September 2009

Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas are back reprising the role of Gordon Gecko in Wall Street 2. The original film shot in 1987 (yes it was 20+ years ago!) was a tale about greed, excess and unchecked ambition which encouraged many young people at the time to pursue a career in high finance.

I’m certain Gordon Gecko was not supposed to be a role model, but that is exactly what he became. Even today it is not unusual to hear friends working in finance quoting Gordon Gecko, albeit in humour, but quoting him nevertheless. If indeed he is the hero of many finance professionals then it is no surprise that we ended up in the financial crisis.

The sequel will see Gordon Gecko being released from jail and then fighting for a second chance to achieve greatness. It should be interesting, particularly as one expects that this seductive villain will not have been tamed by his experience in jail.

By the way I would be interested to hear what impact Wall Street had on your career, if any!

Source: The New York Times

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is in talks with Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to buy a 20 percent stake in broadcaster Rotana Media, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the deal. Kingdom Holdings, the investment vehicle for Prince Alwaleed, is already a major shareholder in News Corporation.

The WSJ said, Rotana, which hosts Fox channels in Saudi Arabia via its TV network, owns rights to more than 2,000 Arabic movies and a large music library.

The move, however, is unlikely to be popular with Arab viewers given that Fox News is considered by many to be “unfriendly” to Middle Eastern interests.

Yahoo gave web entrepreneurs in the Middle East much to cheer about by recently announcing its acquisition of Maktoob,  a regional competitor: see Arabian Business. The deal, the first by an international firm in the region, instantaneously gives Yahoo a major footprint in the Arab world, a market of 34 million internet users from 320 million Arabic speakers. The sale did not include auctioning site Souq.com, payment service provider cashU.com, search engine Araby.com, and gaming site Tahadi.com.

Sultan Al-Qassemi comments in his blog, Challenges for Private Equity in the GCC, about the nature and accessibility of private equity capital in the Middle East. His perspective is interesting as he himself is an experienced investor and knows the regional landscape very well.

The only point I would add is to suggest that we distinguish between private equity and venture capital. Whilst the former has grown rapidly and institutionalized over the last 5+ years, the latter has struggled to gain momentum.

Granted there have been a few high profile venture investments, most recently Maktoob, but as Sultan says there are no institutional pools of discretionary capital targeted specifically at venture opportunities. This should concern regional policymakers as venture capital is vital for promoting entrepreneurship and creating jobs.

The Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for Young Business Leaders is therefore welcome in that it bridges this funding gap and simultaneously brings expertise within reach of budding entrepreneurs. I hope such initiatives will be increasingly used to direct policy and incubate the industry.

A new multi-billion dollar science and technology university has opened in Saudi Arabia, according to a report on the BBC News website. You would expect, given the significant wealth of Saudi Arabia, that The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology near Jeddah would boast the best of everything including one of the world's fastest supercomputers.

What you would not expect, and could arguably be considered groundbreaking for the country, is that the university campus is mixed-sex and will be free of religious police, who will not be permitted to operate on-site. Women will be allowed to mix freely with men and drive on campus and will not be required to wear veils in the coeducational classes.

This university will certainly be an instrument of change in conservative Saudi Arabia, and depending on its success, may well unleash a new wave of modernization in the near future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8270601.stm