Gleanings TP/06.20.2005

One More Time … “The Symantec-Veritas deal is … like all the others in a broad sense: It illustrates why mergers are a dysfunctional cog in the capital allocation machine. Even though the deals rarely result in significantly more profitable companies, institutional investors vote for them because they are forced into a corner: a ‘no’ vote usually leads to a big drop in the stock price. … Academic research suggests that after they are completed, large stock-for-stock mergers like the Symantec-Veritas deal rarely produce companies that are outstanding performers. For that matter, few mergers of any kind lead to more profitable companies.” —Gretchen Morgenson/NYT/06.19.05 “The dearth of synergies in the Symantec-Veritas proposal underscores one of the deal’s main problems: The two companies’ products are so different that they should not be combined at all.” —Gretchen Morgenson “One might ask, why did the management team and board approve this? This is a classic case of a really well-run business with a great management team that was looking around for things to buy for the sake of being bigger.” —Greg Taxin/institutional investment advisor

“There was no question that whenever Larry Summers decided to step down as president of Harvard, he would leave the university bigger, richer, more powerful, and more influential. The only question was whether he would leave it better.” —Richard Bradley, Harvard Rules

“[Closing/selling Boeing’s 8,000-person facility in Wichita] was an important decision in moving forward with Boeing’s long-term strategy of becoming a large-scale integrator.” —The Wichita Eagle/06.16.2005

“Faced with the growing competition from China’s rapidly expanding fashion industry and Italy’s economic challenges, city urban planners and young business leaders are moving forward with an estimated $1.3 billion megacomplex called La Citta della Moda that will serve as a [Milano] monument to fashion.” —Boston Globe (06.18.05); the complex will include shops, hotels, an exhibition center for fashion shows, a fashion museum and a graduate-level fashion university

“The ‘mass market’ is dead. Consumers look for either price or quality “The ‘mass market’ is dead. Consumers look for either price or quality. The middle is shrinking.” —Walter Robb/COO/Whole Foods/Investors Business Daily/06.20.05

“THE NEW INSTANT COMPANIES: Cheap Design Tools. Offshore Factories “THE NEW INSTANT COMPANIES: Cheap Design Tools. Offshore Factories. Free Buzz Marketing. How Today’s Startups Are Going from Idea to $30 Million Hit—Overnight” —Business 2.0/June 2005 (Mary Janes)

“Lockstep is easiest, but there’s a reason you cannot succumb to it “Lockstep is easiest, but there’s a reason you cannot succumb to it. Because nothing great or even good ever came of it. Sometimes I meet young writers, and I like to share with them the overwhelming feeling I have about our work. Once you’ve read Anna Karenina [etc.], you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time ever has. That is her own personality, her own voice. If she is doing Fitzgerald imitations, she can stay home. If she is giving readers what she thinks they want instead of what she is, she should stop trying. But if her books reflect her character, the authentic shape of her life and her mind, then she may well be giving readers a new and wonderful gift. Giving it to herself, too.” —Anna Quindlen, Being Perfect

“Perfection is static, even boring. Imitations are redundant “Perfection is static, even boring. Imitations are redundant. Your true unvarnished self is what is wanted.” —Anna Quindlen, Being Perfect

As many as 98,000 Americans die each year because of medical errors despite an unprecedented focus on patient safety over the last five years, according to a study released today [Journal of the American Medical Association]. … Nationwide the pace of change is painstakingly slow. …” —USA Today/ 05.18.2005

“Hospital infections kill an estimated 103,000 people in the United States a year, as many as AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined. … Today, experts estimate that more than 60 percent of staph infections are M.R.S.A. [up from 2 percent in 1974]. Hospitals in Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands once faced similar rates, but brought them down to below 1 percent. How? Through the rigorous enforcement of rules on hand washing, the meticulous cleaning of equipment and hospital rooms, the use of gowns and disposable aprons to prevent doctors and nurses from spreading germs on clothing and the testing of incoming patients to identify and isolate those carrying the germ. … Many hospital administrators say they can’t afford to take the necessary precautions.” —Betsy McCaughey, founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (New York Times/06.06.2005)