Final Jeopardy: Big Business (10-16-17)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (10/16/2017) in the category “Big Business” was:
In 2000 this company reported revenues of more than $100 billion; in 2001 it was bankrupt.
New champ Manny Abell won $17,199 last Friday. In his second game, he takes on these two ladies: Jayanthi Martins, from Austin, TX; and Emily Wilson, from Brooklyn, NY.
Round 1 Categories: Also a Friends Character – Newbery Medal Winners – At the “M”Porium – Caught – With Your Hand – In the Cookie Jar
Manny found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Caught” under the $800 clue on the 14th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $2,800, $1,200 more than Jayanthi in second place. He bet $1,000 and he was RIGHT.
She was captured in 1430 while protecting her rear guard as they crossed the Oise River. show
Manny finished in the lead with $4,200. Jayanthi was second with $3,600 and Emily was last with $3,400.
Round 2 Categories: Paint by Numbers – Technology – Biopics of Brits – Non -ia Countries – The History Bookshelf – Phrases Literally Translated
Emilly found the first Daily Double in “Literally Translated” under the $1,200 clue on the 8th pick. She was in the lead with $7,000 at this point, $1,400 more than Jayanthi in second place. She bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
Don’t overcook the pasta– I like it “to the tooth” show
Manny found the last Daily Double in “History Bookshelf” under the $1,600 clue, with 7 clues left after it. In the lead with $11,000, he had $200 more than Jayanthi in second place. He bet $4,000, and he was RIGHT.
William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of” this numerical abomination. show
Manny finished in the lead with $19,000. Jayanthi was next with $12,400 and Emily was in third place with $11,400.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
According to Investopedia, Enron reached its peak in 2000 when its shares were valued at $90.75, “but after the company declared bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, they plummeted to $0.67 by January 2002. To this day, many wonder how such a powerful business disintegrated almost overnight and how it managed to fool the regulators with fake, off-the-books corporations for so long.”
From “The Bottom Line” section of the article: “At the time, Enron’s collapse was the biggest corporate bankruptcy to ever hit the financial world. Since then, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, and Washington Mutual have surpassed Enron as the largest corporate bankruptcies.”
Emily got it right after crossing out Diapers.com. She bet $8,000, bringing her up to $19,400.
Jayanthi thought it was GM. She bet and lost it all.
Manny also got it. He bet $6,599 so he won the game with $25,599. His 2-day total is $42,798.
2 triple stumpers from the last round:
PHRASES LITERALLY TRANSLATED ($1000) Gerry Adams is the leader of “Ourselves Alone”
BIOPICS OF BRITS ($2000) This word for a hedonistic rake is the title of a film with Johnny Depp as hedonistic rake John Wilmot
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Today’s International Film Stars”
The first 2 Spanish actors to win acting Academy Awards, they got married soon after they both had won. show
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Hey do you have any idea where the final wager has been? I’m here he’d love Manny’s strategies.
Keith has been writing a column in the New York Times. There’s a link to it on the Hometown Howdies post.
Looks like Manny has what it takes to build a streak since he won this one. Also GM hasn’t been bankrupt but they have had a lot of complaints about cars and their defects. I wonder if GM was ever.hit with any lawsuits, VJ? I hope those cases of car accidents were settled out of court.
You’re right about that. Fancy that. GM in Detroit, Michigan is running out of business for old cars.
@Lou, GM did file bankruptcy in 2009. It was predicted someone might say that earlier today. Congrats to Jlane on nailing the results. 😀
LINK: 8 more clues from the match
True, also what was the reason that Enron went out of business? I always thought that they would continue being in business for as long as possible. Also Manny seems to be using the same playing style as Ben ingram and Arthur Chou as he moves around the board for big points have you noticed, VJ?
Enron had massive accounting fraud — they were selling assets back and forth internally to different divisions at wildly inflated prices, so divisions wound up booking revenues of many multiples of the actual value. That drove up the stock prices, then executives dumped the stock before the company collapsed.
It’s as if you sold your spouse your car (worth $5000) for $10,000. Then your spouse sold it back to you for $20,000. Then you sold it back to your spouse for $30,000. Each of you claimed income from each sale, and each of you logged the sales price as the asset value. Before long, you’d each have a “book net worth” of several hundred thousand dollars, based on a single $5,000 vehicle.
Then, you sell the family business for a million dollars. You need to hope you can leave the country before you wind up in jail. Many Enron execs didn’t, and had lots of time in their cells to contemplate their actions.
At least, in terms of Final Jeopardy! wagers, Manny did it right this time.