Forbes, Feb 11, 2013

choi

(1) New Money. We've uncovered 28 ten-figured fortunes in the last three months. Here's a sample. (in a column titled Welcome to the Club)

Note:
(a) The report parades four new (us dollar) billionaires. The last:

"Nicholas Woodman
GOPRO
US
$1.2 BILLION

The 37-year-old fouonder of extreme-sports camera maker GoPro sells the perfect tool for generation YouTube. A $200 million cash infusion from Apple manufacturer Foxconn values the company at $2.25 billion."
(b) Before going public (through initial public offering (IPO)), an investor can buy a percentage of the private company. How much money for what percentage is the issue.
(c) So Foxconn is moving beyond manufacturing.


(2) Parmy Olson, Calling China. After Nokia canned them and their open source mobile platform, a group of engineers decided to relaunch and looked East. Good Luck. (In the column Entrepreneurs; Globetrotters)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parm ... ndroid-alternative/

Note:
(a) open source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
(Opening the source code:  the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design)
(b) The article opens with the sentence: "Finland is no longer the suicide capital of the world–it lost that distinction in 2007."
(i) List of countries by suicide rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
(WHO: S Korea (No 1; 31.7 suicides per 100,000 people per year in 2011); China (No 6; 22.23); Japan (No 7; 21.29); Finland (No 19; 16.8); US (No 34; 12.0))
(ii) In 1990 Finland registered the highest suicide rate: 30.3 suicides per 100,000 people per year (total; divided into  male 49.3 and female 12.4).

Click Finland in
Country reports and charts available. World Health Organization, undated
http://www.who.int/mental_health ... ports/en/index.html
("Graph 1 shows the changes of suicide rates over time, from oldest to most recent sets of data available in five-year intervals, by gender, as well as the total suicide mortality rate")
(c) The article cuts to the chase: "their company, Jolla (pronounced YO-la, it means 'dinghy' in Finnish)."
(i) dinghy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinghy
(ii) La Jolla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jolla
(in California; section 1 Origin of the name)

(d) D.Phone  迪信通
(e) The article ends with a metaphor: "steering his dinghy right into the squall."

squall (n; probably of Scandinavian origin; First Known Use 1699):
"a sudden violent wind often with rain or snow"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/squall

(3) Meghan Casserly, Copycat. Keith Belling's plan for the cool snack food popchips is modeled on the outrageous success of vitaminwater, from its private equity backing to its celebrity shilling. Crazy--or can lightning strike twice?  (in the column America's Most Promising Company: Popchips)

Note:
(a) I do not like it(the snack; so I did not read the artyicle).
(b) The sidebar titled "Snack Boffos * * * and Busts" has two hits and two misses."

One of the hits is: "Stacy's Pita Chips  Stacey Madison and her husband were selling fresh pitas out of a food truck and started making chips out of day-old [pita] bread. She split from her husband and was selling more than $60 million in snacks before PepsiCo's Frito-Lay bought it in 2005 for an estimated $250 million."   

(c) boff (n; perhaps from Box OFFice; First Known Use: 1946):
"1: a hearty laugh
* * *  
3: something that is conspicuously successful : HIT"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boffos

You have to go to the web dictionary to see its unusual pronunciation and plral forms ("boffs or boffos") which are pronounced the same.