Not following the conference except noting that lots of folks are attending. The top hotels are all full. A room in Conrad that normally rents for HK$ 1800 (HK$ 7.75 = US$ 1.00) goes for HK$ 5,000.
Went boating today with folks and one guy is shutting down his i.net/e.com B2B operation, firing a bunch of ex-McKinsey and ex-Bain folks, all top B-school graduates. In the course of doing so, he is also reneging on a three year deal with Ariba. The servers will be sold, thus affecting SUNW in a small way, but multiplied across the cyber landscape.
An investment banker had just done a round of visits in New York and London, and says the folks in the investment management houses are now very focussed, on doing absolutely nothing.
A Managing Director of the Asian arm of a SF based publicly traded IT consulting firm who had just moved from SF to HK a few months ago said all of his options are now under water, and given business flow, no salary increases in cash is possible.
Another consultant who is based in SF for another company says 30% of folks have been laid off, and all partners are trying to get clients, D-day will be in February.
At this rate, it will soon be raining Harvard, Wharton and Stanford MBAs.
The guy whose family owns the 50 foot craft took time out while we were discussing watches and said he has stopped all stock trading, believing it is time to get back to work on his family business - making toys. New Porsche is delayed.
At the very onset of the Asian Financial Crisis, I had a boat trip slightly before Thailand blew up, and one slightly after Indonesia blew up. Champaign and caviar before, sandwich meat and bread after.
This main event movie is playing out exactly as the the earlier preview. Can take a newspaper from the earlier time, and replace all developing country names with developed country names.
Be careful. Mathematically, there can always be another 50% to drop, regardless of buy price. |
