CompuServe Messages

Hi Bob, >Don't mistake losing money with declaring a loss.< Huh? Unless the accounting and taxation system in the US is radically different than Australia that doesn't make sense. I _can_ see what you may have meant by it but a loss is a loss is a loss. It means that you spend more than you earn. There are of course the tricky little one off "charges" that companies often use to move money around, but in the end they have to be substantiated to the tax office (or IRS). Please don't take offense, but the example you gave seemed quite flawed to me. If you buy razors for $5 and sell them for $7.50 you make a $2.50 profit, no matter what you tell anyone about "retail" (We'll forget about opex for the sake of simplicity). In the final analysis the P&L reflects what came in and what went out, not what _could_ have come in. Until one year ago I worked for a large multi-national computer firm, doing the tax, and I can assure you, when we reported a loss to the tax office, it was a real $ loss, the company does not exist in that form today. Fortunately I did quite well out of the merger that resulted but many did not, the loss to them was very real. I don't intend this as a personal comment but too many people today seem to be preoccupied by moving bits of paper. In Australia we have had the cold hard reality forced upon us that you have to actually produce something to generate wealth. There is no such thing as a paper loss in the long run, that was really the position from which I wrote my reply to Steve, if C= are losing serious money, I wanted an opinion from someone in the US as to whether it threatened their _long term_ viability. As I know first hand, this business is tough, don't do R&D today, no company tomorrow. Both you and Steve have convinced me C= is not about to collapse, but don't get fooled by supposed "paper losses", you have to pay the piper sometime. My concern lies with tomorrow more than today.