And in other economic news.....

lostinrates

whie we rant about MPs, bankers and bizzarro budgets...

any one noticed any other economic news worldwide?

I'm particularly interested in one of the mergers ATM, limiting competition in yet another thing tax payers pay for...

anyone noticed?

Clue: schering plough.

Any opinions....first banks forced to go against anti compition laws. Schering and merck must be on similar scale of resulting anti-competitiveness?

misskool

ooooo...the almighty merck goes on another buying spree.

And not sure how they would go against anti-competition laws, they have quite different drug portfolios (from what I can remember)

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

ooooo...the almighty merck goes on another buying spree.

And not sure how they would go against anti-competition laws, they have quite different drug portfolios (from what I can remember)

I have deleted the post that was here.

misskool, would love to hear more about the different emphases in portfolios.

vivatifosi

It's quite ironic really since it was forcibly split from the other (German) Merck after WW1 and is now significantly larger. Schering was forcibly split from its German parent after WW2. I always have to think twice about which Merck is which. I think they'll be about 3rd or 4th in the world post merger. It's hard to keep up with who is in front with other companies (eg Pfizer) merging too.

Edited to add: Incidentally lir, did you see this?
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/merck.shtm

Thrugelmir

Often as Companies grow ever larger. Then non-core parts are sold off or disillusioned employees break away themselves. All part of the cycle of business.

Personally I am more concerned with owns Companies now than their size. The Chinese are very much into raw materials, mining , commodoties. The Russian blocs gas and oil.

This will have a bearing on input costs for businessess in the years to come.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

It's quite ironic really since it was forcibly split from the other (German) Merck after WW1 and is now significantly larger. Schering was forcibly split from its German parent after WW2. I always have to think twice about which Merck is which. I think they'll be about 3rd or 4th in the world post merger. It's hard to keep up with who is in front with other companies (eg Pfizer) merging too.

Edited to add: Incidentally lir, did you see this?
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/merck.shtm

Thanks. Yes, interesting about the histories.

I'd be intersted to know more from misskool about the respective portfolios.

dopester

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Often as Companies grow ever larger. Then non-core parts are sold off or disillusioned employees break away themselves. All part of the cycle of business.

Personally I am more concerned with owns Companies now than their size. The Chinese are very much into raw materials, mining , commodoties. The Russian blocs gas and oil.

This will have a bearing on input costs for businessess in the years to come.

Personally in general I reckon the very profitable businesses of the future will rely less and less on raw materials. The Chinese are welcome to buy and take over all the mining, raw materials, commodities stuff, paying near top money for it.

The information revolution is still in it's infancy and will eventually displace demand for fantastic quantities of raw materials. As computational capacities compound by orders of magnitude, they promise to destroy the old economy just as surely as farming displaced foraging.

Thrugelmir

dopester wrote: »

Personally in general I reckon the very profitable businesses of the future will rely less and less on raw materials. The Chinese are welcome to buy and take over all the mining, raw materials, commodities stuff, paying near top money for it.

The information revolution is still in it's infancy and will eventually displace demand for fantastic quantities of raw materials. As computational capacities compound by orders of magnitude, they promise to destroy the old economy just as surely as farming displaced foraging.

Maybe we are seeing the consequences of the technological revolution now. Over the past 30 years the number of people employed to handle administration tasks ( paper handling and recording of data) has shrunk to a fraction of what it was. Manufacturing (vehicle car production is a good example) requires a fraction of the people it used to. Which raises the question whilst the new companies will be profitable how many people will it employ?

How do you expect the "information revolution " to benefit the UK?

Generali

dopester wrote: »

The information revolution is still in it's infancy and will eventually displace demand for fantastic quantities of raw materials. As computational capacities compound by orders of magnitude, they promise to destroy the old economy just as surely as farming displaced foraging.

How do you see this process happening?

I can see an order of progression up to now. For example:

I want some berries

I forage for berries
replaced by
I have planted a berry bush and will have all the berries I need next year
replaced by
I swap a rabbit skin for the berries I require
ultimately replaced by
I work for Goldman Sachs and tell my Housekeeper to ensure some goji berries are in the next biodynamic fruit box

I don't see how that can be replaced by a box full of wires with respect.

I'd be very happy to be educated however as I'm probably missing the point. Again.

misskool

lostinrates wrote: »

Thanks. Yes, interesting about the histories.

I'd be intersted to know more from misskool about the respective portfolios.

Sorry, just saw this.

I don't really know the portfolio fully but a bit of digging and schering makes clarityn (antihistamine) and a few other nasal type sprays and suncream. They have a large veterinary facility in New Zealand and those are their strengths.

Merck has a lot of hypertension type drugs, statins for lowering cholesterol and they sell vaccines.

I'm sure there's a lot of cross products but what they sell most of (at first glance) appear to be complementary for their business.

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

veterinary........

I'm sure there's a lot of cross products but what they sell most of (at first glance) appear to be complementary for their business.

There's the rub...as I know it.