As long as the market is going to hammer us, we might as well throw in the kitchen sink. At least our numbers will look better in comparison a year from now. That came amid a quarterly announcement of a 59 percent drop in profit for the first quarter. Though the company didn't disclose its losses on the products, they had to be considerable. Of course, this kind of behavior goes way back in the annals of American business.
Banks are famous for writing off bad loans during down periods.
And companies frequently use the arrival of a new executive as an excuse for writing off past mistakes. But there's something new here, in part because the investment portfolio of many tech companies looks like, well, the portfolio of many of the rest of us. And while accounting rules attempt to define how these investments should be valued, there's wiggle room, particularly in how companies value their private investments. I called up the CFO of a still-kicking software company to ask him about this. The CFO wanted to remain anonymous.