September 27,
2005
Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
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The
BarterNews staff is attending the International Reciprocal Trade
Association’s 26th Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida.
We expect to report some interesting and exciting news from the
convention in subsequent reports.
Dealmakers Back In Business Using Stock As Currency
Following a
multiyear downturn in the number of mergers and acquisitions, companies
are again in the shopping mood. Already this year companies have
announced $707 billion in mergers and acquisitions, according to
Richard Peterson, senior researcher at Thomson Financial.
That’s
30% more deals than during the same period last year, and the highest
since the M&A heyday in 2000. It’s the fourth-strongest
pace of mergers and acquisitions in history. The biggest influence
on M&A activity is the health of the stock market, largely because
companies want to use their currency (stock) to buy other companies.
In the late
1980s under Drexel Burham and Michael Milken, some $400 billion
of mergers were finalized annually, and a full 90% of them were
concluded through the issuance of high interest Junk Bonds. Only
10% were done on a non-cash basis. Interestingly, 50% of today’s
offers (“I’ll give you part of my company for your company”)
are done on a non-cash basis.
Trade
Exchange Owners...
Build Rapport And Empathy With Your Client Base!!
The most powerful
marketing tool in the barter industry, The Competitive Edge
newsletter, is a monthly, ready to use, professional 4-page publication...no
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Kaliel
Taking Annual Baseball Trip To “The Field of Dreams”
Three weeks
ago we introduced you to a unique character, one of the top trade
exchange salesmen in the industry, 55-year-old San Diegoan Art Kaliel.
He refers to himself as “George Costanza” for obvious
physical similarities.
Kaliel publishes
a semi-weekly little newsletter titled “The Green Standard,”
sharing some quips and thoughts as well as names of various companies
that he serves.
This week he
was busy sending out post cards from Dyersville (IA), the movie
site and home of Universal Studios’ 1989 movie Field of Dreams,
starring Kevin Costner.
He makes an
annual pilgrimage to this part of the country from San Diego every
year...then on to Chicago’s Comisky Park, the Skydome in Toronto,
down to PNC Park in Pittsburgh and then over to the Big Apple. It’s
quite a road trip that extends from August 31 to September 5. Along
the way he’s smelling the roses, eating hot-dogs, and spending
his trade dollars at every opportunity!
In his newsletter,
Kaliel says the top 10 barter “wants” in Southern California
are:
1. Advertising
2. Restaurant meals
3. Dentists
4. Marketing
5. Catering
6. Maid services
7. Clothing
8. Tools
9. Printing
10. Auto repair
If you wish
to receive his Green Standard e-mail missives, e-mail him at rthurkaliel@hotmail.com.
And remember, as he says, “Any reproductions without written
permission are OK by George!”
You also may want to check out his web site: www.thegreenstandard.com.
Now
available ...BarterNews issue #64, get your copy
now! Orders will be shipped within two business days of publication.
Click on Order Form.
(If you
are not sure if your subscription has lapsed, e-mail your name,
address, and zip code to bmeyer@barternews.com.
Phoenix
Billboard Company Prepares For Public Offering
In 1997, Karl
Eller sold his outdoor advertising company to Clear Channel Communications
for $1.15 billion. The deal came just weeks before he planned to
take Eller Media Corp. public in a $220 million IPO (initial public
offering).
Today, the company
that’s now known as Clear Channel Outdoor is preparing for
another initial public offering as its parent company, Clear Channel
Communications, works to restructure operations to raise capital
and improve shareholder value.
Based in Phoenix,
Clear Channel Outdoor has grown to operate more than 150,000 ad
displays in 42 U.S. markets, plus South America, Mexico and Canada.
The company also operates about 50% of the signage in New York City’s
Times Square.
San Antonio-based
Clear Channel, the country’s No. 1 radio station owner, announced
this month it would conduct a public offering for 10 percent of
the Clear Channel Outdoor’s stock. The company also plans
to spin off its live entertainment subsidiary.
After the IPO,
Clear Channel Outdoor’s global headquarters will be in San
Antonio, not Phoenix. Mark Mays, Clear Channel Communication’s
chief executive, is expected to be CEO of the Clear Channel Outdoor
public entity.
Eller retired
as Clear Channel Outdoor’s CEO in late 2001. He now runs his
own consulting business in Phoenix called The Eller Company.
Eller said Clear
Channel’s plans to offer the IPO aren’t surprising given
the sector’s strength. He noted that the only other “pure”
outdoor firm, Lamar Advertising Co. of Baton Rouge (LA), is successful
as a public company. Lamar’s current price-earnings ratio
(company’s current share price compared to its per-share earnings)
is a robust 143!
The 10 percent
offering of Clear Channel Outdoor, expected to be completed by the
end of 2006, is expected to raise $350 million. It will trade on
the NYSE under ticker symbol CCO.
Every
barter company in the world is listed on our web site,
click through to our Global List
of Barter Companies.
From
the past. . .
BarterNews issue #43
Barter
Investors Trade Company’s Products & Services For Equity
In Promising Ventures
By
Gerald Benjamin
It’s the
age old question. Do you need the money, or do you need what you’re
going to use the money to buy?
As the barter
marketplace expands and the sophisticated use of this versatile
tool grows, we’re seeing a growing number of barter investors
around the country.
A barter investor
is defined as a company or an individual who is willing and able
to make a needed and important investment in an early-stage idea
on up to an established business.
Participation
by such an investor quickly fills holes and provides one with a
running start. In the majority of cases the investment isn’t
a passive one, but rather sees an active investor bringing a contribution
that is important—enabling a leverage using the barter investor’s
already established infrastructure.
Depending upon
an investor’s niche and expertise, this contribution could
include introducing one’s clients to thousands of the barter
investor’s customers or providing the advertising to gain
new customers as well as other marketing expertise.
Additional contributions might be offering billing and collecting
services, processing of orders, warehousing, shipping, and other
services like negotiating bank lines of credits.
The
Barter Investor’s Profile Looks Like This:
• Provides
what you would have used capital to buy in exchange for equity
• Participative...not passive
• Early-stage preference
• Offers capital and infrastructure (an incubator model)
• Management most important criterion
• Venture must have capability to grow to $10 million in 3
to 5 years
• Invests up to $250,000 of products and/or services in exchange
for equity
Three
Examples Of Barter Investments:
A) The barter
investor was an operating service company with a substantial unused
line-of-credit. An investor guaranteed the line-of-credit for use
by the entrepreneur at a predetermined price for stock. As the credit
was used, equity ownership accrued for the barter investor. The
investor became a member of this startup’s board of directors.
B) The barter
investor, a computer manufacturing company principal, made available
$50,000 worth of hardware, software, networking technology and system
maintenance services, in exchange for a $50,000 equivalent equity
position in the company.
C) The barter
investor, a service company’s principal, committed the company’s
staff and administrative infrastructure to handle all the customer
service, payroll, A/R & A/P, as well as all order fulfillment
and inventory control for a rapidly growing CD-ROM duplicator. The
barter investor also functioned in an interim capacity as a CFO
until one was hired.
In these examples we see that the entrepreneurs offered equity
to vendors who became barter investors by trading their support
services and infrastructure for equity in the firms.
(Mr.
Benjamin co-authored the book Finding Your Wings: How To Locate
Private Investors To Fund Your Venture.)
Get
New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!
You can obtain
useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue
of BarterNews.
BarterNews
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Jewelry—John
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(For
information on placing your company’s classified ad in the
Tuesday Report, see Classified Advertising.)
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Here
& There...
- A new Global
Chamber of Commerce has entered into the web business to promote
world peace. Founded and sponsored by Cultural Creatives, the
Chamber’s stated mission is to create peaceful consciousness
by maintaining a global membership of professionals who support
peaceful enlightenment networking. For more information go to
www.culturalcreativesglobalchamberofcommerce.com.
- 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) and sign up!
- Barry Diller,
head of IAC/InterActiveCorp which recently spun off its Expedia
online-travel business, is moving into the real-estate brokerage
business. Realtors are concerned that Diller could become a major
rival.
Services like Expedia
have hammered local travel agents, and the concern is that online
real-estate operators could eat into the revenue of local realtors.
IAC is already active in residential real estate through its
LendingTree.com and RealEstate.com sites, which offer to find
an agent for buyers or sellers. The firm earns about 30% on
these deals and they share the money with the consumer, often
in the form of a Home Depot or American Express gift card.
-
Most people have
one technology tool they can’t live without; for financial
executives, it’s the cell phone. In a nationwide survey
of CFOs cell phones topped the list, with 44% of the response,
as the most indispensable portable technology device. Laptop
computers came in a close second, cited by 39% of executives
polled.
-
The Bay Area Transit
Board has adopted a plan to offer “BART Rewards”
or credits to riders of the transit system.
-
Females
consume over 60% of all wine in the U.S. and purchase nearly
80% of the wine sold...yet the wine industry has largely ignored
them, according to Tracey Mason, Beringer Blass Wine Estates’
director of innovation.
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