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Troy Spiral Contributor

Troy Spiral (13)

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Posted

MySpace, which was once valued at $1 billion and purchased by Newscorp for $580 million about 6 years back, was sold for $35 million.

more info here: http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=2ac2c9d1-466a-4b33-8ae1-3faca8459f73&GT1=33002

I remember when LiveJournal was "the blog" to have, then the migration to MySpace then Facebook, wonder whats next.

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Raev Collaborator

Raev

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Posted (edited)

Netflix is also about to take a BEATING at the hands of movie companies.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In the not so distant past, Netflix was known mainly for its red envelopes. The DVD-rental-by-mail service was the company's core, and streaming video was a side perk for subscribers.

Fast forward to 2011, and online movies and TV couldn't be hotter. Google, Amazon, Hulu and others have jumped into the fray -- putting studios in the power position. They want to be paid more for the content they're providing.

That spells trouble for Netflix's streaming content costs.

"Netflix has another year or two on most of these contracts, and then the game completely changes," says Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Pachter predicts Netflix's streaming content licensing costs will rise from $180 million in 2010 to a whopping $1.98 billion in 2012.

Edited by Raev
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taysteewonderbunny Newbie

taysteewonderbunny

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some companies pay their CEOs more in salary than they pay the US in taxes:

http://money.msn.com...47-92f4bbba2331

The article:

CEO pay rises as tax payments drop

For 25 large corporations, the top boss took home more money than the entire company paid in federal income taxes, one study shows.

By Kim Peterson on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 10:47 AM

No matter what happens to the economy, executive pay seems immune. We may be on the verge of another recession, but chief executives are still taking home tens of millions of dollars. We're used to that by now.

But what about when a CEO's salary is fatter than the entire federal income tax bill for the company? Or better yet, what if their companies didn't pay any 2010 federal income taxes at all? Is this becoming the new normal?

That's what some of the largest U.S. companies managed to finagle last year, according to a new study from the Institute for Policy Studies. The study found that 25 of the 100 highest-paid CEOs took home more money than their company paid in federal income taxes. The average pay of those 25 CEOs was $16.7 million.

Actually, it wasn't hard to take home more pay than what went to Uncle Sam. That's because most of those 25 companies didn't pay any federal income taxes, the institute found. Instead, they received tax refunds averaging $413 million.

Some of the companies are popular stocks with investors, since they pay dividends in tough times and are becoming global powerhouses. Those include Boeing (BA) and Verizon (VZ).

A generation ago, CEOs might have felt ashamed to be paid so much when their companies weren't contributing to the public infrastructure, said Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute and one of the report's authors. They didn't game their taxes or their workers, he added. They just tried to make a better widget and they built it to last.

"Now, you have a generation of companies that sort of compete on accounting gymnastics," he said. "That's not good for business."

The Institute's report is bound to be controversial. Companies don't like to talk about the federal taxes they may or may not have paid. Consider the drama that erupted in March when The New York Times reported that General Electric (GE) didn't pay any U.S. taxes and instead claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. The top corporate tax rate in the U.S. is 35%, but many companies use shelters, accounting loopholes, credits and other strategies to pay far less.

GE was outraged at the assertion, but wouldn't clarify what its federal income tax bill indeed was. The Times stood by its article, and at the end of the day we didn't really know who to believe.

GE was one of the companies named in the report. The Institute's offered numbers similar to what the Times reported, claiming GE received a $3.3 billion refund on its U.S. federal income taxes. Its chief executive, Jeff Immelt, received $15.2 million in 2010 compensation. President Barack Obama named Immelt in January to lead his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

GE says the Institute's study is inaccurate. "GE pays what it owes, including significant income taxes in 2010 for previous years," said spokewoman Deirdre Latour. "The study also ignores all the state and federal taxes the company pays." Latour did not specify the amounts GE paid in those tax categories.

Another company mentioned in the report was Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), whose CEO John Lundgren took home $32.6 in total compensation last year (that includes $25 million in stock awards). The company did not profit last year, and in fact reported a loss of $183 million in pre-tax income. That resulted in the company receiving a $75 million refund on its federal income taxes.

The company did not respond to a request for comment. But Verizon told The New York Times that the report's numbers were misleading, because it cited the company's tax benefit without acknowledging the billions of dollars in deferred taxes to be paid in the future.

Corporate America seems to be dismissing the institute's findings. It's a left-leaning organization, one that Collins says tries to bring unconventional wisdom to debates about foreign policy, the economy and the environment.

But the report does highlight some truths. The U.S. corporate tax rate is too high and there are too many loopholes, shelters and ways around the system. The study is useful for investors, because while CEO compensation is a hot topic, a company's tax bill is less discussed while still important to the bottom line.

Tags: Kim Peterson < Back to Top Stocks

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Vater Araignee Newbie

Vater Araignee

Posted
Posted

Canada to issue plastic currency: http://ca.reuters.com/article/idCATRE7AD23X20111114

Plastic money is absolutely brilliant. You don't have to pay people to verify burnt money is money at all because it will just turn into an unidentifiable ball of ash.

Maybe we should switch to help combat inflation. :rofl:

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