Author: Nicholas Say

Amy Adams Strunk Turned the Tennessee Titans Around

Amy Adams Strunk isn’t your typical NFL owner. Her father was Bud Adams, the original owner of what is now called the Tennessee Titans. Unlike many NFL team owners, Amy Adams Strunk didn’t grow up in her father’s stadium. In fact, the opposite is true.

When her father died a few years ago, there were some problems in the Titan’s organization. Morale was low, and the team wasn’t performing well at all. Although she wasn’t supposed to be the one to take over the reins from her father, Amy Adams Strunk has proven that she has what it takes to make an NFL program run the right way.

Amy Adams Strunk, the Unlikely NFL “Owner”

In truth, Amy Adams Strunk owns a third of the Tennessee Titans. Her sister and the family of her departed brother also own a third. The details of how the Titans fell into shabbiness are almost as interesting as Amy’s ascent to power, and how she was finally able to set her family’ NFL legacy straight.

Bud Adams, Amy’s father, was old school. He made his first fortune in the Texas oil business, which is how he financed the Houston Oilers way back in the 1960s.

Image from Shutterstock

He never thought that women could play a role in his organization, and he kept Amy and her sister away from football as she was growing up.

Amy’s brother, Ken Adams, was supposed to be the man to take over from his father. Unfortunately, Bud was something of a control freak, and Ken blew his body apart with a pistol at the age of 29. According to Amy:

“He was crushed by the pressure.”

No Country for Young Men

In the wake of his son’s unnerving suicide, Bud Adams decided that more control was a good thing. Amy told a reporter from ESPNW that:

“After Ken died, his obsession with control ramped up.”

The end result of this was an NFL team that got continuously worse in every regard, eventually posting a record of 2-14 in 2014, the year after Bud’s death.

When Bud Adams died, Amy’s sister’s husband took control of the Titans. Tommy Smith had been working with the team for years, and apparently, he was able to deal with Bud.

After his boss went to the big game in the sky, the tools that he acquired in years past didn’t seem to be doing the job. At first, Amy and her departed brother’s family were willing to let him have a go at running the Titans, but it didn’t last long.

Tommy Smith may have been in power, but Amy and her brother’s family had majority control of the Titans:

“I felt bad… but we’d given him 18 months. He’d had his opportunity.”

Rebuilding the Program

Amy Adams Strunk didn’t think she would be the one to look after her father’s football team:

“I never saw myself in football… It wasn’t the life I wanted. My dad could be very charming, and there were times he was a great father. But he was very hard. He wouldn’t have brought me along, ‘Someday I want you to run the team.’ Nooooo. It would have been about control.”

While her father had been distant from the community in Nashville, Amy made sure that everyone knew that the Tennessee Titans were a part of their city.

She also gutted the team. She fired the coach and GM, and over two years nearly half of the organization was replaced under her watch.

Great Ideas Get Results

No one in their right mind would ever suggest that Amy is afraid to make changes.

She also revamped how the locker rooms were laid out:

“We needed to come out of the dark ages and adapt to how things work now.”

Before she came to power, the players couldn’t see each other when they were in the locker room. She changed that and also installed equipment to dry and cool the players’ pads.

Taylor Lewan left tackle on the Titans said:

“Actions speak louder than words… For her to come in and be excited to see me, to give me a hug when I’m all sweaty in my pads, it does something.”

The changes she made seemed to take effect quickly. The Titans went from their shameful 2014 performance to a record of 9-7 in 2016 and made it close to the national championship.

That is a huge move in a better direction, and Amy Adams Strunk was clearly the force behind the change.

Featured image from Titans Wire.

November 8, 2018
NFL Players Make Money, but Maybe Not as Much as You Think

Think all NFL players are making big cash? Well, you might be in for a surprise.

There are always going to be the headliners. The Tom Bradys and Matthew Staffords of the league demand stratospheric pay. They bring in the fans and endorsement deals, and land contracts that are worth tens of millions of dollars. Tom Brady is on track to clear more than $20 million USD this year at the Pats, which is a pile of loot for anyone.

The NFL league minimum is a different story. At just over $400,000 USD per year, the lowest paid NFL players make a lot less than the hero quarterbacks, and receivers. Then there are the practice-squads, who can earn as little as $8,000 USD. They are paid weekly, with no guarantee of continued work throughout the season.

NFL Players Run the Gamut

New England Patriots special teams superstar Matthew Slater says that the idea of every NFL player making loads of money is a “Big-time myth.” The average NFL career is just three years long, which doesn’t leave much time to stack up cash.

Tom Brady, Superbowl

In most cases, the top two or three players on a team will make the majority of the salaries paid. For example, while Tom Brady is taking home his tens of millions of dollars, more than 20 other Patriots players will be earning less than $1 million USD. Less than 10% of the Patriots will earn more than $5 million USD, and most will be paid less than $3 million USD.

Once taxes are paid, a player will be left with around 60% of their salary. The lavish lifestyles that sometimes happen in the world of professional sports can eat up even more money. Some of the younger players can be left without a job, or a way to continue earning the money they quickly become used to making.

On The Low End of the Spectrum

Average salaries can be deceiving. When most of the money is spent on a few high-dollar players, the equation that creates an average price may suggest that an average player is making a lot more than most do. With this in mind, consider the fact that among professional baseball, basketball, and football, NFL players make the least of the three.

Last year, the average NBA player earned more than $7 million USD, while the average MLB player took home around $4 million USD. The average salary paid in the NFL was a little over $2 million USD, but as the above example illustrates, many make far less than the average.

Matthew Slater earned around $1.6 million USD last year, and he is happy to have it.

According to him:

“We’re very fortunate, financially, to be able to do what we’re doing: Play a game, a child’s game, and be compensated for it.”

But he went on to say:

“There are guys in this league that play on four or five teams in the same year. They’re on practice squads, and they’re scrapping and clawing and trying to provide for themselves and their family.”

Plan Ahead

The median household income in the US is hovering around $60,000 USD, which makes the average salary in the NFL look pretty good by comparison. The average US family would have to work for the better part of a decade to match an NFL player who is making the league minimum.

Depending on the taxes involved, a three-year stint in the NFL would clear more than a half-million dollars, which isn’t too shabby for a twenty-something.

As long as they take care of themselves, and avoid expensive toys, a short NFL career is an amazing start to a professional life. It probably looks pretty good on a resume as well!

Images from Shutterstock.

November 7, 2018
Millionaire David Meltzer Thinks Your Energy Makes a Big Difference

David Meltzer has made his fortune more than once. By the time he was 33, he had made millions of dollars and lost it all. Falling down the economic ladder can be rough. Many people don’t have the strength to start over. For David Meltzer, adversity has taught him how important energy is for success in life.

A big part of being positive is being thankful. In today’s world, the idea of spiritual energy seems a little “woo-woo,” but David Meltzer thinks that the energy a person has will make a big difference in their life. He gives the advice that if a person wants to get ahead in life, they should say, “thank you.”

David Meltzer Doesn’t Stay Down for Long

Positivity is a powerful force that can help people get through rough times. For those of you that don’t know, David Meltzer grew up in a poor family with six siblings. His single mother worked as an elementary school teacher, and there was never enough to go around.

The rest of his brothers and sisters excelled in the world of academics. They all managed to secure scholarships at ivy league schools. David wanted to make the big bucks. He graduated from Tulane law school and found his first big opportunity on the internet.

Back in the 1990s, the internet was still a new idea. David was offered a job selling legal research online for West Publishing. In less than a year, he had made his first million. Things just kept getting better for him, until at age 33, it all came crashing down.

David Meltzer lost everything in a bankruptcy that even cost his mother the home he bought for her.

With the help of his wife, he got back on track with more passion than ever before. Now he works at the sports marketing firm he co-founded with quarterback Warren Moon, called Sports 1 Marketing.

It has grown into one of the most influential sports marketing firms in the USA and does business with most of the major sports leagues.

Say Thank You!

If a person is grateful, why wouldn’t they give thanks?

David Meltzer tells audiences that one of the most powerful things a person can do for their health and happiness is begin and end their day with two simple words; thank you. It might seem silly to say thank you to yourself, but the positive energy it creates is palpable.

Giving thanks helps people to see the good things in their life, and fade the static. Most situations can be improved if a person has a positive attitude. The opposite thing is true for negative thinkers, who can make their lives worse.

Building a Better World

Gratitude has probably helped David Meltzer on his second rise to wealth. Today he is once again on the top of the economic ladder. Now he prizes his ability to contribute to the overall well-being of people he comes into contact with and works hard to push the world in a positive direction.

No matter who you are, or what you want to do, David Meltzer’s ideas can probably help you. Staying positive and being grateful will help attract people that have a similar worldview. Positive people are much better at getting things done, which is a big part of getting ahead of the pack!

Featured image from YouTube.

November 7, 2018
Here’s What You Can Learn From the Millionaire Mindset

Most people simply don’t have a millionaire mindset. But if you want to get ahead of the pack, there are some common habits that can help you achieve your goals.

Author and researcher Tom Corley did an extensive survey of 233 rich people in 2004. Of the wealthy, 177 were self-made millionaires. More than 100 poor people were also included in the research. The differences he found could be your ticket to success, but it might also be more work than you think.

One of the biggest things that millionaires possess is patience. Making money takes time. If you want to build a stable, affluent lifestyle, be ready to wait for your hard work to pay off. Many of the millionaires that Tom Corley interviewed worked daily to hone their skills, no matter what was going on in their lives.

Keeping a positive mental attitude was another habit that millionaires seemed to cultivate, which might explain why they are able to persevere to reach higher than most people ever do. People who get down on themselves aren’t likely to have much confidence, nor are they going to inspire anyone else to reach for their personal best.

The Millionaire Mindset: Never Stop Learning

According to Tom Corley, the rich never stop increasing their knowledge base. Think about it for a minute, do you think Elon Musk stopped teaching himself when he left university?

Of course, he didn’t.

In super competitive fields like technology, the big players have to keep on top of the current trends. State of the art materials and manufacturing processes are some of the things that can give a business an edge, so making sure you are on top of what is happening today is vital if you want to compete.

Tom Corley’s research found that the average self-made millionaire read for at least half an hour a day, and many spent time connecting with their mentors who could offer additional insight that simply wouldn’t be available to the general public.

Do You Take Care of Yourself?

Here’s an open secret: healthy people do better in life.

Unsurprisingly, Tom Corley found that self-made millionaires exercised for at least half an hour a day, ate healthy food, and found time to create relaxation. All of these things will make a person more attractive, but being healthy also gives people more energy and endurance.

Who wants to deal with an unattractive person who can’t control their emotions?

Again, the answer is a simple one. No one does.

Making sure you can control yourself, and not openly offend people is a trait that millionaires say is important. The reasons why this is the case should be obvious. People can choose to deal with you professionally, or not.

If you are affable, intelligent and attractive, you will probably get more business than an uncontrollable blob of anger that spews hateful ideas at anyone they come in contact with.

It all seems so simple, no?

Never Underestimate the Power of Positivity

Despite what most people project on millionaires, it isn’t easy to get to the top. Once a person has money and a successful business, the headaches can grow. Positivity lets you get past the rough stuff, and make it to the finish line.

David Meltzer grew up in a poor family, but it didn’t keep it from becoming a multi-millionaire, twice. He had to overcome some seriously bad circumstances to make his mark on the world of sports and marketing. Born into a big family that was supported by his single mother, he knew how bad things can get when there isn’t enough money to go around.

Instead of being a victim of his circumstances, David Meltzer kept positive and built up a powerful marketing business that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He talks about his life experiences here, on ‘The Passionate Few.” The takeaway is simple; don’t let anything keep you from being positive, and your life will get better.

Being positive also attracts millionaires, apparently. One of the things that most millionaires from Tom Corley’s survey avoided was negativity, and toxic people.

Knowing people who have money, and great connections are better than being surrounded by losers who b***h non-stop about what they don’t have.

If David Meltzer let the poverty of his childhood haunt him for the rest of his life, he would never have built up his business. The same ideas apply to anyone, no matter what you want to accomplish!

Featured image from Shutterstock.

November 3, 2018
Think Good Grades Will Make You a Millionaire? Think Again!

Pretty much everyone has been told that getting high marks and a university education will secure them a shot at being a millionaire. The problem is, that might not be the case. In fact, a recent study showed that high-school valedictorians were less likely to be millionaires than students that graduated with lower marks.

Eric Barker, who wrote “Barking Up The Wrong Tree,” cites a study from Karen Arnold at Boston College in his book. Ms. Arnold found that the average GPA for a US millionaire is just 2.9, which isn’t high enough to qualify for many academic awards.

Eric Barker isn’t alone in suggesting that high grades aren’t all they are cracked up to be, and there is a lot of hard evidence that puts the value of higher education into serious question.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

People who get good grades learn how to be obedient. The modern education system has its roots in Prussia, where it was designed to create good little followers for the Prussian Royal Family. After being exported to the US via one Mr. Horace Mann (among others), the idea of obedience as intelligence took hold.

The problem is, when someone is just a rule following, fact spewing lap-dog, they aren’t likely to make much money in the business world. That is something along the lines of what Eric Barker suggests in his book, and there is a lot of evidence that shows how innovative thinking is worth more than rule following.

Another problem that higher-education is facing is the lousy job market that refuses to reward university graduates for their wildly expensive educations. Even though employment statistics say that unemployment is at all times lows, the nitty-gritty of those data sets demonstrates a fundamental flaw in how employment is calculated.

The Book of Life Doesn’t Exist

The idea of a university came about at a time when most books were hand written, and your local barber was also the town’s surgeon. To make a very long story super short, today information is dirt cheap to access, and the university system is still working off a business plan that may have originally been written on vellum (stretched animal hide).

Today skills matter, and information is as cheap as can be. Anyone with a smartphone has access to thousands of lifetimes of learning, most of which won’t make anyone any money. That is why another author (and millionaire) is offering his daughter money not to go the collegiate sausage factory.

James Altucher suggests that instead of seeking a degree, young people spend their time learning marketable skills. He says that, “If you’re eighteen years old and you want to think about, ‘Well, how am I going to have millions of dollars later on?’, the first thing I’ll tell you to do is don’t spend two hundred thousand dollars on a college degree and waste four years of your life.”

A university education has risen in price over the last few decades, but that expensive degree is no longer a ticket to success. While it is still true that an average college graduate will earn more than a non-graduate, high paying jobs are becoming harder to find.

Will Work for Food

The recent job numbers in the US have been impressive, but they also show how far the popular mindset has drifted away from economic reality. The methodology that creates a sub 4% unemployment rate uses some pretty shady nomenclature which counts ‘underemployment’ workers as ’employed’.

Underemployment could mean just about anything, including a contract worker at an Amazon facility who is eating cat food and uncooked ramen noodles in their 2005 Ford before bed when they can’t afford a room at the nearest Motel 6.

Most people today just accept that a headline number that is used by politicians and major news outlets is reality, which may have been a habit they picked up in the Prussian-based educational system. Those employment numbers are still used by the FED when they decide how accommodating they will be with their monetary policy, which raises some serious questions about just how deep this kind of social conditioning goes.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

November 2, 2018
Under Armour Smashes Earnings Expectations, but US Sales Continue Falling

It looks like Under Armour is finally turning the corner. The athletic apparel manufacturer’s Q3 earnings came in at more than double estimates, earning 25 cents a share. FactSet consensus was 12 cents a share, and revenue was also higher at $1.44 billion USD. Q3 profit was $75.3 million USD, which is much higher than the $54.2 million they brought in during Q3 2017.

Under Armour has been in the middle of a multi-year turnaround, which has seen their stock fall nearly 80% from 2015 highs at times. The company started in on a plan to recover, and according to CEO Kevin Plank, “Our third quarter results demonstrate that our multi-year transformation is on track.”

Despite the street-beating earnings report, Under Armour’s US sales were down. Revenue from apparel was up 4% to $978 million USD, due to a rise in sales from their golf, team sports and training lines. Overall footwear revenue was static at $285 million USD. Accessories showed a marked decrease of 6%, coming in at $116 million USD. The company is expecting overall yearly revenue growth of 3% to 4%, even with the slight knock in US sales.

Under Armour is Turning Around

While Under Armour is the world’s third-biggest athletic clothing manufacturer, the last few years have been rough. The company has fired around 500 people over the last year, in an effort to cut costs. They have also worked to boost advertising spending in non-US markets, which appears to be working for them.

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank has this to say after the latest earnings were made public, “As we work through this chapter, we are staying sharply focused on our brand by connecting even more deeply with our consumers while delivering industry-leading, innovative products and premium experiences. Coupled with increasingly greater business discipline and resulting efficiencies, we continue to gain confidence in our long-term path and ability to deliver for our consumers, customers and shareholders.”

So far this year Under Armor shares have been on fire. UA shares started the year at $15, and at the time of writing they are trading above $22. A 40% year-to-date rise is grabbing some attention on Wall St. and could mean a much higher share price for the athletic goods manufacturer down the road. The piles of US sporting goods retailers that have been going under in recent years seems to be nearing its end, which is more good news for investors that want to see stable earnings.

Columbia is Killing It

Columbia Sportswear also delivered higher than expected earnings, for the seventh quarter in a row!

Unlike Under Armour, Columbia Sportswear saw positive revenue trends from its North American unit. President and CEO Tim Boyle said the company’s best quarter ever, “…reflects broad momentum across our brand portfolio and regions, it is exciting to see the Columbia brand U.S. business leading the way,” and that, “Our robust, direct-to-consumer performance across both our brick & mortar and e-commerce channels is a testament to brand strength and demonstrates that consumers are responding positively to our innovative product line.”

Columbia Sportswear saw US sales jump by 9% from the last quarter. The company thinks that its direct-to-consumer model helps them to take advantage of a strong brand image, and their e-commerce sales in the USA rose by an impressive 20% in Q3. Under Armour might want to pay attention to the success of Columbia Sportswear’s e-commerce success, and try to get in on that tasty internet money.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

November 2, 2018
Julian Assange May Lose Asylum in Ecuadorian Embassy

Julian Assange is in a strange situation. He has been hiding out in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for many years and may have to leave soon. As it stands today no one knows for sure what will happen to the head of Wikileaks, or if he would even face prosecution if he did leave the embassy.

The latest hearing that could see him evicted was over the $6 million USD tab that he has run up since he moved into the Ecuadorian embassy six years ago.

He was originally granted asylum, as he was being threatened with extradition to Sweden on rape charges. Mr. Assange feared that he would face deportation to the USA, who has a very nebulous legal position on the serial leaker.

Wikileaks has been prolific in supplying the public with leaked documents that have precipitated numerous scandals. The organization has posted documents on illegal (under international law) acts committed by the US military, released millions of highly classified communications, and also gave the so-called Panama Papers a home on the internet.

Is Julian Assange in Trouble?

Apparently, Julian Assange feels like he should be allowed to stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and have his living expenses paid for by the good people of Ecuador. Not only does he want to have his internet and medical bills paid for by the small South American country, but he also wants them to pick up after his cat and let him pop off about whatever political issue he finds interesting.

The most recent issue that Ecuador had with Julian Assange relates to comments he made in regards to Cataluna’s bid for independence, which Ecuador claims was a violation of an agreement he made not to comment on sensitive global political matters.

The details of that agreement must be nuanced, but given the nature of Wikileaks, it would seem to be shortsighted to ask Julian Assange to keep is nose out of politics.

In response to the comments, Ecuador cut Mr. Assange off from the internet, which he compared to ‘solitary confinement’.

There have been many complaints hurled at Julian Assange over the six years since he arrived at the embassy. He has reportedly been aggressive with security personnel and taken to riding a skateboard aggressively in the hallways.

The Drone Option

Let’s be extremely clear, there is no objective evidence to suggest that Hillary Clinton ever seriously considered sending a US drone to kill Julian Assange. There is circumstantial evidence that she suggested it, and given how much classified US information Wikileaks published, it is totally possible that the USA has designs on Julian Assange’s life.

So far the US hasn’t made any kind of formal attempt to charge him for the multitude of federal laws he has broken. During the Obama years the US Department of Justice (DoJ) concluded that if he was charged, the newspapers that ran the information would also have to be prosecuted, which clearly never happened.

The UK and Sweden also have the ability to go after Julian Assange on minor charges, and the original rape charge that pushed him into the Ecuadorian embassy in the first place hit its statute of limitations. Other than a contempt-of-court charge in the UK, there is little in the way of formal charges standing against him at this point.

Problems in the Private Sector

In addition to leaking countless classified government secrets, Wikileaks has been responsible for distributing information that blew the lid of money laundering operations and organized crime.

The governments that Wikileaks has offended might be beaten to Julian Assange by the throngs of gangsters and wildly violent dictators that have been presumably been bothered by the do-gooder. Stealing out of the pockets of the Sicilian or Russian Mafia seems like a terrible idea.

When the Panama Papers hit the wires, a whole bunch of headaches was probably caused by people one wouldn’t want to look at the wrong way. In the end, paying for cat litter could be the last thing on Julian Assange’s mind.

Given the potential enemies that he has created with a decade-long campaign to rid the world of corruption, he could end up being turned into cat food.

Meow!

Featured image from Wikipedia.

November 1, 2018
Kraft Heinz Earnings Due and North American Sales May Disappoint

Kraft Heinz Q3 earnings are due to be released tomorrow after the close of trade, and they could come in lower than expected. The food manufacturing powerhouse is suffering from shifting demographics, which may endanger their core businesses going forward.

The Kraft company has a long history of creating food products that appear to be something they aren’t. Take Velveeta “cheese” for example. Most people expect that cheese would involve both cows and milk. Kraft’s longstanding cheese product has no milk involved in the manufacturing process, which may leave some people sorely disappointed.

Once upon a time around a century ago, Velveeta was actually made from milk. To be more specific, it was made from broken cheese, that was bonded using whey protein. Over the course of the last 100 years, the actual cheese disappeared from Velveeta. Today it is comprised mostly of the whey protein that made it possible to begin with, and milk protein.

Velveeta’s slow fall from milk-based grace prompted the FDA to send Kraft a letter in 2002 requiring them to remove the words “cheese spread” from Velveeta packaging, as it isn’t cheese at all. Today it’s called a “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product” which is still something of a stretch.

Millennials Aren’t into Kraft Heinz

The baby boom generation was more than willing to accept products that purported to be natural food, but their kids are demanding the real thing.

Kraft’s cheese sales have been suffering for years. Analysts think that Kraft Heinz Q3 earnings will fall to 81 cents a share, down 2.4% from 83 cents in Q3 2017. The products that millennials are rejecting play a big role in Kraft’s problems, and they may be difficult to overcome.

Put simply, millennials don’t seem to want food that is made in a factory and would be impossible to create without a team of PhDs and manufacturing engineers. Pine cured goat’s milk cheeses probably aren’t comparable with Kraft’s present business model, which puts the company into a quandary.

A Faltering Business Model

The people that are willing to buy a “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product” and make a sandwich out of it are nearing the end of their lives. This is a problem for Kraft Heinz, who relies on mass appeal to create their margins.

To make matters worse, Kraft could be missing the point. Instead of working to make products that could appeal to a new kind of food buyer, Kraft is working to educate consumers about why they should use their existing products.

Kraft claims that their Kraft Singles have a unique “melt” that natural cheeses can’t match. According to Peter Cotter, the general manager of cheese and dairy at Kraft:

“Honestly, you can’t get that (melt) in a natural cheese… It’s a very unique product. The creamy smooth texture and melt of the cheese. The natural cheeses, they just don’t melt that way.”

Indian Sale Probably Won’t Boost Bottom Line

During Q3, Kraft Heinz sold off a few brands they owned in India to Zydus Wellness Ltd. for around $625 million USD. The sales won’t be official until early next year and are subject to regulatory approval.

According to Bernardo Hees, the CEO of Kraft Heinz:

“The sale of this niche business fits into our overall global growth strategy and our focus on investing in and growing brands within our core categories… India continues to be a key market for Kraft Heinz, and in fact, we’re strengthening our commitment to expand and grow our Heinz sauces and Kraft business in India,”

… which suggests that the sale isn’t part of a wider move out of India.

Kraft Heinz is also dealing with higher input costs, which may push earnings down even further. Things like aluminum and resin have been creeping up in price, due in large part to the trade war that US President Trump is waging. Regardless of the Q3 earnings print, Kraft Heinz is facing structural problems that can’t be addressed without serious changes to their core product strategy.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

October 31, 2018
China Is Cranking Out Billionaires but It Might Not Last

A recent report from Swiss bank UBS and Big Four consultancy PwC says that the Chinese economy created two new billionaires every week in 2017. During the year, 199 new billionaires were created globally, many of them Chinese billionaires. Their overall wealth grew to nearly $9 trillion dollars when all the global billionaires are combined, of which about one in nine was concentrated in China.

At the end of 2017, China had 373 billionaires who controlled a joint wealth of a bit over $1.15 trillion USD. According to the report:

“China’s billionaire entrepreneurs are leading their country’s economic transformation, and by extension that of the rest of Asia… Over little more than 10 years, they have created some of the world’s largest companies, raised living standards and made fortunes at an unprecedented pace.”

Many of the world’s new billionaires are making their money in tech. China’s economy has become a hotbed of tech innovation, and many of their new platforms have found success both inside and outside of the Middle Kingdom.

Unlike many other nations, China has strict controls on media distribution, which makes online business in the nation more difficult to build.

Chinese Billionaires Generate Unicorns

China produced at least 50 unicorns from 2016 to 2018. Unlike the mystical one-horned animal, a Chinese unicorn is a company that is worth at least $1 billion USD. ByteDance is a perfect example of a Chinese unicorn, which is considered to be the world’s most valuable tech startup, toppling Uber.

Apparently, ByteDance just grabbed $3 billion USD in an early stage fundraising, which valued the company at $75 billion USD. This could be a low estimate, as some reports refer to the fundraising as ‘pre-money’, which would make the company’s price tag closer to $78 billion USD.

ByteDance Looks Great

ByteDance hasn’t talked about this fundraising publicly, but they have reportedly been working with KKR, General Atlantic, and SoftBank on a more modest $1.8 billion dollar equity sale that would allow existing investors to cash in on their shares.

However the up-and-coming Chinese media company is viewed, it is certainly grabbing attention from both users and investors.

The company has developed the ultra-popular TikTok music platform, that has around 800 million users when both the domestic Chinese market and international market are combined.

ByteDance bought Musical.ly via TikTok last year and has been one of the few companies that have been successful in challenging Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent for domestic Chinese market share.

Facebook is also said to be working on a TikTok clone, which demonstrates the innovative power of the Chinese tech scene.

Money Troubles in China

This year has been less kind to Chinese billionaires, unicorn riders included.

According to a recently updated Forbes China Rich List, the overall worth of Chinese billionaires has fallen to $1.06 trillion USD so far this year. The median worth of a Chinese billionaire has also fallen, from $1.7 billion USD to $1.4 billion USD. While not exactly poverty, it probably stings to lose hundreds of millions of dollars over the space of a few months.

Russell Flannery, who is the editor-in-chief of Forbes China, said:

“The world has come to associate China with wealth creation, and it is starting to see the extent of wealth destruction this year.”

The trade war that US President Trump started has been hard on the Chinese economy, and their manufacturing sector has taken the brunt of the damage so far. Chinese tech billionaires were among the most resilient on the list, but as the contagion from a shrinking global economy spreads, that could change as well.

Images from Shutterstock.

October 30, 2018
Millions of Dollars Offered for Information on the Death of Barry and Honey Sherman

Canadian lawyer Brian Greenspan just put C$10 million on the line for information regarding who may have killed Barry and Honey Sherman. The billionaire and his wife were found dead last December in their Toronto home. The event has been mired in controversy since day one. Toronto police initially decided that the event was a murder-suicide, but that has since changed.

Brian Greenspan is working on behalf of Barry Sherman’s family, who have been critical of the Toronto police. They feel as though there have been lapses in judgment, and that Barry and Honey Sherman were murdered.

The lawyer told media:

“We’re trying to light the fire… To provide new incentive for the members of the public to come forward with information but also to light the fire under the Toronto police service.”

Barry and Honey Sharman’s family is also hoping that the Toronto police department will share information with their team of private investigators. Private investigators were influential in determining that the crime wasn’t a murder-suicide, and shifting the focus of the investigation away from the Barry Sherman.

Barry and Honey Sherman Were Probably Murdered

At the time that he was apparently murdered, Barry Sherman was the 15th richest person in Canada. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding his death, and he freely admitted he could be the target of an attempt on his life.

Barry Sherman made his billions with Apotex, a generic drug maker that he founded in the 1970s. Barry Sherman was unpopular with rivals, and famously wrote in his 2001 book, Prescription Games:

“The thought once came to my mind, why didn’t they just hire someone to knock me off? For a thousand bucks paid to the right person you can probably get someone killed. Perhaps I’m surprised that hasn’t happened.”

Whether or not Barry and Honey Sherman were killed by bad actors on the behalf of major drug companies is anyone’s guess. Barry Sherman was also connected to the Clinton Foundation, which gave rise to some interesting theories from the tin-foil hat community.

According to media reports from the time of the murder, Honey Sherman struggled with whoever killed her. The Toronto police initially pointed to the fact that there were no signs of forced entry into the couple’s C$7 million dollar home, where they were found in a basement pool area, hanging from belts near a stairway.

The Legal Drug Game

Barry Sherman was a master at producing valuable generic drugs and avoiding legal problems from the major drug companies. Apotex grew to be the largest generic drug manufacturer in Canada, which probably cost other drug manufacturers tens of billions of dollars over the decades.

Major drug manufacturers like Pfizer or Bristol Myers Squibb stand to lose tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars when their drug patents lapse. In some ways, drug patent law is hazy, and the big manufacturers are always looking for ways to extend their rights over chemicals, to ensure ongoing revenue.

Barry and Honey Sherman could have been victims of big pharma’s greed, but until more evidence comes to light, it’s impossible to know for sure.

Featured image from The Globe and Mail.

October 29, 2018