stlplaceBill Gates got Harvard degree finally, 30 years after drop out from Harvard;
Dell announced to sell laptop at Sam’s Club (Major’s comment: too little, too late);
Andy Xie, former chief economist of Morgan Stanley Asia, says the odds of making money in Chinese stock market is lower than casinos (40% vs. 48%);
I received an email from a friend asking me whether New Oriental Eudcation (EDU) will be a good investment or not. I was not warm to it initially, changed my mind and bought it in Jan., sold it in Feb., because I did not know how to evaluate it.
First I want to say EDU is in a very sweet spot in Chinese private education market: English and test preparation. A little background, English is a very important skill in finding good jobs in China these days: from multinational companies to domestic companies, from private sector to goverment, and non-for-profit, all because the increasing interactions between China and the west in last 20 years.
(Update June 10) Today when I visited Galleria Mall, I saw Walk ‘N Roll, a knockoff of Heelys. Unlike Crocs, I think knockoff will take a toll at Heelys’ sale.
(Original June 8 ) Here is the S1 prospectus from SEC web site. It appears the selling shareholders (mostly venture capital) filed on June 7 to unload 8 m shares. My suggestion is don’t touch this skating shoes maker because I don’t like its growth prospect. I already sold all shares which I bought during its IPO debut last Dec.
I expect the secondary will be sold very soon, maybe next week?
Here is a happy Home Inns customer (from Google Finance). On the other hand, here is a not-so-happy Home Inns customer, Kunwei, who (I believe) has stayed in the US and Singapore for an extended period time before returning to China.
So how do we make all of these? Not too much. The thing I want to say is everyone has his/her own criteria. Also things normally acceptable to one person/group may not be acceptable to another person/group, e.g., men normally have greater tolerance over female on cleaness, smoke etc. I think majority of Home Inns customers are happy with the hotels. They got what they paid for: a clean room, and a comfortable bed.
It’s NBA Finals again, if you ever care. I am not a big basket ball fan, but I was fascinated by the business of NBA in recent years, especially when I saw the popularity of the basketball and NBA in China. If my memory is correct, I heard many stars including Kobe, Kevin Gannett and Shaq, visited China recently. The main reason for their trip: to promote shoes for Nike, Addidas, Li Ning (which Kobe, Kevin and Shaq are repective spokeperson).
Here is a link to their 27th annual conference. I only listened to CROX session. One thing come out of it is they just completed a $10 m plant in Dong’guan, China; and they have a design team in China, in addition to teams in US, Canada and Italy. Crocs employs 3,500 people worldwide at this time.
(Update June 7) As you would have expected, the stock dropped again (about 2.66%) after I bought it yesterday. Call it Major’s rule: stock usually drops after Major buys it.
(Original) I got a little more Starbucks (SBUX) this morning. After I bought it I realized the stock got cheaper today probablly because Panera (PNRA) issued a warning on its Q2. PNRA was down as much as 13%, partially because of the rising price of grains.
I felt this baby (600030.SS) was being thrown out of bath tub when the Shanghai Composite Index dropped from 4300 to 3600, amid the raise of stamp tax. Logic here was the raise of stamp tax will reduce stock trading, which will reduce Citic’s business from trading side.
(Update June 6) The bumper is on the way now. It’s from: USAUTOPARTS NETWORK, 17150 S. MARGAY AVE, CARSON CA90746, as shown from agsystems. Not UPS or Fedex.
(Original June 5) No I have not involved in car accident or anything. I merely demaged the front bumper because of my own carelessness: in the parking lot. Last time when I did the demage to the left side, I fixed it by putting a washer underneath and fastened it. But this time I demaged the right side. I tried the same trick but it did not work. So I went to the bodyshop. The quote is $825 (minimum) for replacement and paint (include labor).
On Dec 15, 2006 I bought 46 shares of CROX at $42.40. I bought and sold (traded) more CROX afterwards, but I kept those 46 shares all the time. This morning it reached as high as $85.10.