot meals etc.). If I am thirsty offer me water, but make me pay for everything else including food, alcohol and fizzy drinks (and you pay …
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TVNZ’s new site – crippled
Go Tui – who managed to sneak a look at TVNZ’s new site. Read/Write web has also blogged about how TVNZ.com will be positioned as a third channel. The site seems lovely to look at (looks like there is some nice ajax action, and the download speed tester recognises the constraints we have here) Tragically …
Can I Scoopit?
I’ve finally got the Scoopit links working – thanks to the Scoop folk for figuring it out. The question is now: is it ok to scoopit your own posts? Scoopit! (I’m going to scoopit this one..)
Don’t give Telecom money…
Orcon has a very basic appeal to potential customers: Don’t give Telecom your money. It isn’t really compelling (well for most people…) as the prices are essentially the same, but apparently that too will change. Scoopit!
Who will buy TV3?
If PBL is part of a group that buys CanWest MediaWorks (Owners of TV3 and part-owners of Australia’s Ten network) then that lousy msn.co.nz site could get a whle lot better, as could TV3. However if Kerry Stoke’s Seven network wins then we’ll see interesting times online as the two rivals PBL and Seven will …
Lance Wiggs 