Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Leprechaun Redux: Ireland's fake €100bn+ of net exports in 2021

A 3D printed Apple logo in front of an Irish flag. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

In the normal National Accounts of a country net exports (value of exports of goods and services minus the value of imports) is one of the key measures in GDP (gross domestic product). The merchandise or goods exports typically are produced in the country during a quarter or year. However, in Ireland, the National Accounts for 2021 will show that the majority of net goods exports will have been produced in countries such as China. In the first 3 quarters of the year, the net value of goods that physically left Ireland or arrived was €53bn and the net value of goods produced and sold elsewhere was €78bn — the value of the latter that will be in Irish GDP will exceed €100bn for the year 2021 and will be about a quarter of GDP.

I say that the €100bn+ is fake as it is motivated by multinational tax avoidance through profit shifting to Ireland (while the funds could be in a United States bank). The value of the so-called 'exports' is large while the value of so-called 'imports' is very low.

Wednesday, December 08, 2021

Over 10,000 tech startups bought by bigger firms in 2021

Refinitiv, the global financial data firm, says that 2021 has been a record year for mergers and firm acquisitions (M&A) across the world. Refinitiv itself was acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSEG) in January.

Refinitiv estimates that in the technology sector the number of deals to buy startups with a value less than a billion dollars, will number about 10,400 in 2021 — that's a rise of over 60% on the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

The level was 6,882 in the dot-com bubble year of 2000, and 2013 was at a decade low of 3,351.

The tech sector now constitutes 20% of the M&A market and with a value of US$888.2bn of announced deals to the end of September, the all-time high for the year will be above $1trn.

Friday, December 03, 2021

Founder conflicts often trigger entrepreneurial failure

Founder conflicts are one of the leading causes of entrepreneurial failure according to The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021.

In 2007 Mark Zuckerberg declared “I want to stress the importance of being young and technical ...Young people are just smarter.

However, contrary to the popular myth, researchers say the best entrepreneurs tend to be middle-aged. The French have a saying "si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait!" (if youth only knew, if age only could!). Typically, entrepreneurs mature and mellow with age!

The average age of successful business founders, based on US Census Bureau data is 45. That’s “among the top 0.1% of startups based on growth in their first five years.” It is 40 years of age for tech startups.

The researchers compiled a list of 2.7m company founders who hired at least one employee between 2007 and 2014.