10 Awesome Financial Events of the last Decade

2010 marks the end of yet another decade that witnessed the most diversified economic upheavals. While it began with the dreaded Y2K fear and the busted dot com bubble, there were stock market highs and lows, 9/11twin tower attack, Iraq war, and the economical slump and recession that painted the canvas of ugly memories. But as we all know there are two faces of the same coin, last ten years were not mere assimilation of bounty of financial fiasco but also some business events that succeeded to shine out in the fading economic conditions. So lets have a glimpse into these awesome financial events that made the top financial stories of the decade.

1.)  9/11 economic stimulus package by Bush(2002)


As the world saw World Trade Towers crumble to dust, while 2,973 innocent lives laid down to peace, the attack also made a significant economic impact on United States. President George W. Bush then signed a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus bill into law on March 9, 2002. The bill accounted for the boosting the economy and working in the field of providing employment, encouraging business investments and so on.

2.)  Ebay and PayPal tie a partnership knot(2002)


The combination of an auction giant and an emerging electronic payment system with a deal valued at $1.5 billion became the prime key to eBay’s growth in the online marketplace. Currently, PayPal operates in 190 markets, and it manages over 73 million accounts. It has been reported that PayPal’s total value of transactions in the first quarter of 2009 was nearly $16 billion, 10% up, year over year.

3.)  EMC acquires VMware (2003)


Storage specialist EMC acquired Vmware for about $635 million. The world leader in information storage and management acquired the software company VMware that helped EMC reach further into the world of utility computing. As for EMC, the company achieved a significant market authority that it would never have commanded otherwise solely. Together they have taken the IT industry to great levels with server virtualization thus paving way for development of new applications and technologies. With the recent trio with Cisco, the three plan to accelerate Pervasive Data Center Virtualization and Private Cloud Infrastructures.  With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 150,000 customers and 22,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization.

4.)  Google  IPO(2004)

This was first time ever Google had strangely proposed initial public offering of its stocks that actually turned many Google employees into millionaires instantaneously. . The Google IPO that took place on 19 August 2004, offered 19,605,052 shares at a price of $85 per share. The sale of $1.67 billion gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion. Google saw an outstanding stock performance after its first IPO launch when its shares hit $700 on 31 October 2007.

5.)  China emerges as World Financial Power in 2005


According to economists, China’s GDP grew 10.0% in 2003, 10.1%, in 2004, and even faster 10.4% in 2005.Country’s per capita income has grown at an average annual rate of more than 8% despite the global recession.  Producing $7.9 trillion, it places itself as the world’s third largest economy after U.S. and Japan. The most populated country is actually the largest banker of U.S. with its $800 billion.

6.)  UJF + Mitsubishi to form the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ(2006)


Well this merger is said to be one of the most important financial event of the decade that created the world’s largest bank in terms of total assets. The Japanese bank BTMU , was launched on 1st January, 2006 through the merger of The Bank of Tokyo –Mitsubishi Ltd. And the UFJ Bank Ltd. BMTU’s has more than 600 domestic branches and agencies while 99 international branches all across the globe.

7.)  Billionaire Warren Buffet’s Billion dollar donation(2007)


I know many of you may not take donation by world’s third richest man as a surprise. But why I count it amongst the top financial events is because giving away 83% of your multi-billion dollar fortune as donation is worth major acknowledgement. Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett made history in June 2006 as he announced the donation worth $30.7 billion for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The true philanthropist has lived all his life with humility and simplicity. Fortune magazine praised Buffet saying, “Typical Buffett: rational, original, breaking the mold of how extremely rich people donate money.”

8.)  The rising housing and stock market ( 2007)


Well probably we were heading towards an economic depression soon but 2007 was a year that also saw the landmark financial moment when the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke two records in just a year. On April 27, 2007, the Dow created a milestone as it closed above 13,000, first time ever in the economic history. Markets continued to grow and Housing prices soared high. And just few months later on Oct 9, Dow hit another all time high closing of 14,164.53. But the bitter memories of what happened few months later and how the world economy smashed and plunged into the pool of global recession, are still afresh in our minds.

9.)  ABN Amro take over by RBS(2007)


A consortium comprising RBS, Fortis, and Banco Santander, acquired the Dutch bank ABN AMRO in 2007.This was the biggest banking takeover in history worth US$ 100 billion. The bank was one of the largest financial institutions in the world that had significant presence in European nations.

10.)  Obama economic Stimulus Package (2009)


The recession created an alarming situation amongst the investors and Obama just did not want people to lose their trust on the finance industry. The $787 billion economic stimulus package was thus approved by Congress in February, 2009 that included federal tax cuts, expansion of unemployment benefits and other social welfare provisions. It aimed 1.4%-3.8% GDP growth by the end of 2009. Well while it hasn’t reached its set target but Obama’s effort to rebound the economy did reap some fruitful results.
My list may not match with your preferences and I may have missed out some more potential events in the list. But as for the ones mentioned above, these do hold a paramount importance on the pages of the history of the last decade. Oh while it isn’t over as yet, we still have chances of some major event to create another economic forte. Hoping for the recession to finally wrap up and dispatch from the economic curve, we anticipate another decade to witness more awesome financial events.
Lebih baru Lebih lama