FIRST, some research tools to keep up with who's who, who owns what, and what is the blogosphere talking about now.
1. Latest Blog is a one-stop shop for viewing the latest blogs posted:
Latest Blog News
I use this site to see a complete listing blogs posted. It's much quicker and easier to view because only the title appears. It's a quick view into the minds of the blogosphereorians.
2. To research Who's Who, What's What, Who's acquiring Who, the names and associations of the Boards of Directors, etc. for both public and private business organizations. this site is invaluable.
The investingbusinessweek.com site has two search engines. At the top right you can search and find news articles. Below that there is a window named Stock Quotes. Here you will find an amazing, interactive search ability. I enjoy being able to see how many associations a Board Member has, as an example.
For instance, I became interested in Cerberus and Veritas Private Equity firms because they have been buying up components that could support a privately owned military power. Manufacturers of guns, bullets, uniforms, silencers, and an army. Veritas owns crowd control microwave equipment. Ouch!
What is most interesting, is the huge financing these two Private Equity Firms have received from Citi Bank, Bank of America, Barclays, and Deutsche to do so.
It seems that the smaller companies like gun makers Remington, Cobbs, H&R, Marlin, Dakota, and Bushmaker ran into some debt problems. Cerberus bought them all in the past four years. I have to wonder if the very same banks that helped Cerberus gobble up these companies on the cheap held the debt that made these gun manufactures vulnerable to a takeover.
Most interesting was Veritas Capital's sale of DynCorp to Cerberus Management Capital.
It's a Billion dollar deal.
Cerberus plans to use as much as $1.17 billion in bank debt to finance its buyout of DynCorp. Bank of America Corp. Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc; and Deutsche Bank AG committed to provide a senior secured credit facility consisting of a $565 million
The very banks that foreclose millions of homes and seem loathe to help small businesses with bridge loans to weather the recession storm these banks caused, seem eager to help their Private Equity friends step in and takeover.
Good grief! Remington is a 194 year old business! It is now owned by Cerberus' 2007 created Freedom Group Inc.
Bullets are needed for all those guns. No problem.
Freedom Group, Inc. Acquires Barnes Bullets
Here's how powerful a tool investing.businessweek.com is. Let's look at Freedom Group Inc's CEO and Board of Directors:
http://investing.businessweek.com/...
If you click on the above link, notice your options:
Snapshot: An overview and towards the bottom of the page, you can view proposed acquisitions and similar business types.
People: You can view the CEO and Officers, as well as a partial listing of the Board of Directors. There is an option to click to see just the entire Board.
You will also note that there is a link that provides both the number of, and the ability to view all of the other affiliations of each Officer and Board member. Very powerful tool for anyone interested in ferreting out the goings on of a public or private business entity or person.
If you are looking to learn about what a particular person is up to (and reported) you can do so.
Let's look up Dan Quayle. First, you need to know his name: James Danforth Quayle
I chose Dan because he has been the Chairman of the Board of Cerberus since 2005, although his name is listed there as James Quayle, JD.
. I used the search engine at the top of the screen to find out what James Danforth Quayle might be involved in. Cerberus Management Capital, in a 2005 article.
. Next, I searched for Cerberus in the "Stock Fund" engine. No results because Cerberus is private, so
. I clicked on the Tab Private. Voila, a list of Cerberus options.
. Dan is with Cerberus Management Capital, so I chose that option. This brings you to the Cerberus Snapshot. No Dan.
. Click on People and you will see him on the list.
. At the top of the People screen, you will see an option for Board Members, click that and voila, Dan Quayle or James Quayle JD is the Chairman of the Board.
You will see that for VP Dan has "59 Relationships".
. Click that to find out what other Board Affiliations Dan might have (what other Boards he sits on):
Interesting:
Siemens Water Technologies
Heckman Corporation
IAP Worldwide Services
K2 Inc
Aozura Bank
Yellowstone Club
Dan's a busy man. I hope he enjoys some time with this family at the Yellowstone Club.
3. Here's one to help keep up with the Military Industrial Complex both here and abroad. You have to join, I haven't, but you can see the items listed and then google to find free articles about an item of interest to you.
Veritas is buying CPI, the microwave and radio frequency crowd control pain inducers.
4. Private Investigations on People, provided by Dorothy T. Not perfectly user friendly; but you can hack and find more criminal information here for free than I have ever been able to find elsewhere. Thank you Doroty T: http://www.crimetime.com/
LASTLY, when I get to a site looking for something or someone in particular, I use the Edit/Find feature on my iMac. This way I can save time finding it, instead of having to burn the eyeballs speed reading. This is invaluable to me. As a PC non-user, I am not sure how/if this would work for you.
Do you have a research tool you would like to share with us?
Twitter is becoming an interesting resource as well. It was easy to join and free. I enjoy it's search engine where I find links on a subject posted by other tweeters. It has become quite user friendly, although I still haven't mastered all of its features. What does it mean to be "listed"?
CONNECTING SOME DOTS,
Wall Street Private Equity Firms own THEIR OWN MERCENARY ARMIES now:
Dyncorp
Blackwater/Xe/Academi
as well as Gun and Bullet Manufacturers.
<> The Dod published a new Directive in December, 2010 allowing DoD to contract private Military Industrial Complex companies to help POLICE IN the USA.
<> Bank of America financed the purchase of Blackwater and Dyncorp by the Private Equity firms.
<> General Tommy Franks joined the Board of Directors for Bank of America in 2005, the same year Dan Quayle joined Cerebrus' Board.
You will find links for the above in these articles:
DynCorp and Blackwater Now Owned by Private Equity Firms, Financed by TBTFs
SCARY: Department of Defense DIRECTIVE NUMBER 3025.18 December 29, 2010
HAPPY RESEARCHING!!
ps. I thought the Latest Blog News site could help us find each other when DK4 goes up, too.
YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!
Check out the powerful research tools others have shared.
Rock n Research