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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fiona Sheffield of E&Y on CNBC talking about threat of hedge fund exodus from London.

The subject of private equity fees stirs up much emotion amongst industry participants and commentators. It's frustrating for practioners to see news articles (like the one attached) confusing the rationale for charging fees with the quantum being charged.

Interesting interview on SKY News with private equity spokesperson Catherine Woodthorpe. It is worth a look if you want to learn more about private equity and hear an industry insider defend its reputation.

The Arabian Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain should be added to the economic group referred to as BRIC's, to create a new group called ABRIC, according to Fawzi Jumean in The National.

Saad Group has struck a deal with local banks to settle more than US$700 million in debts, according to a report in The National.

Dubai World - the state-owned conglomerate - with interests ranging from ports to property and investment, is being watched closely as it symbolises the acute problems facing Dubai in the wake of the financial crisis.

A number of large private equity firms including Candover, Permira and TPG have recently frozen or downsized their latest buy-out funds.

Recent advances in science and medicine make it possible that plenty of children born today may, in fact, live until 120, according to a report in the Times of London.

Saudi Arabia will remain the world's central banker of oil as the world's dependence on the kingdom grows in the coming years. Oil is to remain the world's biggest source of energy for the forseeable future, with Saudi its biggest supplier.

The Economist published a report on the Arab World in July 2009. It covered the same old issues of democracy, oil, war and palestine.

The financial crisis has adversely impacted private equity fundraising but a recent survey of 250 investors by Almeida Capital found that 78 per cent of investors had either bought a private equity position in the secondary market or expected to do so soon.

Three of Dubai's leading real estate developers have pulled out of Cityscape 2009, according to a report in Business 24/7. Understandable in the current economic environment but one wonders how the biggest event in the conference calendar will cope without support from Limitless, Nakheel and Emaar. Is anyone still planning to attend?

It wasn't that long ago when Microsoft was the "good guy".They were known to be cutting edge, youthful and revolutionary. Their founder, Bill Gates, was the only nerd on the planet that everyone wanted to emulate. Fast forward a couple of decades and the same Microsoft is considered to be "too big" and anti competitive.

There are mixed reports coming out of Saudi Arabia about the status of Algosaibi's shareholding in Samba. Whilst earlier reports suggested that he had stepped down from his position as Chairman and divested his strategic stake, family sources earlier today insisted that the Algosaibi stake remains in tact.