3-9, 2005
/ Loig Island Business
News
Week IN REVIEW GA posts fourth-quartep drop
ater^ate sleuth raps culture of^eed
Computer Associates International posted sharply lower fourth-quarter net income and said it had found revenue that had been booked improperly in the years 1998 to 2001. Though the company's operating earnings per share of 20 cents were in line with the estimate consensus of analysts polled by Thomson Analytics, net income declined from $89 million, or 15 cents per share, in the year-ago period to $17 million, or 3 cents per share, in the period ended March 31. Revenue for the latest quarter was $910 million, a 7 percent increase over the $850 million in the prior year's quarter. In 2004, CA restated more than $2 billion in revenue in fiscal 2000 and 2001 after a federal accounting-
Carl Bernstein Rapacious business executives and armies of political lobbyists have trampled on the notion of "the public good," veteran journalist Carl Bernstein said. Delivering the keynote address at the Mauppauge industrial Association's annual Business Trade Show & Conference at Suffolk Community College, Bernstein said that with more than 100,000 lobbyists, public relations professionals, pollsters and other opinion shapers, politics too often has become "about spreading money around." While the country's founders envisioned
Computer Associates fraud investigation that led to guilty pleas by several former executives and charges to be filed against former CEO Sanjay Kumar, who is awaiting trial. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company stated that the latest improper transactions "appear not to have been negotiated on an arm's-Iength basis and to have no valid commercial purpose." The company said "former members of senior management and others, who are no longer employed by the company, were involved in negotiating and approving these transactions."
terized as "relatively small," would have a ripple effect, forcing restatements for fiscal years through 2005. CA also said it expected the accounting issues would force it to delay filing its annual lOK report with the SEC.
LIPA raising eiedric biiisby1.9percont
CA said the transactions, charac-
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The Long Island Power Authority
ECONOMIC
INDICATORS
Bankruptcy filings Source: U.S. Bankruptcy Court
Chapter 7 Nassau Suffolk
Nassau
Chapter 11 Suffolk
2005 Apr. Mar. Feb. Jan.
298 250 162 163
480 447 264 260
0 2
3 2 1 2
Dec. Nov. Oct. Sept. Aug.
164 168 174 194 181
294 268 331 270 319
1 5 3 2 1
5 3 1 3 3
2004
5 1
a citizen government, "today we have a plutocracy," he said, noting that a U.S. Senate campaign can cost $60 million. "That is true corruption because there is no way to raise that kind of money without being beholden to the people who give it to you," Bernstein said. Bernstein gained fame as a reporter with The Washington Post when he and Bob Woodward uncovered the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Nixon. The two reporters also wrote "The Final Days" and "All the President's Men," which was turned into a movie starring Dustin Hoffman in Bernstein's role. In his keynote, Bernstein also chided news organizations for their timidity and pursuit of the bottom line in substituting gossip and "manufactured controversy" for substantive news and the "best obtainable version of the truth." Just days after the speech, W. Mark Felt, the former second-ranking official at the FBI, acknowledged that he was "Deep Throat," a key anonymous source in unraveling Watergate. "We could never have done the Watergate reporting without anonymous sources," Bernstein said at the event. -KEN
SCHACHTER
said it will hike electric charges by 1.9 percent as of June 8 due to "unprecedented and sustained increases in the cost of oil, natural gas and purdiased power" during the first quarter of 2005. The authority said it made the decision after becoming convinced that oil and natural gases prices Vill remain hi^ well into the fiiture." LIPA said the new surchai^ will add about $3 per month to the average residential electric bill of about $105.
Stocks The bulls cheered Arrow • Electronics Inc., the Melvillebased electronics distributor that hit its 52-week high on May 31. The company's shares rose 3 percent that day alone to $27.95. Arrow's (NYSE: ARW) shares have traded between $20.65 and $27.85 in the 52-week range. For Arrow shareholders, it has been a long climb back toward the salad days of the first half of 2000, when its price per share traded above $30. By the fourth quarter of 2002, the long fall left Arrow's shares below $10. It has made a
By the Numbers Percentage of Americans who think small-business owners work harder than the general population.
Percentage of all employers in America represented by small business.
24 million K.-^tiniated number of small businesses existing in the United States. Source: National Federation of Independent Business.
Court OKs Wiz Chapter 11 plan A bankruptcy court has approved the liquidation plan of TW Inc., which ran The Wiz electronics chain, according to press reports. The Associated Press said the ruling by a bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del., kept alive a $300 million lawsuit by TW creditors against Cablevision Systems Inc. Cablevision owned The Wiz through Cablevision Electronics Investments Inc., but sold the unit in 2003 to retail liquidator GBO Electronics Acquisition, which formed TW. The lawsuit maintains that Cablevision deceived suppliers about itsfinÂŁincialbacking of The Wiz.
report methodical recovery ever since - though the stock stayed fairly level for most of 2004. At $27.95, Arrow has a market capitalization of $3.3 billion. Arrow hit its new high on the same day that its North American Components division was ranked first in the Electronics Supply & Manufacturing annual Distributor Customer Preference Survey. The study is conducted by ESM, a monthly CMP Media publication. ESM analyzed distributor brand strength and reputation.