Howard Davidowitz
Howard Davidowitz
buyers cheap deals money numbers potential work
Most of these deals work because of cheap money. Money is getting more expensive. The potential buyers will be more cautious. They are reworking their numbers to see if they can get a return.
ball company easy few gigantic last money performance pot smaller time turn
The performance of the company over the last few years has been very erratic. It's also a smaller player. It was time for Milstein to take it easy and make a gigantic pot of money and turn the ball over to someone else.
fickle game impress money numbers potential public rule stays
The rule of the game is go public for the money when you have the numbers to impress potential investors. Retail, and especially apparel, is so fickle that nothing stays the same forever.
bad company musical performance
When a company has bad performance and new owners, look for musical chairs,
business mad promoted retailers
Those retailers who promoted like mad got the business and they won.
catering classes customer familiar industry known opportunity retail within
Within the retail industry Federated is known for catering to the classes and May to the masses. For the May customer, it's an opportunity to get more upscale merchandise that a Bloomingdales' customer is familiar with.
alley bowling business came complex essentials greatest running screaming
When Sears Essentials came in, you had a lot of morons running around screaming this was the greatest thing. I said it was a bowling alley with no customers. This business of going off-the-mall is much more complex than it looks.
controlled earnings expect expenses good gross happened inventory margins quarter retailers third together
What happened in the third quarter is that retailers controlled inventory and expenses tremendously. So expect to see pretty good gross margins and expect to see inventories down. Put it all together and earnings will be fair.
execution problem
The problem at Linens 'n Things is execution.
available billion companies equity private
The private equity companies have never had this much money. They have $125 billion available for acquisitions.
hang increasing players profile risk taking weakest
Bon-Ton is one of the weakest players in a very weak sector. It is increasing its risk profile tremendously by taking on debt. How does this all hang together?
buying losing market share
Bon-Ton has been losing market share and now it's buying more losers, who have also been losing market share,
number store
We've had an astronomical number of store closings.
buy consumers half measures second
We'll have to see if these measures also will induce consumers to buy more in the second half of the year,