Welcome to FIN 359 - AGAIN

Hello everyone - here we are again at Regent's College. I am looking foward to reading your blogs this semester. This is a great class. Or so people say.

M&As plus two new blog addresses

Latest update - very interesting class today on M&As.  Those of you who have not featured an M&A already on your blogs, I suggest you look out for one this week and feature it in your next blog post.  What's rumoured, what's been announced, who is fighting whom, are any previously agreed mergers falling part (remember Daimler Chrysler...) Maybe you can suggest your own merger -  perhaps there's a big company you have been following which you think could find some natural synergy by linking up with another?  Who benefits most from M&As? And remember Emanuele's question... could you complete an M&A without lawyers or investment bankers and do it yourself?
Here are two more blog addresses http://fydnews.blogspot.com/ from Frederic, on astonishing financial news, and http://theintrepidentrepreneur.blogspot.com/ from Oxana starting off with Somali pirates and why businesses should pay more heed to what they are up to. Have a good week

More blogs

 Well now -  here's another blog to look at from Felicia. Starts with some interesting views on Apple's attempts to get into the Chinese market.  And ends with.... well I'll leave it up to you to take a look!  http://insideinvestment.blogspot.com)

More blogs

Here's the link to another blog  - this time from Pauline     
http://thebusinessdiary-paulinelagarde.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-to-my-blog.html
And one from Emanuele  http://storiesofexcellence-emanuele.blogspot.com/
I am just about to settle down and have a read!
Have not had time to see them yet as I was called in by Bloomberg TV today to help with some research on setting up interviews with CEOs. It's a month since I was last there. I ran the overnight news desk for a week in August, after which I was suffering from serious sleep deprivation.  If you want to work in the financial news business, I would say the ability to stay up all night or to get up at the crack of dawn are essential qualifications.  Fortunately today I only had to work from 10am to 8pm.  Long hours....

Blogs are underway

Well done to those of you who have decided on your blogs and got them up and running. 
First out of the starting blocks was Emre who emailed me on Sunday  with http://vuralnomics.blogspot.com 
closely followed by Julia with http://thefinancialista.blogspot.com/.   David   has got his underway at http://fninance.blogspot.com/ and no - it is not a typo - he really did mean to spell it like that. I am sure he will explain why at our seminar on wednesday! Yacine  has sent me the link to his blog - he apologises for if the name is a bit cheesy.It's  www.financial-newspro.blogspot.com. Although in fact sometimes the best names are the most obvious ones, provided they haven't been taken before, so I wouldn't worry too much about the name, those of you who are still getting their blogs up and running. What matters most is the content. 
I have also had an email from Kirill S giving me the link  http://onlineeconomy.blogspot.com/
And here's one more blog to look at from Tatiana  http://tatianasmirnovafin359.blogspot.com/


For those of you who have not yet decided on on your blog name or content, see if you can get it done in time for the seminar on Wednesday when all of you will have a chance to show off your first blog postings and talk us through your chosen subject matter and modus operandi. 

Welcome to FIN359

Blogs have become an important feature of the financial communications landscape. Over the next few weeks everyone is going to create and keep their own blog. It will form part of the assessment for this course. The topic is up to you  - it can be a running commentary on financial stories in the news. It can home in on a specific sector. Or it can be an indepth exploration of a topic which you are personally interested in, or have experience in. It can be local, national or international in perspective. The possibilities are endless. What's important is that you keep adding to it regularly, and that you also monitor and comment regularly on your colleague's blogs.

Once you have set up your blog, please email me the title and details of how to access it. My email address is lewisl@regents.ac.uk.

Also, create your own blogroll or list of blogs which you have found interesting/helpful on your own blog.

Let's get blogging!
Linda Lewis