|
April
8, 2003
Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
International
Monetary Systems Reports Profitable Barter Operations In Annual Report
Non-barter
Business Big Drag On Earnings
International Monetary
Systems (OTCBB:INLM) reported revenue of $3.6 million for 2002, up from
$2.5 million for the previous year. The significant increase in revenue
was due to the acquisition of Tradecorp (Columbus, Ohio) and to the
continued internal growth of Continental Trade Exchange's (CTE) barter
network. Barter transactions increased from $16 million in 2001 to $24
million in 2002.
CTE reported earnings
of $414,215, compared to earnings of $28,982 in 2001. Barter group earnings,
however, were offset by a $59,745 loss in the JM Graphics division,
which included $26,000 for uncollectible receivables and a $153,604
loss by International Corporate Services, the four-color printing division.
Don Mardak, President
and CEO, attributed the losses in the non-barter operations to a general
slowness in the printing industry. For more information on International
Monetary Systems see the company's web site: www.internationalmonetary.com.
One
Person Can Make A Difference
John Thornton's
unexpected decision to leave Wall Street's Goldman Sachs Group (and
a huge salary...$11.21 million) to become a full professor at Beijing's
Tsinghua University is indicative of the good things that take place
around the globe that will, over time, make the world a better place.
The 49-year-old
Thornton, Goldman's president and co-chief operating officer, is choosing
to teach for free, "I always knew I'd stop working at Goldman and
do something oriented toward the public good." According to Thornton,
"the single most important thing to happen in our lifetime will
be the emergence of China."
The appointment
shows Beijing's growing willingness to turn to outside professionals
to help guide the country's transition to a market economy. Thornton
is the first senior Western business leader to teach a regular course
at Tsinghua since the Communists came to power in 1949.
His first project
will be a seminar that brings chief executives of multinationals into
the classroom to share their business experiences and philosophies with
students of Tsinghua's business school and public administration graduate
programs.
Editor's Note:
One person can indeed make a difference: Consider Millard Fuller's idea,
in the mid-70's, of getting a few volunteers together to build a single,
very modest home...to help break the cycle of poverty. An idea that's
grown and grown, it now results in one house being built every 26 minutes,
or 55 houses a day and 21,000 a year! All privately funded by Habitat
for Humanity. (More than 125,000 homes have been built since that first
day in 1975.)
Bartering
Of Stock & Options Still Plays Role In Business World
Four years ago,
at the height of the dot-com boom, the exchanging of stock and options
for equity in various companies was ubiquitous in its use. And while
such wheeling and dealing is not as prevalent these days, their bartering
still occurs as these examples show:
A) Donald Trump,
chairman and CEO, bartered options in his Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts
to acquire shares in Riviera Holding Corp., the Las Vegas casino company
that owns the Riviera casino. Conjecture is, the Riviera shares will
help in his pursuit of a license to operate other casinos in Nevada,
as Nevada authorities require applicants to own a stake in a casino
before applying for a casino license.
B) American Airlines
workers have taken the first step to exchange hefty labor concessions
in exchange for options to purchase nearly 38 million additional shares
of American's common stock. Which would give them ownership of 19.5%
of the company.
C) Lucent Technologies
settled a massive shareholder litigation of $568 million, one of the
largest such settlements in history, by providing $315 million in a
mix of cash and stock to five million shareholders. (Lucent will have
discretion to issue either stock or cash.) Its insurers agreed to pay
another $148 million in cash to shareholders. And plaintiff attorneys
will collect fees of up to 20% of the total settlement—approximately
$115 million—paid in the same proportion of cash, stock, and warrants
that the shareholders get total fees.
SPECIAL
Announcement: Be a part of the largest, most all-inclusive
special real estate report we've ever published...coming in the next
issue of BarterNews. If your company offers any type of real
estate service (assisting sellers and buyers, offering notary, property
management, or counseling services) you should be in this special issue.
Plus, of course, all types of properties available on trade—anywhere
in the world! To get your company's ad in this unique issue contact:
bmeyer@barternews.com...
Do it now, so you don't miss this great issue!
The
following message was used to promote one's trade exchange. The exchange
owner sent this flyer/message out to every member....
Trade
Is The Competitive Edge-Spread the Word!
We have begun co-publishing
a monthly newsletter entitled The Competitive Edge that is a
generic overview of barter in today's competitive marketplace.
In addition to providing
the newsletter to you (our members) we have also begun a prospecting
campaign using the publication. Each month we mail The Competitive
Edge to businesses that would be an asset to our exchange, and follow
up with phone calls.
Many trade exchanges
have successfully used this newsletter, published by BarterNews
magazine, to educate potential clients about trade and therefore attract
new members. And we hope to have the same results here!
You can help us
spread the word by providing some counter space or other conspicuous
area to display The Competitive Edge to your clients. Waiting
rooms, bookshelves, reception areas...wherever your customers have a
chance to pick up a copy of the newsletter, they also will have a chance
to find out more about bartering in today's economy.
Each month's issues
offers new insights into the advantages of using trade and how it can
improve a company's cash position. Every business owner will find the
articles interesting and educational.
To learn
more about The Competitive Edge newsletter and how it can help
build your trade exchange, click
here.
Every
barter company in the world is listed here click
through to our global list of barter companies.
PLEASE NOTE: The
Global List of Barter Companies has been updated. Check out the new
companies added, as well as changes made to the existing listings.
Also, the U.S.
list of barter companies has been recently updated. Check it out!
If
you haven't read the current issue of BarterNews, get yourself
a copy now! Orders are shipped the same day we receive them. (Click
on Order Form.)
Get
New Money-Making Ideas, and Valuable Contacts!
You
can obtain these ideas and contacts in every every available back-issue
of BarterNews.
Here
And There. . .
- On July 4, 2002,
the barter industry lost Bruce Harris to a heart attack. The St. Louis
Community Center is paying tribute to Bruce's memory through one of
his favorite programs, the JCC Maccabi Games—an annual Olympic-style
event for Jewish teens around the world.
This summer
1,700 teens from all over the world will come together in St. Louis
for a week-long celebration of athletic competitions, social events,
and community service that will create a lifetime of memories.
The St. Louis
JCC and the family of Bruce Harris are dedicating the Souvenir Program
Guide in his memory. Many people in the barter industry were touched
by Bruce, and if you'd like to make your contribution to the 2003
St. Louis JCC Maccabi Games in the memory of Bruce Harris, send
your donation to: St. Louis JCC Maccabi Games, 2 Millstone Campus
Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146.
-
Developers of
a new hotel going up in the lower east side of Manhattan are partnering
with Surface magazine, an upscale urban-lifestyle title,
to create rooms that reflect the design ethos of the publication.
The hotel will
be using furnishings as a marketing tool to sell furnishings, i.e.
the hotel rooms will be "changing showrooms."
The deal is
a good one for the magazine, which has a circulation of around 125,000.
Editors of Surface will help select furniture, wall coverings,
curtains, and carpeting for the standardized rooms. The magazine
is looking to set marketing deals with high-end name brands that
can sprinkle their products throughout the hotel.
Terms of the
deal call for the hotel to pay the magazine $100,000 and give it
a small equity stake; the hotel will also pay annual licensing fees.
-
Have you
signed up
to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every
week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) to
sign up!
-
Cinnabar Enterprises
(OTCBB:CINN) has launched a new full-service travel agency—Cinnabar
Travel. It joins the company's two other holdings, Cinnabar Media
and BarterOne.
-
A study by the
International Monetary Fund says, after carefully examining housing
and stock booms and busts over the past 30 to 40 years across 21
industrialized countries, that housing-price busts occurred less
frequently but caused twice as much damage, i.e. had a greater effect
on consumption and banking systems.
The study found
that housing and stock booms differed in several important ways.
Housing price booms occurred once every 20 years, with 40% ending
in busts, compared with every 13 years for stock booms, 25% of which
ended in busts. Housing prices fall less than stock prices in a
bust—an average of 30%—because houses are less easily
traded and their prices are less volatile.
-
China's state-run
television (CCTV-1) is providing a remarkable sight to its viewers,
a largely non-ideological and non-censored coverage of the war in
Iraq on what has long been the government's most carefully controlled
news outlet. There are also no diatribes against U.S. hegemony,
no assertions of the Chinese government's opposition to the war.
(The Communist Party isn't totally absent, however, as they do require
that reports include news of Iraqi civilian casualties and not hype
U.S. military capabilities.)
The news coverage
could be a dress rehearsal for the launch of CCTV's 24-hour news
channel, slated for May, and a precedent for covering future news
events. Advertisers have responded with commercials totaling three
minutes every half-hour, compared to the usual 1-minute of commercials
run per hour.
-
ITEX Corporation
(OTCBB:ITEX) has announced the departure of its Chief Financial
Officer, Daniella Calvitti. No disruption of services are expected
as a result of Calvitti's departure.
|