Canada at 11th in Quality of Life Index 2009

Posted: January 6th, 2010 | Author: Chim | Filed under: Education, Food for thoughts | Tags: Canada, Food for thoughts, Guide, Interesting, Internet, Sweden | No Comments »

I found out a quality of life index of over 100 countries. Canada is positioned at 11th together with other 8 countries.

Quality of Life Index 2009

Internet Speeds and Costs Around the World

Posted: December 1st, 2009 | Author: Chim | Filed under: Education, Food for thoughts | Tags: Education, Interesting, Internet, Sweden, Trends, Web | No Comments »

Internet Speed and Costs Around the World

I wonder what people in each of the high Internet speed market do.

An Unlikely Marriage: Koenigsegg and Saab

Posted: June 20th, 2009 | Author: Chim | Filed under: Finance, Food for thoughts, Private Equity, Readings | Tags: Business, Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Money, News, Private Equity, Sweden | No Comments »

Koenigsegg's car with Saab logo

I’ve been following many news related to the GM’s sale of Saab to Koenigsegg and I’m very curious about the outcome of this situation.

I searched Google to see if there was any news of small companies buying big companies and I couldn’t find any results to that, instead I found many news of big companies buying smaller firms. Then, I made some changes in my query and I still didn’t get any results of small companies buying a bigger one. However, I’m sure that there are a bunch of history of small companies buying big troubled ones or at least their brands.

Two examples:

Infogrames buying Atari, read more at Wikipedia.
Rackable Systems buying Silicon Graphics, read more at Wikipedia.

As in this little research, most companies bought the troubling ones because of the brand. It is quite hard to see a small company buying a larger one because usually, small companies do not have capital to buy any company at all.

That is why it is fascinating to see the merger of Koenigsegg and Saab. Koenisgsegg sold only 20 cars around $1.2 million each last year. Meanwhile, Saab sold over 5o,000 cars units during the same period. Koenisgsegg is receiving many many support to acquire Saab. First, it has $600m loan from the European Investment Bank guaranteed by the Swedish government, and a dowry from GM in the form of platforms, powertrains and about $500m in cash and other assets.

Then, Saab’s Creditors agreed to write down 75% of their debt!

This merger looks more like this: GM and the Swedish Government “hired” Koenisgsegg to clean up or infuse a new life into the company.

I would love to see how successful this ‘marriage’ will be. Some cars enthusiasts’ sites say that it would be great to have Koenigsegg technology and hype infused into the Saab products. I wonder what Koenigsegg is thinking about this. Maybe, it would be great for them to have a platform where they can mass produce their extremely cool cars to the world.

However, there are many risks for this strategies. How could Koenigsegg adapt its designs into the production line of Saab and how the small Koenigsegg’s team can hope to manage the bigger and fatter Saab management and company’s structure?

I wish them luck!

News related to Saab and Koenigsegg sale:

Unstable Storm – Economist.com
Saab’s Creditors Agree to Sharply Write Down Debt
Koenigsegg buys Saab: The automotive gods may smile upon us once again
Google News: Saab & Koenigsegg
512-HP Koenigsegg Quant Solar-Electric 4-Seater To Enter Production
Geneva 2009: NLV Quant by Koenigsegg

512-HP Koenigsegg Quant Solar-Electric 4-Seater To Enter Production

Geneva 2009: NLV Quant by Koenigsegg