Romney Lies: He Did Not Start Staples

[UCmeNdc]

Romney Lies: He Did Not Start Staples

Romney's claim that he started Staples is no more valid than an investor who bought Apple stock in 1990 claiming, "I started Apple."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/06/1089253/-Romney-Lies-He-Did-Not-Start-Staples

[Live and Learn]

1. Interesting

Not that we should be surprised. We all know their hypocrisy is limitless.

[wyldwolf]

2. So Romney invented Staples.

[liberal N proud]

3. So if you buy stock when the company is first starting or first goes public, you can claim...

you started the company.

Wow, I wonder how many companies I started? I bought some stock in the company I work for the first day it was spun off as an independent company, that means I started it. WOW!

[Major Hogwash]

4. Send an e-mail to Lawrence O'Donnell at MSNBC. He loves calling Romney a liar.

He shredded Donald Trump for lying.

He would just love to shred Romney.

[grantcart]

5. I haven't heard Romney say "I started Staples" but your link shows that he not only

didn't help in starting it he fought Bains involvement up and down the line.

Interesting, damning and welcomed since I use Staples a lot and it always made me feel bad, lol.

[kmla]

6. Must be true.

I read about it on the internet.

That thing that Al Gore invented...

[Arkana]

7. So "Romney invented Staples" can be the new "Al Gore invented the Internet"?

[Sheepshank]

8. Looks like there was more to it than simply buying stock. Barking at one's own tail doesn't help.

http://whyromney.com/success.php

At Bain Capital, Romney helped start new companies and turned around failing ones. He was behind the start up of Staples. Starting with one store in 1986, Staples now is the world's largest office products company with $24 billion in sales in 2009. (4),(6) He also helped companies such as Sealy, Brookstone, The Sports Authority, and Domino's. (4)

from (4) in the footnotes:

http://www.american.com/archive/2006/december/mitt-romney/

He and two Bain Capital colleagues, Josh Bekenstein and Adam Kirsch, went back to the businesses, got their invoices, and ran the numbers. The exercise provided the Eureka! moment that would come along many more times in Romney’s venture career. Stemberg was right. There was a lot of money in paperclips. After spending three months grilling Stemberg on every conceivable dimension of the proposed business, Romney recommended to his partners that the idea—a company that would be called Staples—deserved an infusion of capital.

That initial investment—about $600,000—paid off brilliantly. Staples started in May 1986 with one store, in the Boston suburb of Brighton. It went public three years later, and today has 1,800 outlets with 69,000 employees. Last year, Staples registered $16 billion in sales. The business has handsome profit margins, little debt, and a stock-market value of more than $18 billion. Today, Mitt Romney says he’s prouder of this investment than any other.

[trumad]

9. Equivalent of when they said Bush owned the Texas Rangers.

He originally owned 1 percent but the managing team gave him another 9 percent a year later.

[yellowcanine]

10. He had as much to do with starting Staples as saving GM I would say.

[Raven]

11. I can absolutely confirm this. I knew

Leo Kahn and he was an older guy who had been very successful in business and was looking for a challenge. He had the idea and opened the first store in Brighton. It took off like a rocket. Staples was a success well before Willard came on the scene. Leo Kahn was a very decent man who did many good things for working people during his life. He must be rolling in his grave today to hear Willard taking credit for his success.