September 22, 2009

Will Standard Chartered Be the First Foreign Company to List on an Indian Exchange?

According to the Wall Street Journal:

 U.K.-based financial-services company Standard Chartered PLC is expected to file paperwork with Indian securities regulators as soon as this week to become the first foreign company to list its shares on an Indian stock exchange, according to people familiar with the matter.

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 22, 2009 at 08:53 PM in Globalization, International Finance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 16, 2009

Disintermediation: Vertical Integration in Cult Bands

After a seven year hiatus, the British pop band Cornershop has released its new album, Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast. The album is self-published; there appears to be no record company other than the band itself. In the U.S., the CD is available through Amazon as a $36.98 import. But the band sells it directly on its own site for 10 British pounds, payable through Paypal. This includes shipping world-wide:

SHIPPING COSTS, TIMES AND METHODS All prices include package and postage worldwide. Cornershop endeavour to despatch your online order within 3-5 working days of receipt (subject to stock availability). Please allow up to 28 days for delivery when an item is out of stock. All digital downloads (MP3s) are simply & immediately downloaded by yrselves after Paypal procedure. In need of shop help? Please contact info@cornershop.com

This is certainly not the first album to be released directly by the band without a record company, but is less commonplace among popular bands (Cornershop's Brimful of Asha reached #1 in the UK in 1998. 

A sign of things to come?

Posted by Anupam Chander on September 16, 2009 at 08:49 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack