Billabong

This is just intriguing. There is so much happening and it’s going on so fast (at least in corporate terms). It’s like a novel you can’t put down or a soap opera where waiting for the next episode to find out who does what to whom is excruciating.  Like you, I’m working from the Billabong announcement and

I suppose you have all heard that Billabong Director and President of the Americas Paul Naude has stepped aside from his duties for six weeks to try and pull together a leveraged buyout of Billabong. You can see the Billabong announcement and the conditions under which he is working here at Billabong’s investor web site. It’s the

Billabong’s fiscal year ended June 30. On August 27, they released their full year results and presented their promised strategic plan. The financial results were poor but not unexpected, coming in at the low end of their guidance. The good news is that it looks like they wrote off, wrote down, reserved for or expensed every item they

Walking around a really good Agenda show last week, the question I kept getting asked was, “What’s going to happen to Billabong?”  As I told everyone who asked, I only had access to the same public information they had. Given that information, my best guess is that Billabong will be sold.  Here’s my reasoning.  As you

I just listened to a Billabong conference call where new CEO Launa Inman announced they were raising more capital, downgrading earnings expectations, and undertaking a top to bottom review of all Billabong operations with the goals of reducing expenses, identifying efficiencies and improving the competitive positioning of Billabong and its brands. They want to raise

Let’s review what’s happened. Over a few years, Billabong transformed itself from a wholesaler with a group of strong brands with some retail to a 600 store retailer that owns brands. The retail growth, I’ve written, probably took place a little faster than they had planned, but if what you think is the right opportunity appears, sometimes

This is kind of fun. As you’re aware, TPG Capital offered to buy all of Billabong for $3 a share before the Nixon deal and other steps were announced. Billabong said no because the deal was contingent on too many things and they needed an immediate, certain solution to their short term balance sheet issue. But now, even

With last Thursday’s announcement, Billabong has moved to address its balance sheet issues. But, to paraphrase one of the analysts in the conference call, "This is all well and good, but how do we know we won’t be discussing the same issue a year from now?" Let’s look at the steps Billabong took and its half

Sometime late afternoon West Coast time, Billabong is going to release their half yearly numbers and have a conference call on those results. In the meantime, as most of you may know, trading on their stock has been suspended pending an announcement. That announcement may have something to do with this article stating that Billabong has received