Martha Stewart is a magazine editor, TV presenter and columnist. Her struggle story is a new version of the American dream in the 1990s. From an unknown person, she achieved great success through personal struggle. She founded and published the famous home consultant magazine Martha Stewart Living, with a fixed readership of 2,654.38 million, and has developed into a media empire. Martha's multimedia empire includes three magazines, the most popular American home TV program production, cooking TV channels, radio program production and tens of millions of books distribution "Housewife" magazine. The company named after her is listed on the new york Stock Exchange. As the boss of a listed company, she didn't make false accounts, nor did she borrow a lot of money from her own company, and no one bought her favorite famous paintings in the name of the company and took them for herself. She was accused of insider trading, that is, taking the news she heard from market insiders as the basis for her decision on stock trading. And this kind of practice, in the eyes of people in China stock market, is hardly worth mentioning. As an example in the hearts of Americans, Martha was found guilty, which is incredible.
Martha holds a stake in a biotechnology company called ImClone Systems Inc, which has been doing well and has been enthusiastically sought after by the market. In particular, the company is developing a new drug to treat cancer. Once this new drug has obtained the production certificate issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the profits will roll in. Stimulated by this news, the stock price has been rising. However, this new cancer drug failed to pass the FDA test. Sam Waksal, the founder of the company, knew this situation in advance and wanted to sell 72,000 shares in advance, but his lawyer prevented this action, which meant a crime. He gave his shares to his daughter to sell, but failed, but his daughter successfully sold 39,000 shares in her name through Peter, the agent of Merrill Lynch, and cashed in $2.5 million.
Peter is also Martha's stockbroker. During Martha's trip, the stock fell to the selling price of $60 set by Martha. Peter informed Martha to make a decision. Martha immediately sold 3,928 shares and cashed in $228,000. If you sell it a day later, it will be $43,000. All the behaviors are normal. The problem is that when Peter told Martha whether to sell the stock, Martha called vauxhall, the president of the company, to ask if there was any problem inside the company. She wants to know the truth. And this is the insider trading severely cracked down by the US securities law. It is precisely because the new drug for treating cancer was not approved from Waxol that Martha earned an extra $654.38 +0.8 million.
On the one hand, it shows that inside information is really a fortune, and news is the property of every shareholder. Once these inside information is obtained, it is just like stealing other people's property. In the United States, a country where property rights are strictly defined, it is not allowed to steal other people's money under any circumstances. No matter whether this kind of theft is tangible or intangible, as long as it actually steals other people's property, it will be punished as it should be. In order to combat this kind of invisible theft, the United States has been seriously convicted of insider trading in the securities market. 1990, michael milken, a famous junk bond king on Wall Street, was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and fined 1 10 billion dollars for insider trading. Although Martha strongly denied that she had done anything wrong, the investigation evidence of the US Congress showed that Martha was suspected of insider trading and Martha was convicted of lying to investigators. On July 6, 2004, Martha was sentenced.
As a criminal, if he loses his freedom in prison, in the eyes of China people, when he is released from prison, he will be down and out. Many businessmen in China, such as those who fiddled with cars, entrepreneurs who built Holland Village, and even Delong Company, whose capital chain was broken in 2004, lost their efforts for many years. Once businessmen in China are suspected of breaking the law, all their property will be frozen and auctioned to the public. As for what wealth belongs to clean money, it should be owned by individuals at any time, and what wealth belongs to illegal income should be confiscated. Our judicature has not made a detailed distinction. When Delong Company closed down, Delong's state-owned creditors, such as the four major state-owned banks, frozen Delong's assets without any legal means, and even only a few shares of Delong were in these assets. The story that happened in China makes it hard for us to imagine that Martha can still make a lot of money in prison, but the truth is just the opposite. Many shareholders are optimistic about Martha's company. Since Martha was sentenced, stocks have been soaring. On March 3rd this year, the stock closed at $32.04 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 170% during the period. When Martha was in prison, her 29 million Class A shares of the company appreciated by $600 million. Prison did not reduce her wealth, but increased dramatically.
There is a saying in China that "to err is human", especially in modern commercial society, under the control of material desires, it is inevitable that we can't grasp ourselves, but we can't deny our life because of a mistake. Just as the United States respects property rights and absolutely does not allow citizens to steal other people's wealth, when sentencing a criminal, the United States will never exaggerate the scope of sentencing because of something that this person has done. Martha, for example, will be sentenced to insider trading if she violates the law. She will never go online indefinitely to deny all her efforts and confiscate all her property. The United States respects the property rights of criminals just as it respects the property rights of legitimate citizens. At present, we advocate a harmonious society. When enforcing the law in our country, on the one hand, we should severely crack down on criminals, but the sentencing of criminals should be based on specific things and convictions, and the legitimate property rights of criminals should be respected as well as the property rights of legitimate citizens. Otherwise, those who lost all their property because of a wrong behavior may choose to continue to endanger society while regaining their personal freedom.
March 2005 16
Published in Northern Economic Times
A girl who grew up in a depressed family eventually became the second richest woman in the United States with indomitable spirit. Although she was jailed for obstructing judicial investigation and suspected insider trading, she once again ushered in the spring of her career as soon as she got out of prison. Is she Martha, recognized by the industry and the media as the "queen of housekeeping"? Stuart. Recently, Martha turned her attention to female surfers on the Internet, and her goal was to become the leader of the home economics network.
Martha, the American "Queen of Home Economics"? Stuart began to look for female surfers on the Internet. Just last week, Martha's Life Multimedia Company announced that it will officially re-run marthastewart.com, and this new website will become a fully functional information portal. Martha's goal is to become a leader in the field of home economics and lead women on the Internet to pay attention to their lifestyles. In fact, she is getting closer to this goal step by step.
Enter the network and build a home economics community
It is said that marthastewart.com's new website was successfully revised last month. This family originally just introduced Martha? Stuart's website has become a fully functional portal. On this portal, you can see 700 online short films, including Martha's daily TV program and some good ideas of various domestic services, such as how to make the freshest chocolate cake. The website also has a search function. You can search for any domestic service that has been exposed in TV or magazines. Of course, there are more than 700 links to other companies' websites, so as to find the best company that best suits customers' needs.
Besides, Martha, Stewart has decided that this portal will continue to expand into the field of personalization this fall, which will make it easier for people who log on to the website to save, * * * enjoy, collect and interact with information. Many people can even exchange domestic service through this network platform. At present, the click-through rate and registered users of the website are also rising, and a small online housekeeping community is gradually taking shape.
Susan, president of the company? Ryan believes that the new website will be successful because Martha? Stuart is the most credible authority on lifestyle. She said: "We are not afraid of anything because we have great strength. Our content books occupy huge resources, and our creative team is very remarkable. We constantly update the content-you can enjoy it in this online community kingdom. "
Advocate manual sewing
Martha, who likes housework? Stuart is planning a new plan: hand sewing, that is, let more and more young women create their own fashion styles. This plan will start with the cooperation with sewing machinery manufacturing giant SVP. At the beginning of April this year, Martha? Stewart's Vivid Multimedia Company has reached agreements with three subsidiaries of SVP Company-Singh, Fu Shihua Viking and pfaff, and SVP Company provides technical and equipment support. Stewart will vigorously expand the American hand sewing market.
This is a rare action of Martha too Stuart-so far, all Martha's products are made by the company itself, and this is the first time Martha has used other companies' machines. Martha naturally has her reasons for doing this: "The first time I learned to sew, it was on Singer sewing machine, which inspired me." She revealed that there is also a Singh sewing machine with an annual output of 190 1 at home. This is enough to show the position of this brand in her heart.
Martha? Stuart began to advocate hand sewing again. In fact, her behavior has begun to affect some women, who are concerned about Martha's new trend. For example, on the recent reality show in the United States, there appeared a program introducing the beauty of hand-sewing, and many women began to like clothes sewn by themselves. Martha herself is no exception. She once revealed that her wedding dress was sewn by herself.
For her "hand sewing" career, last year, Martha? Stuart also founded a magazine, Blueprint. This magazine mainly talks about how to teach people to sew clothes. At first, this magazine was published twice a year. This year, it has become a bimonthly issue, and it is expected to publish six issues throughout the year. And the number of readers rose sharply from the initial tens of thousands to 250 thousand. For example, one issue of the magazine introduced "How to finish an embroidered gray dress in one day", which was immediately followed by fashionable women.
At present, this craze of hand sewing has spread to young girls, and these girls have joined the army of hand sewing their own clothes. "Many loyal readers of Blueprint have begun to establish their own fashion tastes-I have read a lot and they are all very good-looking." Martha? Stewart proudly said: "I think sewing is such an important thing, especially to let my children know that it is not ironic at all, but also to let them know what thrift is."
4000 shares once made her a prisoner.
Martha? Stuart 194 1 was born in a poor Polish immigrant family in New Jersey. /kloc-When she was 0/3 years old, Martha got a job as a model in new york, and then she got a full scholarship to study at Barnard Women's University in new york. 196 1 year, 20-year-old Stewart was named as one of the "Top Ten Well-Dressed Female College Students" by American Glamour magazine, which led her to find a Yale Law School graduate as her husband, but Martha was disappointed with her married life and decided to find another way. After working as a stockbroker on Wall Street for several years, Martha began to set foot in business from 65438 to 0976, running a gourmet shop near her home. 1982, she wrote for The New York Times, and soon published her first cookbook, Entertainment. In the following years, Martha followed suit with several books such as Quick Cooking and Wedding Banquet, thus becoming a best-selling author.
Later, Martha became the image spokesperson of Kamat Company, the second largest retail group in the United States. This is of course an excellent opportunity to achieve self-expansion. In less than a year, Martha has changed from a "catering service practitioner and writer" to the most famous "lifestyle authority" in the United States, and has become the queen of the American housekeeping kingdom. Martha's own business is also booming.
199 1 year, magazine Martha? Stuart's life came out; 1997 February, Martha? Stewart Life Multimedia Company was announced; 1999 Summer, Martha? The company named after Stewart went public, and she owns more than 63% of the company. 200 1, Martha Stewart squeezed into Businessweek's list of "25 Best Managers in the World in 2000", on an equal footing with the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Mobil Oil and Citigroup.
Martha, who has always been accompanied by good luck, began to go back at the end of 200 1. At the end of 200 1, Martha called her stockbroker and asked him to sell 4000 shares of her biotechnology company Inglon the next day. This eventually turned into a phone call to send her to prison. In June 2003, a federal grand jury formally filed a lawsuit against Martha, who was suspected of nine counts of securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Finally, the court found her guilty and sentenced her to five months imprisonment and five months imprisonment at home.
March 2005, Martha? Stuart finished his words. Since 2006, Martha? Stewart announced his return and implemented the "New Deal" such as establishing magazines and reforming websites. Today, a year later, her "New Deal" has achieved initial results.
Dialogue with Martha Stewart
"People appreciate my lifestyle."
Q: Since you got out of prison, people have always had high expectations for you. How to treat this expectation?
Yes, many people are watching me. To be honest, I have high expectations for myself. I think we have reached an amazing number now-our advertising volume has returned to two years ago (when she was in prison), and the number of registered people on our website is also at an all-time high. We are very satisfied with this. Our magazine has also received more and more attention. Of course, I hope to continue to do my best to focus on domestic service, which is the most important thing for us.
Q: From the time you stopped broadcasting in prison to the time you started broadcasting again, the ratings of Martha Show (a TV program that exists every day) did not drop. How did you do that?
A: Now this program is getting better and better. I really like TV. I think we are winning a stable and enthusiastic audience. In addition, we can win the audience through other channels, such as the Internet and radio. This also keeps the ratings at a certain level. However, in some areas, we are facing competition, such as new york's Viewpoint and oprah winfrey (talk show queen? Winfrey's show). In the final analysis, I think we have different characteristics and different programs, so I'm not worried about anything.
Q: What have you learned from your past hard experiences? What do you think the world has learned from you?
A: I think I get a lot of respect from the American public, of course, in other parts of the world. People appreciate some of my lifestyles, especially when I encounter some unbearable situations. I will never say, "I am very unhappy about all the bad situations." That's it.
Q: Your new magazine blueprint has been listed. The target group of this magazine seems to be young women, about the same age as your daughter Alexis. Now that she has a program on your radio station, will you let her open a column in the magazine?
A: Very likely. We are trying to catch all our customers, including my daughter. As long as she has the ability to design things, why not let her have a try? The purpose of running this magazine is to let everyone design their own lives, which is also the purpose of Blueprint magazine. We are trying to attract young female readers, just as we do in online communities.
Q: It sounds like you are in a good mood. Does that mean everything is back on track?
A: We are already on track and have never deviated.