Gambling.Now!

What is Enterprise Value?  Enterprise value is a comprehensive measure of a company’s value since it also includes the amount of cash, debt, and other items associated with a business.  Two firms could have the same market capitalization but wildy different enterprise values.  For example if one firm had $45 million in cash and no debt and the other firm had $125 million in debt and $20 million in cash, it would take more money to buy the second firm than the first firm because to buy the second firm you would not only have to pay for the stock (market cap), but the debt as well.

Here is the basic formula to calculate enterprise value:

Enterprise value =

common equity at equity value
+ debt at market value
+ minority interest at market value, if any
- associate company at market value, if any
+ preferred equity at market value
- cash and cash-equivalents.

How would you figure out ownership, valuation and equity for private companies?

Not very often there is a great piece on why you should know math, but development corporate nails it this The cost of Financial Illiteracy.  I’ve met so many people you can add, let alone read a financial statement

I have no idea who I am voting for in the next election, but all of the plans to fix the economy are a little wimpy. We can get just a tad more protectionistic with our ideas, tax policy and build things for America. $700B bailout is just the beginning and doesn’t make a real dent. There has to be at least another $1.5-2.25 trillion in excess in the market, so why not invest in people, the environment and preparation for the next economies requirements – access, information and sustainability. The new deal helped unify the country and bring new skills to the general population, that just might be what we need. Detailed rant can be found here, but the abridged version is below:

The New Green Deal: A Growth Grid

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: republican democrat)

The recent eBook on how to understand the changing market dynamics for brands, products and the integrated marketing plan.  The social media contract is a framework for better managing The Social Media Construct.  This document is a detailed look with actionable recommendations to develop relationships in the marketplace and better position your products into target buyer personas.

marketing slides

Our stories as marketers continues to be a theme of late, whether it’s understanding how YOUR history and biases impact your stories and now from Seth, how your EXECUTION is central to the story/brand experience. Below is an excerpt which asserts lack of a story can impact consistency of the brand:

But what if you haven’t figured out a story yet?

Then the work is random. Then the story is confused or bland or indifferent and it doesn’t spread.

On the other hand, if you decide what the story is, you can do work that matches the story. Your decisions will match the story. The story will become true because you’re living it.

Does Starbucks tell a different story from McDonald’s? Of course they do. But look how the work they do matches those stories… from the benefits they offer employees to the decisions they make about packaging or locations. more…

WP-o-Matic – not a good idea during a maintenance window.

visit http://www.spatiallyrelevant.org

While a fairly good piece on China over @ VentureBlog, I take issue on no disclosure of the blog potential in the following:

… But the most interesting discussions, to my mind, were with the leading private investors in China. (Because my meetings with these private investors took place as part of a study trip, there was no expectation that I would blog about the content of our conversations — thus, I have decided to exclude the names of the specific investors so as not to violate any confidences they may have reasonable expected.) These investors gave a surprisingly candid view of venture capital throughout the country — the good, the bad and the ugly.

We have a person, who by all my accounts is a fairly good venture guy – but the lack of sourcing and full disclosure, if credible sources, raises issues. I clearly believe all intentions are well, but I remember international grad school trips and most involve mid-level leaders and govt officials – while interesting folk – not necessarily credible sources or leaders. So the opportunity to maintain integrity is fairly straight forward – fictionalize and abstract the message in total. So I’ll have to just accept the post as a cat’s opinion. So I will provide a fully unqualified set of random thoughts on investing in China.

China Investments

A great deal of energy and investment dollars are migrating to the emerging BRIC economies, with a focus on China. It’s just math – a bunch of people, modernization and free trade, not a very complex formula. There will clearly be great opportunity over time for the majority investors. Over time, these, I suspect, are longer term investments than forecasted.

Markets v. Malls

I have often thought about the delta in why certain landscapes favor commerce over others. I think it may be a simple concept – infrastructure (highways, trains…). Conceptually transactional economies require transit. Port based development and key population centers are spiky examples of the investment. While there may be brand consuming elites living in urban evirons, a less developed reality drapes the majority of the landscape. Uneven development however delivers explosive growth and opportunity. There’s definitely a downside risk on many levels.

Small markets with Explosive growth remain small markets for a while. As an evolving and straining culture attempts to find a path forward in China – it could be volatile for investors with a sprinkle of xenophobic legal systems thrown in.

Happy Foreign Investing!

This blog will be morphing over the coming weeks to speak to the gambling in private equity, technology and the general market watching.  You can keep in touch on the blog, but can also track our activity on twitter @ http://twitter.com/gamblvest