Hello out there in PR land. This is the mid-week market rag.
You know you’ve had a bad day when this is on the headline that CNN/Money gives you:
The automaker’s failure to use simple good sense raises questions about company management.
That’s the situation at Chrysler right now. First they announced the possibility of a $600 million loss for the 3rd quarter. As it turns out, that loss is going to be around $1.5 billion.
I simply can’t write it better than Alex Taylor at CNN/Money in his article:
Either the top executives at DaimlerChrysler are operating with their eyes shut, or somebody isn’t telling them the truth. All year long, Chrysler has been operating with bloated inventories that sometimes stretched out to 100 days or more.
But I guess I can try.
Dieter Zetsche should spend less time making television commercials and more time saving his company, which has not profited by the value of a World War II era German Mark since he took over nine months ago. Inventories are high; sales are low; advertising expenses are high. You know that layoffs are coming soon.
Compound that with this breaking news: the State of California is suing DaimlerChrysler/Chrysler Motors Corp., General Motors, Ford, Toyota Honda and Nissan for damages caused by global warming.
Let that one sink in for a moment.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said today, in a statement, that it was time “to hold these companies responsible for their contribution” to the Global Warming crisis. The suit alleges the state suffered millions of dollars in damages due to the effects of and costs of dealing with global warming.
Thus we know who the true spinsters are. There isn’t a PR guy or girl in the world who would concoct the sort of malarkey politicians and lawyers do for a living. How original is it for a government to sue private business for something that the government has been unable to deal with itself. Sure cars and trucks pollute, but cars and trucks are legal, and the pollution caused by cars and trucks is legal. Governments will not and should not receive a dime from private enterprise until government itself takes responsibility for the environment.
In lighter news, the Sony Mylo debuted to some positive reviews. Sort for “my life online” the Mylo is a hand-held device that works on any 802.11 wireless hotspot and allows the user to access high-speed internet in the palm of their hand without paying cell phone companies by the minute or byte.
At $350, it is priced well up there with the rest of Sony’s latest ventures, but this is a powerful and neat little gadget.
Sony stock was down slightly in trading today as negativity continues to surround their Playstation 3 launch.
Finally this week, portable giant Motorola bought out retail mainstay, Symbol Technologies, in a $4 billion deal. Symbol is the leader in barcode reading technology. This, according to Barron’s raises speculation that another portables powerhouse, Palm, will be bought out soon. Motorola would be a lead contender in any such deal, which would be a huge chip in their slowly played game of poker with Research in Motion, producer of the Blackberry portable technology.
Motorola stock was up in trading today in what is a very good deal for a high-tech original.