The Maven: The Hidden Beauty of Acquisitions

Fireworks in Frankfurt

Fireworks over July Fourth weekend in Frankfurt alert. Read anywhere you want about the Airbus ouster of Noel Forgeard and Gustav Humbert, the two causes (or victims) of flagrant production delays. Was this pair in charge of the world's largest large plane producer or Microsoft(MSFT Quote)? Just wondering.

Anyhow, a glassmaker is now in charge of Airbus. "An odd choice," an aviation consultant calls the appointment of Christian Streiff, who has spent most of his career at Saint Gobain Group, banging out glass. But if he can solve basic production problems, the analysts continues in The Wall Street Journal, maybe he da' man. To its credit, the Journal then goes on to talk about the company's cumbersome two-headed organization and the success of Boeing's smaller planes. Problems seem bigger than one man, even a glassmaker.

The International Herald Tribune works the insider trading scandal into its lead, rightfully, as a parallel cause of the old guard's demise. French regulators have focused on some stock sales before announcements of big shareholder sales and delays (I hate when that happens.) The IHT also trumpets Streiff's international business experience. Making a big deal of an executive's experience working across borders these days is a little like saying someone "is a good people person." But what do I know?

Non-Farm Non-Event

Not much, at least about this coming Friday's non-farm payroll numbers,which should lead to more hand-wringing than anything else during this truncated week of trading. This morning MarketWatch said that a survey it conducted pegs the job growth increase at 160,000, which would probably be welcome news for the market: not too cold, not too hot. MarketWatch wasn't totally clear on whether it was surveying economists, job providers or Larry Ellison, but that's OK. To quote David Stockman: No one knows what's going on with all these numbers, anyway. We might as well hope for the best. Just make sure you also brace for the worst.