Bonus shares

Regarding the bonus shares or stock split, what Raji said was true as to why companies go for a stock split. But some companies like Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet's) dont go for a stock split because they want their share holders to self-select themselves. Basically they only want people who have lot of money and who can hold on to their shares without constantly trading for small profits. So, thats also an interesting view I guess.

IT & Unions

I fully differ from Rajan regarding the reason for the non-existence of Unions in IT. The following is my reason why it does not exist in our industry. First of all, you have to examine the hierarchical structure of the IT industry vs a traditional industry. Unionism started off as an offshoot of Marx's communist idealogy where he asked for the oppressed(workers in industrial age england) against the oppressor(factory owners). So in such a set-up there was a clear demarcation between the workers and the management. The maximum position a worker could go was till the Foreman level. So when management and workers were strictly divided thus, it was in the self-interest of the workers to group themselves as a union for collective bargaining. If you see Unions in universities, it is again the same principle where the student cannot directly become a Professor or the Dean and the students have to have a representing body. Now if you see the IT industry, well, our own company, the Project lead is almost half-management and ca surely become management within a few years. Also, the compensation in the IT setup was attractive enough right from the initial stages to kill any desire for a union. The other reason is that in the IT industry, people move to a different company if not satisfied with the pay/role since the industry allows this movement, that too in a beneficial way. So, all these things combined never allowed the concept of Unionism to evolve. So, it is wrong to say that the typical IT guy is less social and more aloof than a factory worker. So the clear demarcation between management and worker and difficulty of movement across factories/industries made sure that Unionism thrived in other industries.

Ownership

Nice article...

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/apr/12guest2.htm

To quote from the article ..

"Whole Foods even posts everyone's salaries. This policy is undeniably radical. But in a democracy, openness is strength. The policy banishes the destructive whispers and rumours about who makes what.

Every store has a book that lists the previous year's salary and bonus for all employees. And the trust-building payoff is substantial."

Interesting ;-)

Unions & IT

Raji previously posted about IT professional & unions. I wanted to post my thought about that and had drafted the post quite some time ago, here it goes
"Software profeesionals are individualists.Adam Smith's statement that humans act in self interest might not be a very good assumption to make in general but this assumption holds very good for the software professional. They are ever ready to beat their colleagues( Impress their boss more than their colleague's ) and rise up the career leader and get a more hefty packet. Most of the them like to work alone and are very aloof. The very idea of group, social is alien to them. Thats why you won't find software professional forming unions.
Well that could be a conclusion coming out of analysing situation oversimplistically but nonetheless the statement can't be thrown out of the window totally, it does carry some amount of weight."

Today I read an article in fortune by David Kickpatrick, titled "Meetup and Cyber Rabble-rousing" , some excerpts

' In several Meetup groups in Bangalore, India, of which there are now 100, he says that software programmers are working together to improve their working conditions—it’s a nascent move toward collective bargaining. “When people get together, they see what they have in common and talk often turns to 'how do we make things better?’" Heiferman says. "These are like the new unions.” '
Hmmm !!! that's interesting !! Maybe I am wrong, just maybe !

For quite some time I wanted to checkout some of the RedHat User Meetup Group to find out how good the idea of meetup works , I might check out these as well.

- Rajan

Players in media industry

Thanks to Kannan for this. I was always confused as to who r the players in the media industry.

1) AOL TW- I think we know abt them :-))) - one point to add is that they
also own MAD magazine ;-)))). CNN, Cable biz, Time,AOL,Cartoon network.
2) Viacom - owns MTV, CBS TV, Paramount pics,
3) Sony - Columbia Pictures and Music, and also Playstation
4) Vivendi - now with NBC (which is GE) - Universal Music and Pictures,
Theme parks, StudioCanal in France - one of the largest French giants.
5) Disney - is still independent. Walt Disney pictures, Disneylands, ABC
network and lots of other film studios
6) Bertelsmann - BMG Records, Random House publ and other big publishing
houses. Dominates germany- also Napster.
7) NewsCorp - owned by Rupert Murdoch - more into press. and very big in
other regions too - UK, India, Asia. and ur question - It owns FOX. (Tv as
well as 20th century). Star stake in India!!

BMG tie-up with Sony Music.

Cable cos in the US - Comcast(AT&T), and the rest owned by Warner, Disney and Viacom. HBO?? AT&T??.
The real battle is at the access side wherein DSL and Cable Modems are battling it out to get broadband to the consumer. Even voice is now being offered by cable companies which is coming out as a real threat to the telcos.

Why does a company issue bonus shares?

a) A high denomination share is not easily tradable on the market! ppl would like to trade in lower denominations of good shares. So a stock split helps in increasing the liquidity of the share.

b) Generally, the company thinks that the valuation of the share might be better in the future and it splits the share so that it is tradable. It is a virtuous cycle - lower denomination vs price rise :-). So it is a confidence building measure in the stock by the company.

c) In the short run, the valuation might increase (more speculative than real)! but anyways, stock market is kind of speculative ;-)

d) Another reason (similar to stock buyback) could be the tax benefits. Shareholders can use the capital loss due to reduced stock price to set off the capital gains.

Apple ads

Apple ads- The 1984 ad and Think Different ads(1997) are simply superb. Its amazing that way back in 1984 such wonderful creativity could be translated.
This ad was shown just once in the Super Bowl event of 1984. Targeted against Big-brother(IBM), produced by director of Gladiator- Ridley Scott.

Here goes the entire story behind it.

All Apple ads

Thanks to Rajan for the links!

Million dollar baby

I saw the movie y'day @ innovative multiplex

The story is all about Maggie (Hillary Swank)- she is very poor - she eats the left over of other custs in the restaurant. - she dreams big - to become a boxing champion. She comes to Framkie (Clint Eastwood) to be trained - Frankie doesn't want to train her as she is a woman, but she will not let it go...she manages to convince him to train her. Frankie sees in her his lost daughter...slowly they a build a strong emotional rapport.

Frankie Dunn, is a man who has trained boxing champions. He is a man at odds with himself. He has demons within him that are tearing away at his soul. We watch him going to mass on a daily basis, but does that qualify him as a devout Catholic? Not according to Father Horvak, who sees a troubled soul in search of redemption.

Frankie's letters comes back, returned from a daughter that wants nothing to do with him. Frankie, at the beginning of the film, loses the services of one his better boxers because a richer competitor is willing to pay the fighter much more. Frankie keeps the older Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris employed in the gym because he feels guilty in having let this former boxer down at the highest point of Scrap's career.

Into this world comes Maggie Fitzgerald. She is a young woman who wants to make it as a fighter; she comes from a white trash background and everything is against her. The only reason she has been allowed in the all-male gym is because she has paid six months worth of membership. We watch Maggie as she struggles on her own without any help from Frankie, the man she would like to interest in coaching her. Frankie realizes there is potential in this young woman, who he sees on a daily basis practicing, and he relents. Maggie proves she follows his instructions well. Then we watch her progress as she wins fight after fight until the million dollar fight with the vicious title holder.

The ironic twist toward the end of the movie arrives out of nowhere; it shakes us up because it was totally unexpected. It makes Frankie and Maggie become father and daughter. Because of the guilt he feels in his own life, Frankie does the right thing in accepting the responsibility of the situation.

If anyone had doubts about the genius of Clint Eastwood, they should run, not walk, to see "Million Dollar Baby", perhaps the best movie that came out of Hollywood on boxing...

Some trivia - as far as i can recollect

1) movie made in just one month
2) name of the restaurant - Irash roadside diner
3) name of the gym - Hit Fit gym
4) Hillary swank (best actress), Morgan freeman(best-supporting actor), Clint Eastwood(best director) bag oscars...
5) For the professional fight - Frankie gives Maggie a beautiful dress with "Mo Cuishile" written on it. It means "My darling/My blood" in Irish. frankie always says "Always protect urself" to maggie. Maggie fails because she forgets her mentor's words to always protect herself. Her last words " I think I did allright"
6) Franki reads out an Yeats poem ="The lake Isle of Innisfree" - Its Irish...so how do I understand? :-(