Biz Buzz: Poaching at any price

How bad can the issue of poaching another firm’s key talents degenerate into? Very bad, apparently, especially if the companies involved are broadcast networks.

According to our sources, the management at “Network A” is now chafing under the “pirating” activities of “Network T” (and not its traditional rival, “Network G”) given the huge sums involved.

No less than six of Network A’s top talents have been approached by Network T, which has been luring people into its fold with the promise of hefty pay checks. In particular, television talents who are paid by Network A the industry standard rate of P200,000 per shooting day are being offered as much as P800,000—a 300-percent increase—by officials of Network T (a few have jumped ship, but most are holding firm… for now).

Of course, poaching has long been an industry practice and talents are always free to go where they please once existing contracts expire, but industry observers are scratching their heads as to where Network T is getting its money (or more importantly, how it is justifying its expenses to its stakeholders).

The executives of Network A, on the other hand, are on the verge of declaring an “all-out war” after they learned that their top male talent was “brazenly” offered by Network T a three-year deal. The total package? A whopping and never before seen P1 billion. Looks like a war is brewing.—Daxim L. Lucas

Whodunnit?

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Francis Chua has been on the receiving end of brickbats of late, including criticism from unnamed sources supposedly coming from inside his 20,000-member business organization.

But the businessman told Biz Buzz recently that he was unfazed, even when he was criticized by a certain government official for leading the business group’s stand on renewable energy (he doesn’t want to swallow everything hook, line and sinker because some elements of the plan may actually cause power prices to rise, he said).

“All my members want is for power rates not to rise anymore because it’s taking up a large part of their expenses,” he said. “We don’t even want to be promised that rates will go down.”

“But we certainly don’t want rates to go up,” Chua added—something he fears will happen with the current version of the government’s renewable energy plan.

So who’s behind the attacks on him? Chua won’t say, but wears a smirk that told Biz Buzz that he knew which energy-linked conglomerate was behind it.—Daxim L. Lucas

DJ Ruffy’s new ‘constwituency’

When Biz Buzz asked whether he is into practical shooting, the new customs commissioner, Ruffy Biazon, said, “No.” What he probably meant was, he is not a shooting buddy of President Noynoy Aquino. “Hindi ako kabarilan,” he said.

In fact, the Marine general’s son favors an H&K USP Compact 9mm. That’s what he shows in one of his Facebook walls. With someone who has to have two Facebook accounts (that is, for the same identity), it’s easy to believe when he says he’s a social media nut. And if you take that number lightly, would 13,781 twitter followers not convince you?

According to Twitter Counter, there was a spike in the number of Biazon’s followers during the week before his first day at the Bureau of Customs on Sept. 19. From barely 12,000 on Sept. 12, the self-declared “ex-legislator who can’t keep his mind still and [his] keyboard unused” gained about 100 new followers daily during those seven days. The Twitter stats tracker predicts that Biazon’s “cons-twit-uency” will reach 20,000 in another six months.

But guns and social media are not what he talks about when asked about his hobbies. “I’m a DJ and I like playing ’80s music.” New Wave hits were the rave during his high-school days when he learned the tricks of the turntable.

He loves spinning the discs so much that he’s still at it, at times playing for the public during parties. “Ako naman eh, basta pakainin mo lang.” A meal is enough for his disc jockeying fee. His last such ‘gig’ was during the Department of Budget and Management’s anniversary party last April.

Where Biazon is now seems far from the things he does in his private time and what he would have preferred to do in government—he had asked for either the tourism or defense post. Would he be able to improve what is perceived to be one of the most corrupt state agencies? As he says on his website (www.ruffybiazon.ph), “I accept challenges that I know I have the ability and means to overcome.”—Ronnel W. Domingo

Buy-in brewing?

Industry sources present at the recent 4th National Coffee Summit said the coffee shop market in Metro Manila is nearly saturated, making competition very tough. Yet, surprise, surprise… At the sidelines of the same summit, one industry member was overheard asking another: “If a foreign company were to offer acquiring Starbucks in the Philippines, do you think they would consider it?” Asked about the “foreign company,” the industry member, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the matter, said only that an “Indonesian multinational” is interested in the Philippine operations of Starbucks. Perhaps, if the offer is right?—Riza T. Olchondra

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