Old time's sake. (Wall Street West).In the 1980s, it sometimes seemed like any available piece of land or business in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. was being bought by the Japanese. Much of downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or was purchased by Japanese insurance giants, while books were published warning about the cutting-edge companies and technologies that were being acquired by Japan Inc. But then the 1990s came, and Japan's perma-recession. American investment bankers Investment Banker A person representing a financial institution that is in the business of raising capital for corporations and municipalities. Notes: An investment banker may not accept deposits or make commercial loans. and business brokers have hardly heard boo from the island nation since. So it was a bit of a surprise that City of Industry-based Joico Laboratories Inc., a maker of hair-care products distributed to salons, was acquired by Zotos International Inc., a subsidiary of Toyko-based Shiseido Co. Ltd. Behind the big hairdos, a worldwide war for control and survival in the professional hair care market in on. "This is an industry in consolidation,' said Ed Bagdasarian, managing director with Brentwood-based Barrington Associates, which brokered the deal for Joico. "You must either offer the full line of professional hair care products or die." Salons, and sales reps who visit salons, do not want to be bothered by ordering from dozens of different sources. "They want onestop shopping for all hair care products," said Bagdasarian. Zotos was offering some hair products, and Joico others, but together the two companies make the world's third-largest distributor of professional hair care products, with broad product lines. By the way, one of Joico's hot lines is named "Spiker." It is a gel that colors hair, and also holds the head fur into the spike patterns seen both on Wall Street charts and in teenager hairdos. Are the Japanese finally coming out of their shell again? "No," answered Bagdasarian. "This was a very good fit between the companies, but we haven't seen a lot of Japanese buyers of late." Contributing columnist columnist, the writer of an essay appearing regularly in a newspaper or periodical, usually under a constant heading. Although originally humorous, the column in many cases has supplanted the editorial for authoritative opinions on world problems. Benjamin Mark Cole Mark Cole is a multi-instrumentalist blues and roots musician based in Gloucester, UK Music Mark primarily writes and performs blues music but also writes and performs music influenced by other American roots music genres such as americana, cajun, zydeco, bluegrass and writes about the local investment community for the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Business Journal. His new book is "The Pied Pipers Pied Piper charms children of Hamelin with music. [Children’s Lit.: “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” in Dramatic Lyrics, Fisher, 279–281] See : Enchantment of Wall Street: How Analysts Sell You Down the River," published by Bloomberg Press. |
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