Kars Ēṥčòṙṫ Esc

Selin 💋 💋 Linke Tıklayarak Kars Kızlarıyla İletişime Geçebilir ve Görüşme Yapabilirsiniz. Mutlu Vakitler

[Kars Ēṥčòṙṫ Esc @BenjaminBevill]

Gözlerin çok güzel.

🌿 🌿 🌿

[VA Secretary Doug Collins @SecVetAffairs]

Great to be with you and hear directly from Veterans in your area about the issues impacting them most!

[Rocket Lab @RocketLab]

We're excited to bring a new era of responsive launch capability to Alaska in support of national security 🚀

[Financial Times @FT]

The US Senate voted 86-12 to advance a bill intended to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin to end his years-long war in Ukraine, in a sign Washington is starting to warm to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. https://t.co/xAXUPBeFDT

[Universal-Sci @universal_sci]

Stunning: Stephan’s Quintet

The interacting galaxies in this group are nearly 300 million light-years away. Most astronomers think NGC 7320 (top center) lies in the foreground at about one-eighth that distance.

(Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

[Garmin Aviation @GarminAviation]

Did you see the turbine-powered @cubcrafters Carbon Cub ULT at Oshkosh 🔥

It's AXIS-equipped 😎 👊

#OSH26

[Indy Eleven @IndyEleven]

Final from Carroll Stadium.

90’ |🔵IND 0:1 ⚪LDN

[CNN @CNN]

Former Arizona state Rep. Amish Shah will win the Democratic House primary in the state's 1st Congressional District, CNN's Decision Desk projects. He will face Republican nominee Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker. https://t.co/hI8yAHHd1o

[Polymarket Sports @PolymarketSport]

🚨LEAK: The Winnipeg Jets YouTube channel might have accidentally leaked LeBron signing there… 😳

The video was immediately unlisted and privated.

(via @NHLJets)

[Bloomberg Live @BloombergLive]

The global sports economy is shifting fast. Who’s driving the conversation?

Randall Williams Co-hosts #PowerPlayers, returning to New York September 10, "Power Players is our chance to bring those conversations to life during one of the biggest weeks on the global sports calendar...The event connects the athletes, team owners, league executives, investors, and media leaders shaping the future of the multi-trillion-dollar sports industry to go beyond the headlines and unpack what’s happening today, what’s coming next, and why it matters."

Register now 🎟️
https://t.co/TRN6ujqU5Q

[Maria Bartiromo @MariaBartiromo]

Fauci's Senate appearance could change everything, GOP senator warns | https://t.co/LZGqvamaII @MorningsMaria @FoxBusiness

[NEWSポストセブン @news_postseven]

りくりゅう、引退後もカナダでは“同居”スタイルの生活環境

CMオファーは���増、男女ペアだからこその“起用しやすさ”で無双状態継続
https://t.co/3ZuzpNWlMU
「カナダでは現役の頃と変わらず、ほとんど一緒にいるようです。
生活環境も以前と同じで、一つ屋根の下の“同居”スタイルだとか」

[Groww @_groww]

Gucci and Louis Vuitton are rivals today.

But there was a time when Louis Vuitton almost took over Gucci.

Almost. But it managed to save itself.

Louis Vuitton is a part of a larger group called LVMH.

And LVMH had made a bid to take over Gucci. It had built stakes or taken over various other luxury brands across Europe.

So it had reason to believe a Gucci takeover would be easily possible as well.

But Gucci had a few tricks up its sleeve. What followed were a few desperate measures by both sides. Some worked in favour of Gucci, some against.

The last trick Gucci used was what’s called a white knight.

But before we get to that, and what eventually happened, we must understand Gucci and LVMH individually.

Gucci Before This Episode

The first thing to understand about this story is that Gucci was no longer controlled by the family that started it.

It was an Italian leather goods shop started in Italy in 1921.

Over the decades, the Gucci brand had lost its sheen because of over-licensing their brand name. Luxury brands work on exclusivity, and the name appearing on too many products ruins that image.

That was one problem.

Family infighting had meant that gradually, the family as a whole did not act as one.

Internal disputes and conflicts meant that the company’s various shareholders (who were family members) were either leaving the company or were being pushed out.

Eventually, a family member sold enough stake to an investment company based out of Bahrain. This was a little over 50% of the company.

By 1993, Gucci became a fully non-family-owned company.

Over time, all family members sold their portions off.

Investcorp owned 100% of Gucci.

Investcorp made Domenico De Sole the CEO. Tom Ford was made the creative head.

Together, they started righting what was wrong.

A large number of branding licenses were cut. The brand focussed on newly designed products.

The brand started clawing back lost glory.

To raise fresh money, the brand went for an IPO in 1995. The price was $22 per share.

In this IPO, Investcorp sold off about half of its stake. It was still the largest shareholder.

Investcorp was not in for the long run. They wanted to turn around a burning ship and exit. They had succeeded.

By March 1996, the company’s share price had risen to $48 per share.

They were sitting on very handsome profits.

They did a secondary offering and sold off all their shares.

From this point on, Gucci was owned by various investors, but there was no single controlling shareholder.

Domenico De Sole continued as the CEO since the board of the company felt confident in his abilities.

LVMH This Episode

LVMH was essentially a holding company.

Bernard Arnault had bought Christian Dior’s parent company at a distress sale in 1984.

Since then, he’d gone on to acquire one luxury company after another. It worked well. Today, the company is the world’s biggest luxury brand holding company.

By 1998, LVMH had acquired top luxury brands like Sephora, Givenchy, and Loewe.

Unlike other holding companies, LVMH was a holding company/investor that operated almost exclusively in the world of luxury.

It had developed a system for running such companies. It knew that luxury companies were not run using the same principles as any other consumer goods company.

LVMH understood luxury.

The Episode

So now, we get to the LVMH vs Gucci battle.

Gucci shares were almost entirely available on the share markets. There was no single large controlling shareholder.

To make Gucci even more tempting, it was no longer a fledgling luxury brand that was directionless or losing reputation.

It was a healthy, functional, and growing luxury brand.

These conditions made Gucci nearly perfect for a takeover bid by LVMH.

In 1999, LVMH announced that it had bought nearly 5% of Gucci’s shares. LVMH positioned this as a pure investment interest.

It is difficult to take over a company that has large controlling shareholders. They usually tend to stick and not sell easily.

But since Gucci was almost entirely held by smaller groups of investors, Gucci seemed like an easy takeover.

The CEO of Gucci had feared about a day like this.

In the meantime, LVMH kept buying more shares of Gucci in the open markets. The CEO of Gucci had been correct to worry about it.

LVMH had built a business model out of this. They had lots of cash and could deploy the money fast. This helped them acquire companies rapidly.

Not long after that announcement, LVMH announced that it owned about 34.4% of the company.

34.4% does not give the company a majority. They were still far from 50%.

But they did become the largest shareholder, and that itself is powerful enough in a company where all other shareholders own smaller portions.

The CEO of Gucci did not like this.

Why?

CEOs are appointed by the boards of directors of companies.

The board of directors are elected by shareholders. So, the CEO and the board must act in the interest of the current shareholders.

De Sole, the CEO, was worried that LVMH might buy a little over 50% of the company and attain full control over it.

This, he felt, was unfair to the existing shareholders.

His pitch was that LVMH should take over the company and pay a fair price to all shareholders, not just 50%.

The Negotiation

With 34.4% stake, LVMH demanded board seats.

De Sole countered, saying LVMH should offer a price for all shares or reduce his stake to about 20% and accept a lower number of board seats.

Neither could meet in the middle. The tussle set off.

LVMH then tried to call for a shareholders’ meeting to let the shareholders decide who the members of the board should be.

In effect, he tried to get control over the company.

Poison Pill

De Sole decided to counter this with a shrewd move that is sort of a last resort for companies being taken over.

The move is called a poison pill.

What companies do is they create lots of new shares and give them to other shareholders (excluding the one trying to take over).

Gucci created new shares and gave them to employees via stock options (ESOP).

Since these were new shares entirely, the total number of shares increased.

Since LVMH was not given any new shares, the number of shares they owned remained the same. But the percentage they owned would drop from 34.4% to about 25%.

The move diluted the ownership percentage of LVMH.

This reduced their influence over the company.

Why is it called a poison pill?

Because it is a bit self-damaging to prevent a larger damage. It is trying to make the company less attractive to the party trying to take over. It makes it tougher for them since now they’ll have to spend even more money to acquire the same percentage of stocks as before.

There are numerous examples of cases where the poison pill method worked as intended.

White Knight

The poison pill failed.

This gets a bit complicated.

Companies are allowed to use a poison pill to defend themselves. The idea is that a company can use poison pills to protect shareholders.

In this case, the poison pill got challenged in court because LVMH was also a large shareholder and was effectively being targeted by the board.

Poison pills are supposed to help buy shareholders time.

It cannot be used to retain voting power when another buyer is buying shares and therefore voting power.

The argument made by LVMH was that the board was using its powers to retain control over the company without respecting all shareholders.

Remember, these were ESOPs. So even other shareholders’ (the various small and individual investors) stakes were being diluted. Even their voting power was being effectively reduced.

Many poison pills use a strategy where free new shares are given to all shareholders except the one trying to take over the company.

This is more often allowed.

Gucci’s poison pill looked more like voting power manipulation and less like protecting shareholders’ best interests.

The poison pill did not pass the court’s test.

So now you’d imagine LVMH has a straight path towards acquiring a controlling stake in Gucci. They had 34.4% shares and could increase or demand board seats.

But De Sole had one more trick planned.

In March 1999, they signed an agreement with PPR, a French retail company.

The deal was to raise money from them by issuing fresh shares. Specifically, $3 billion cash.

A company is allowed to raise capital by issuing shares.

This move was legal.

So, Gucci created new shares and sold them to PPR for $3 billion.

With this, PPR now had a little over 42% stake in Gucci.

LVMH was no longer the biggest shareholder. PPR had more voting power and was friendly with the existing board.

PPR became the large, friendly shareholder — the white knight!

How was this a friendly move for the board and existing shareholders?

PPR had agreed to buy the shares for a 7% higher price than the market price. Since the company was also raising more cash while selling shares for a higher price, the company was benefitting from the move.

Why would PPR pay a higher price?

They wanted an entry into the luxury space. Unlike LVMH, they were not already a luxury holding company.

So they were willing to pay a higher price.

Gucci is still with PPR (PPR changed its name to Kering in 2013).

And yes, Kering is now what it wanted to be. It is a luxury holding company.

Its portfolio includes Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, and several others — around 12 core brands.

Kering’s market cap is about $35 billion today.

Between 1999 and 2004, PPR continued acquiring more stake in Gucci. Today, it is entirely owned by PPR (or Kering).

LVMH gave up on the idea of taking over Gucci. By the end of 2001, they had sold off their entire stake in Gucci. A big portion of that was sold to PPR.

But it did not give up on its strategy. It continued to acquire other luxury brands.

Today, LVMH is the largest luxury holding company in the world with over 75 brands.

Its market capitalization is about $280 billion today.

[ICICI Bank @ICICIBank]

Just In: ICICI Bank announced its financial performance for Q1 FY27 today.

- Profit Before Tax excluding treasury grew by 20.9% year-on-year to ₹18,975 crore
- Core Operating Profit grew by 15.6% year-on-year to ₹20,235 crore
- Profit After Tax grew by 15.9% year-on-year to ₹14,805 crore
- Net Interest Income (NII) increased by 12.7% year-on-year to ₹24,384 crore

[433 @433]

𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐙𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐙𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑? ⭐⭐⭐

[Starlink @Starlink]

Starlink will provide fast, reliable internet to @MajorLeagueFish, connecting more than 150 live events from lakes, rivers, and reservoirs across the United States 🛰️🎣

[冰糖橙.Misstang🎀 @Misstang1102]

也许未来最大的竞争，不是争用户，而是争“主场” 🌿

继续打卡@CNPYNetwork。最近这���时间，明显感觉@NucleusCodes 越来越热闹了。每天打开平台，都能看到越来越多的创作者开始关注Canopy、关注 Nucleus，慢慢热闹起来的感觉还挺明显的。

最近看Canopy的内容时，我脑子里一直在想一个问题：如果未来越来越多资产、越来越多应用都搬到链���，那大家真的还愿意一直挤在同一条公共链上吗？

网络拥堵不是自己能控制。手续费高低不是自己决定。规则什么时候调整，也未必能提前知道。

对于很多项目来说，这种感觉多少有点像租房。房东决定规则，物业决定费用，邻居决定环境。

而Canopy 想做的事情，更像是给项目一块真正属于自己的地。规则自己定。费用自己决定。升级节奏自己掌握。真正拥有属于自己的运行空间。

另外一个让我印象比较深的是，很多项目上线之后，第一件事往往不是做产品，而是补基础设施。浏览器、钱包、数据面板、监控工具，一个一个慢慢搭。

而 Canopy 的思路是：这些东西提前准备好。开发者进来以后，直接开始建设。把时间留给产品，而不是重复造轮子。

尤其是在 AI 已经开始自己写代码、跑测试、提交代码的今天，开发速度已经和几年前完全不是一个世界了。如果基础设施还停留在过去的节奏，迟早会成为新的瓶颈。

过去十五年，加密行业一直在不断往上叠层。Layer2 叠 Layer1。Restaking 叠 Staking。桥上再架桥。

但也许答案从来都不是继续往上叠。而是让每一个项目，都拥有属于自己的土地和主场。有时候会觉得，技术的发展速度远比我们想象中快。

也许几年以后再回头看，现在讨论的很多东西，都会变成理所当然。而我们现在，刚好站在变化开始发生的地方。🌿

[House Republicans @HouseGOP]

It’s time to be honest with Honest Abe: this coin just isn’t making cents. The federal government has lost over $250 million producing pennies in just the past two years. That’s why the House just passed @RepLisaMcClain’s Common Cents Act — taxpayers finally win! 🇺🇸💰

Existing pennies will still be legal tender and can be used as usual.

[Narendra Modi @narendramodi]

Attended the Civil Investiture Ceremony-II at Rashtrapati Bhavan, where the Padma Awards were presented. They celebrate exceptional service and dedication across diverse fields. Each awardee represents the best of our commitment to society. Their life journeys inspire countless citizens and remind everyone of the power of hard work and service.

@PadmaAwards

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Deployment of 24 @Starlink satellites confirmed