I won't say clairvoyant quite yet, but having quoted Hank Greenberg yesterday in connection with weathering market storms, here comes the ex-AIG chief lashing out against the company's record $7.81 billion first-quarter net loss.

An aggravated Greenberg wants answers—and the annual meeting postponed: "Several top shareholders of AIG have called me expressing deep concern about the persistent and seemingly endless destruction of value at AIG,'' said Greenberg in a regulatory filing. Given his formidable reputation--just ask his sons--the fight surely has just begun.

As dramatist Edward Albee once said: "You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are."

Shaking the eastern hemisphere is G.V. Prasad, CEO of India's second largest pharma company, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. "The U.S. is a complete mess," declares Prasad, speaking of how our economy is dragging down financings and market caps in the global pharma market.

Everywhere save India and China, that is. NYSE-listed (RDY) Dr. Reddy's, a global research-based pharma company with a big presence in custom and generic drugs, has been busy expanding its reach into Europe and the U.S. With strategic “string-of-pearls” acquisitions including units of Roche, BASF, and this April, a $59 million deal with Dow Pharma, it's no wonder he's bullish at home.

Corporate India figures in again as Hewlett-Packard targets a $13 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems. Coming off a 62% first-quarter profit decline, EDS has been fending off "intense competition" from Indian rivals such as Infosys and Cognizant.

HP CEO Mark Hurd wants a piece of IBM's deeply-entrenched position in the lucrative tech services area; should HP and EDS marry, they would have roughly $39.4 billion in services revenue, compared with IBM's $54.1 billion last year.

Jeff Heilman

5/13/08