Word: belgians
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...gamble, one of those hugely risky decisions that can make or break a company - and in this case broke it. In late 1997, the Belgian airline Sabena was poised to order 17 new Airbus planes, to renew and expand its fleet of 37. At the last minute, the order mysteriously doubled to 34 aircraft. The price tag would be $1 billion - five times the company's entire capital at the time. Even more surprisingly, Sabena's board of directors had neither a business plan justifying the higher number nor a watertight financing arrangement in place when they approved the deal...
Earlier this month, the Belgian-Dutch financial-services giant Fortis made a startling announcement: For the first time in its history, the value of its equity portfolio had dropped below the €12.5 billion the company paid for it. Under accounting rules the firm will have to write off the difference of about €2.1 billion. The main culprit was the group's insurance operations, whose investments have been ravaged by the cratering stock market. "We've not seen such volatility in the history of the world," says Jozef de Mey, chief executive of the Fortis AG insurance subsidiary. Wait...
...stick with the Belgian Chocolate...
...property. "Lleyton is a Jekyll and Hyde," says his mother Cherilyn. "What you see out there on that court is not him." He recently hired a hometown buddy as a one-man entourage to have someone to discuss Australian football with. (Apparently his tennis-pro girlfriend Kim Clijsters, a Belgian, isn't up to the task...
...Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team surrounded him in the peloton and provided protection so perfect it came to be known as the Blue Guard and the Lancemobile. "We put this team together specifically for this course, and it's the best team I've ever seen," said Belgian team director Johan Bruyneel, a former cyclist who rode in seven Tours...