Just looking over the thread about Villiars Inc, and all the sneaky corp manuevers Villiars has done in the past , and comparing him to some of the otehr take over kings. This isn't just nano second buyout vs big lump of gold. Just the over all, who's the best corporate takeover shark type.

I'm going to have to go with Lofwyr. Wilhelmina Graft-Beloit was no slouch, and he outmaneuvered her like she wasn't there.

~J

Myself as well. I'd rather not be dragon chow.

My personal vote was R.V. just because he's done so damn much in so little time. Imagine if he had Lowfyr's life span...

lofwyr. imagine how he performs a hostile corporate takeover

Deus.

Heh - I think I'd have to go Deus or Lofwyr (voted for the big draco). They both are NASTY in taking over corps.

Lofwyr. 'Nuff said.

Gotta say Lofwyr, for the simple fact that unlike most of the rest of these guys, he isn't letting anyone else play in his sandbox. Sole shareholder, baby.

Damien Knight.

C'mon, the guy got his whole start-up fortune in just 60 seconds!

I'm with HMHVV on Damien Knight. Although Lofwyr isn't bad either.

The way I see it, Damien Knight success is essentially owed to his own computer technical skill as well as Lucien Cross' and the rest of Acquisitech teams. He had the right software to take advantage of some loophole the corporate mind created when they rebuilt stock markets on the Matrix (probably some security mecanism intended to prevent a reedition of what happened when the 29 Virus stroke). IMO, he's a "hacker" (cracker for the Jargon compatible) in finance: there was a "security breach" in stock markets, he used it once and now it has been patched.

Now, he learnt to be good at board powerplay, and is of course competent in corporate management, but I don't think he has the best financial technical skill around. In the end, that kind of guys have legion of specialists working for them.

My podium would be Lofwyr, Art Dankwalther and Richard Villiers.

Lofwyr rules the category simply because biology gives him the edge with attributes and karma. However, if he spend too much time on other things (practical corporate management, dragons' turf war, Jewel of Memory), he could miss the loophole in the new law passed in country A or the breaking point reached by company B's equity.

Art Dankwalther happens to be the best regarding knowledge of finance, as well as mathematics and statistics. I put him here because he is supposed to be one of the greatest mind in finance according to the book. Lofwyr might have kept the habit to treat finance as all the other business he treated in his long existence: that is, people against people. He's certainly a master at manipulating the people behind the corporations to achieve his goals. Dankwalther's job was to manipulate options on the abstract level, with formula and so on. By the way, the Nanosecond Buyout was also an operation of this kind ; actually, the only interest in acting so quickly was to prevent people from intervening in the process.

Richard Villiers is not as brilliant as Lofwyr, and not as knowledgeable as Dankwalther, but has a bit of both, plus the advantage of not being a dragon and not being an obscure financial analysts. So to speak, the two other a number crusher with lots of dice to roll, while Villiers is a well-rounded face. Lofwyr is famous but feared, which is not always a good thing in business. Villiers can play that personal card that the other don't have. Plus, he's surrounded by a good team (Samantha, Darren, Miles Lanier). Lofwr certainly have competent people around him (J-P Priault, Bremen and the like) but their reputation is probably not better than their "master".

Isn't there a big-ass Japanese AA that specializes in this very thing? Yakashima?

From what I've read, I'd have to say Lofwyr.