About
Hello, Hola, Ciao, Bonjour! We sell cases and covers for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Galaxy and more! Follow us, like us and join us, wherever in the world you are. Peace!
All feedback (14,812)
a***8 (449)- Feedback left by buyer.
More than a year ago
Verified purchase
Good item well packaged and delivered on time thanks
2***b (276)- Feedback left by buyer.
More than a year ago
Verified purchase
Fast delivery excellent
e***u (988)- Feedback left by buyer.
More than a year ago
Verified purchase
As described, with fast & free delivery. Made a great gift - thank you!
m***m (852)- Feedback left by buyer.
More than a year ago
Verified purchase
Great item thank you. +++
2***8 (163)- Feedback left by buyer.
More than a year ago
Verified purchase
Brilliant!
b***o (929)- Feedback left by buyer.
More than a year ago
Verified purchase
Love it :)
Reviews (1)
May 01, 2014
Excellent read for anyone interested in business, football and politics.
Like most people I knew very little about Roman Abramovich other than that he bought Chelsea FC and pumped loads of money into the team. I had my preconceptions about him, and it wasn't until he was mentioned in a book by William Davies (The Rich: A New Study Of The Species) that I wanted to learn more.
Abramovich: The Billionaire From Nowhere is the only biography that has ever been written about him, so if you're looking for something about him there's very little choice. That's partly because Abrmovich is pretty secretive, very rarely gives interviews, and tries to keep his private and business life hidden.
In that respect, the authours Dominic Midgley and Chris Hutchins have done a pretty good job in putting together 331 pages on the man.
We learn that he was orphaned as a child, grew up first with his uncle's family and then his grandparents in Moscow, before starting his own market stall when private enterprise became legal following the collapse of the soviet union. Here, he lived in a small one-bedroom flat in Moscow and sold dolls.
The book doesn't go into much detail about Abramovich's early business, other than he and his first wife were able to 'live a little more comfortably than most ordinary Russians' at the time. Personally, I'd heard stories of Abramovich selling toothpaste, perfume, deodorant and rubber ducks, which I would have liked to have learned more about in this book. It is pretty scant on detail about this period.
Quite how Abramovich made the leap from market trader to oil millionaire is also rather vague. The book suggests he spotted the price gap between Russian oil and the cost of oil in west, got an export licence. Naturally, Abramovich is very secretive about this period and there are various claims about how he could afford his first shipment of oil and how he managed to sweet-talk various customs officials.
Abramovich's big break cam with the acquisition of Sibneft, an oil extraction and production company, for $100m with his then partner Boris Berezovsky. The firm was later valued at £15 billion, which shows just what a bargain the oligarch got when Boris Yeltsin was selling off state assets to keep Russia afloat. The impression from the book is that most of the financial dealings of this business were through a complex web of holding companies, share dilutions and tax loopholes.
The general impression given of Abramovich is that he is a highly-likeable and generous man, whose strength is getting along with people and spotting opportunities. This is illustrated in the later stages of the book by the fact that Abramovich has been one of the few oligarchs to avoid the wrath of Russia's current president Vladimir Putin. Mikhail Kordokovsky was controversially jailed and Boris Berezovsky spent the last decade of his life an exile in London.
Abramovich's purchase from Ken Bates of Chelsea FC is put down to his passion for sport, his desire to live in London, his quest for respectable status but most tellingly what one oligarch describes as 'the cheapest insurance policy in history'.
Why an insurance policy? Because Abramovich was well aware that Putin could turn on him, but with a firm public profile and business in London, he could live in Britain to avoid being arrested.
Abramovich's vast personal army of body guards, assistants, pilots, his yachts, planes, homes and helicopters are described.
Overall, a must read for business, politics and sport fans.