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Groucho's Fact Hunt


Late 70s Norway proposed a deal with volvo for 40% of the company in exchange for a share of the new Oseberg oil field. High level - brokered by Norwegian primeminister and volvo CEO, Norway had small industrial base and needed investment to develop its oil reserves, volvo was v successful but lacked the clout to compete with the US giants. Deal was blocked by volvo shareholders (actually passed a majority vote but failed to get a 66% supermajority).

Labelled as one of the worst business decisions in history, as the Oseberg oil field went on to produce approx 200 billion dollars worth of oil, plus natural gas, and volvo declined to (first) a 6.5 billion dollar sale to Ford in the late 90s, then sold at a big loss to a Chinese company.

But it's all easy in hindsight.

Story told here:
 
Clive of India (d 1774) - he of the statue soon to be lashed in the Thames, had a pet giant tortoise called Adwaita. It died in 2006.

That's probably one of the least interesting facts about Clive, tbh, but you can't really talk about him without writing pages. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg with an army.
 
Late 70s Norway proposed a deal with volvo for 40% of the company in exchange for a share of the new Oseberg oil field. High level - brokered by Norwegian primeminister and volvo CEO, Norway had small industrial base and needed investment to develop its oil reserves, volvo was v successful but lacked the clout to compete with the US giants. Deal was blocked by volvo shareholders (actually passed a majority vote but failed to get a 66% supermajority).

Labelled as one of the worst business decisions in history, as the Oseberg oil field went on to produce approx 200 billion dollars worth of oil, plus natural gas, and volvo declined to (first) a 6.5 billion dollar sale to Ford in the late 90s, then sold at a big loss to a Chinese company.

But it's all easy in hindsight.

Story told here:

Norway now have the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world at 1 trillion dollars in assets ($195000 per person) Whilst being extremely complex, I can’t imagine Norway running into extreme financial difficulties anytime soon.
Shows what can be achieved with social democracy and natural resources.
 
Norway now have the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world at 1 trillion dollars in assets ($195000 per person) Whilst being extremely complex, I can’t imagine Norway running into extreme financial difficulties anytime soon.
Shows what can be achieved with social democracy and natural resources.
Harsh on Sweden as they were the same country at the turn of the 20th century. Separated and Norway got to keep all the N Atlantic coastline and (subsequently discovered) oil reserves.
 
Harsh on Sweden as they were the same country at the turn of the 20th century. Separated and Norway got to keep all the N Atlantic coastline and (subsequently discovered) oil reserves.
Yeah Norway was essentially a colony of Sweden until 1902 I think. Was governed by Denmark previous to that. I read arguments that Norway’s egalitarian cultural philosophy partly stems from the theory that they never had a strong or numerous bourgeoisie class.
Sniff it
 
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