How much did De Beers pay in price-fixing settlement?
^ Sherilee Bridge. "De Beers to pay $295m in price-fixing settlement". Mail and Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2018. ^ Matarese, John. "DeBeers Diamond settlement check is in the mail". www.wcpo.com. Archived from the original on 4 September 2018.
How much did De Beers pay to settle the Sherilee Bridge case?
^ Sherilee Bridge. "De Beers to pay $295m in price-fixing settlement". Mail and Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2018. ^ Matarese, John. "DeBeers Diamond settlement check is in the mail". www.wcpo.com. Archived from the original on 4 September 2018. Edward Jay Epstein (February 1982). "Have you ever tried to sell a Diamond?". The Atlantic Monthly.
How did De Beers manipulate the diamond market?
The transaction was worth £3.2 billion (US$5.1 billion) in cash and ended the Oppenheimer dynasty's 80-year ownership of De Beers. De Beers successfully advertised diamonds to manipulate consumer demand. One of the most effective marketing strategies has been the marketing of diamonds as a symbol of love and commitment.
What is the Dedede beers'Palladio'ad campaign?
De Beers ran television advertisements featuring silhouettes of people wearing diamonds, set to the music of ' Palladio ' by Karl Jenkins. The campaign, titled "Shadows and Lights" first ran in the spring of 1993. The song would later inspire a compilation album, Diamond Music, released in 1996, which features the 'Palladio' suite.
Why can't Debeer's operate in the USA?
The company has stockpiled the world's surplus diamonds since the Great Depression caused a slump in prices in 1934. Its price-fixing activities led it to being banned from doing business in the U.S. under antitrust legislation.
Does De Beers sell blood diamonds?
Since 2000, some independent diamond dealers have not only claimed to sell diamond bunches that they bought from rebel groups to De Beers, but also that De Beers was aware of the origin of the diamonds. Currently on their website, De Beers boasts that 100% of their diamonds are conflict free.
Is De Beers legal?
It is illegal in the United States (the world's largest market for gem diamonds) and has been under constant attack by the U.S. Justice Department.
Why is De Beers unethical?
A little over a year ago, De Beers, the mining colossus straddling the world's diamond trade, confronted double jeopardy. Human rights groups were accusing it of buying illicit diamonds from African rebels and rulers who used the proceeds to help pay for their wars.
Why do they cut off hands in blood diamond?
Seizing the right arms of their chosen victims, the young pair bring their blades crashing down, severing hands as a warning to the whole village not to challenge their authority. Such horrifying scenes were once common during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war.
Is De Beers still a monopoly?
Although the people who made De Beers the world's most powerful monopoly are no longer involved, the company itself will continue to be a billion-dollar business.
How did De Beers become monopoly?
In 1888, Cecil Rhodes, a British businessman and mining enthusiast, founded De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. He purchased as many diamond mine claims as possible, creating the company's first monopoly, over South African mines. This monopoly was the start of their major monopoly over the diamond market.
Is De Beers a oligopoly?
De Beers, historical leader in the diamond global oligopoly, had to shift from managing supply to stimulating demand in order to continue to win in the last two decades.
Where can I find blood diamonds?
Diamonds have funded brutal wars in countries such as Angola, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, resulting in the death and displacement of millions of people. There is a reason they are dubbed 'Blood Diamonds'.
Is buying blood diamonds illegal?
However, there's sometimes a hidden, darker side to many of these dazzling gems. Before purchasing a diamond, it's imperative that you ensure it's conflict-free. Diamonds that are not conflict-free are known as blood diamonds, which means they are illegally sold in order to finance devastating wars and terrorism.
Does De Beers still control the diamond market?
Today, De Beers no longer has control of the diamond industry, and for the first time in a century, market supply and demand dynamics, not the De Beers monopoly, drives diamond prices.
Are blood diamonds still a thing?
In the last decade, blood diamonds have been virtually eliminated from the global marketplace. Stricter regulation, as well as a renewed commitment from diamond manufacturers and retailers to work only with ethical suppliers, has transformed the global diamond industry for the better.
Why did De Beers divest?
Throughout the 1960s and '70s, De Beers attempted to secretly enter the United States' diamond market, being forced to divest its American assets in 1975 to avoid the risk of violating anti-trust laws. Harry Oppenheimer stepped down as the chairman and director of Anglo-American and De Beers in December 1982.
Why did De Beers change its business model?
In 2000, the De Beers business model changed because of factors such as the decision by producers in Canada and Australia to distribute diamonds outside the De Beers channel, as well as increasingly negative publicity surrounding blood diamonds, which forced De Beers to protect its image by limiting sales to its own mined products.
How much of the world's diamonds does De Beers sell?
Competition has since dismantled the complete monopoly, though the De Beers Group still sells approximately 29.5% of the world's rough diamond production by value through its global sightholder and auction sales businesses, an effective monopoly, as this still allows it to control prices, inflating them dramatically.
What song did De Beers use in their commercials?
De Beers ran television advertisements featuring silhouettes of people wearing diamonds, set to the music of ' Palladio ' by Karl Jenkins. The campaign, titled "Shadows and Lights" first ran in the spring of 1993. The song would later inspire a compilation album, Diamond Music, released in 1996, which features the 'Palladio' suite. A 2010 commercial for Verizon Wireless parodied the De Beers spots.
How did De Beers influence the diamond market?
First, it attempted to convince independent producers to join its single channel monopoly. When that did not work, it flooded the market with diamonds similar to those of producers who refused to join in, depressing their price and undermining return for the resistant. It also purchased and stockpiled diamonds produced by other manufacturers as well as surplus diamonds in order to control prices by limiting supply. Finally, it bought diamonds when prices fell considerably naturally, to constrict supply and drive their value back up, such as during the Great Depression.
What is the De Beers Group?
De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and coastal. It operates in 35 countries and mining takes place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Canada and Australia .
How did Cecil Rhodes start his business?
Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the British South Africa Company, got his start by renting water pumps to miners during the diamond rush that started in 1869, when an 83.5 carat diamond called the ' Star of South Africa ' was found at Hopetown near the Orange River in South Africa. He invested the profits of this operation into buying up claims of small mining operators, with his operations soon expanding into a separate mining company. He soon secured funding from the Rothschild family, who would finance his business expansion. De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed in 1888 by the merger of the companies of Barney Barnato and Cecil Rhodes, by which time the company was the sole owner of all diamond mining operations in the country. In 1889, Rhodes negotiated a strategic agreement with the London-based Diamond Syndicate, which agreed to purchase a fixed quantity of diamonds at an agreed price, thereby regulating output and maintaining prices. The agreement soon proved to be very successful – for example, during the trade slump of 1891–1892, supply was simply curtailed to maintain the price. Rhodes was concerned about the break-up of the new monopoly, stating to shareholders in 1896 that the company's "only risk is the sudden discovery of new mines, which human nature will work recklessly to the detriment of us all".
