Accentuating the caveat emptor perspective with critical commentary on financial disclosure. I adopt a skeptical persona and look for chinks in the teflon coating of financial disclosure. My job is to identify financial warts. Perhaps a Black Swan. Disclosure: I do not hold positions in stocks mentioned for three trading days before or after blog post.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Intel $1.5 Billion Eurpean Speeding Ticket
Intel (INTC) announced along with encouraging earnings that they have paid a fine to the European commission of approximately $1.5 billion. The mega-buck fine is a slap on the wrist sanctioned because they were supposedly dumping through a rebate program. While it looks bad to pay huge fines, considering what it costs to acquire markets or companies with proprietary advantages, $1.5 billion is acceptable if your end game is dominance. The question becomes did the board understand the game and its outcome or did they just fluke this one.