Somali Pirates Practice Inventory Management

Somali pirates are apparently getting more sophisticated in their business practices: “A group of Somali pirates announced Sunday that they’re cutting their asking prices for hostages by 20 percent — to speed up the negotiation process, make room for more hostages and take in more cash,” reports Wired. “We want to free ships within a short period of time instead of keeping them for a long time and incurring more expenses in guarding them. We have to free them at a lower ransom so that we can hijack more ships,” one pirate spokesperson told Reuters. The discount, however, won’t apply to “the bulk ships [the pirates] are sure can bring bulk money.”