| Coles action was not a decent auction
PULL the other one, John! John Wylie, chief adviser on Coles' sale, recently took issue with four criticisms of Coles ("It's time critics gave the Coles board a break", October 13). While he's wrong on all four, I'll deal with two that come from me: Coles' auction process and its poor outcome. Wylie should share the blame with Coles for messing these up. Wylie began his defence of the auction process by misquoting me: "Heard the line about 'this is now the 392nd day since KKR's approach'?" The actual quote was: "Today is day 396 post-KKR1" ("Unfair and unreasonable: how Coles failed to set up a decent auction", September 18). The day Wylie's article appeared was day 421. November 23, the earliest date Coles shareholders will receive $4 cash per share, will be day 462. Wylie complained: "Coles wasn't actually put up for sale when KKR first approached.
Jeff Thelen's Blog
Hi everybody. I'm back from really slacking off from the blog over the holidays. This week, it's just a few random thoughts. How many people are sick at your home, office or school? Seems like everyone in this newsroom is fighting some sort of bug right now. My symptoms are a sore throat, tiredness and aches and pains. I have no congestion, but my nose only runs at night. Wierd, isn't it? Alison Struve blows her nose so much she sounds like a foghorn. Stephanie Luisier and chief photographer Randy Bise both have that "sick sound" when they talk. Was it just me or did the Badgers seem a little unfocused and unprepared for their bowl game? Perhaps it's the long layoff between their last regular season game and the contest on January 1. It was a sort of a fun game to watch, even if it was rather sloppily played.
Edwards: Dems Need Him to Face McCain
WINNSBORO, S.C. (AP) -- A day after getting his "butt kicked" in the Nevada caucuses, presidential candidate John Edwards said Sunday that he's the only Democrat who can successfully take on Republican John McCain. McCain won Saturday's South Carolina GOP primary and Edwards, a former North Carolina senator looking to make the Democratic contest here a three-way race, told reporters that a campaign finance advocate like himself is needed to counter McCain on that issue. "This is a guy who has made central to his political life campaign finance reform. It seems to me we ought to be putting up somebody up against him who's never taken money from special interest packs or Washington lobbyists," said Edwards, who's trailed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in polls. "Between the three of us, that's me." On Saturday, Edwards got 4 percent of support in Nevada, compared with Clinton's 51 percent and Obama's 45 percent.
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