David Rosenthal: belief

Transcript context

…There existed an asset here where it took some work, and it took doing some ugly things, but it was incredibly valuable. There were not other bidders, or at least there were not other bidders that the government was selling to. I think there was one other bidder. Certainly, the political influence and lobbying from both Arnault and Lazar really helped him get this. This wasn't just like he walked off the street, but nobody was clamoring for this asset. There were market inefficiencies, and then Arnault created even more market inefficiencies to make it so that the perfect price discovery of this Boussac empire was not found. But he figures out how to do this over and over again, where he finds things that are much more valuable than the price they will end up selling for because of weird idiosyncratic things in that market and the people that own those assets at that particular time. All right, before we get to LVMH, there are two quick things that I think are worth pointing out about the transaction to end up with Dior. Bernard says less than he used to, which I think is a thing that happens to billionaires, where they learn that all the stuff that got them here and that they used to be able to say to be controversial, really doesn't serve them anymore.…

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