Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

I’d like to thank Our Friend Tim for allowing me to play in his playground while he’s out riding fences, wish him well on that vacation, and assure you that you’ll be getting no Proustian references from me. (I’m a Joyce man, myself.) By way of further introduction, I’ll also let you know that my knowledge of and familiarity with the big world of business news is a bit more narrow than Tim’s. So, I’ll just direct you to IPO Central to find out what that Och-Ziff Capital Management offering is all about.

As for the iPhone, have you heard anything about that? Mr. Jobs and Apple have been their typical understated selves with the release of the fanciest phone ever in the history of the world. Still, as great and fun as it looks, all these stories about how half a million of the little wonders were sold at Apple and AT&T stores this past weekend are a bit silly, no? Can we give them perhaps a full week before we rate it a success or failure? Thanks.

Meanwhile, in my little niche, the government of Mongolia reached agreement with Ivanhoe Mines (and partner Rio Tinto) that should enable Ivanhoe to go ahead with its Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in the Gobi Desert. (How’s that for a narrow focus?) I know. You’re asking yourself if I just seriously brought up the Gobi Desert, but the agreement is kind of a big deal in the metals and mining sector, as the Mongolian government’s insistence on taking as much as a 50% stake in some projects there has held up development for such multinational giants as BHP Billiton, CVRD, and Xstrata. And, as Mongolia’s situated right there next to China, those companies want in on that as quickly as they can.

Thanks for having me. I’ll be here all week. (Well, not Wednesday.)