'Other People's Money'

This is a movie about business. In this movie, Danny de Vito plays a 'takeover' lawyer, a lawyer who wants to get control of a company by buying all the shares, usually in order to close the company and sell off all the assets a company has. In the movie he is trying to take over a company called 'New England Wire and Cable'. The company produces wires and cables for telephone and cable TV.

In this speech, Danny de Vito talks to the shareholders at a general meeting of the shareholders. He is trying to convince them to vote to close down the company. He uses a lot of interesting and useful business vocabulary.

1. Listen to the speech, try to understand as much as you can.

2. Look at this vocabulary:
fibre optics =  a new form of  communications technology
obsolescence = out of date, useless now
be broke = have no money
go broke = lose all your money
increasing share = the part of the market your company has is increasing
shrinking market = the total market is getting smaller
it's going down the tubes = going bad (idiom)
slow but sure = it will definitely happen, there's no way to stop it
buggy whip =  a buggy is a small wagon drawn by a horse, a whip is something you use to beat the horse to make it go faster
sign the death certificate = when someone dies, a doctor has to sign an official document
collect the insurance = get the insurance money after someone has died
invest in something with a future = invest in a better company
bleed your money = when a company loses money like blood from a cut
stock =  the amount of money invested in a company. The stock is divided into shares, which the public can buy
check it out = look at something carefully to see if it's true or correct
make a few bucks = make money, get rich
buck = dollar
liquidator =  a lawyer who takes a poorly performing company and breaks it up, selling all the assets and giving the cash back to the shareholders
liquid =  cash

3. Listen to the speech again. Try to hear the vocabulary in the speech and understand more.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Just leave a comment.