In the business of flat-panel screens for televisions, it is not a joke.None of the companies that make large liquid crystal display (LCD) panels earn money from it.
Mentley's monthly technology and investment letter focuses on the booming business of flat-panel displays from computer monitors and big-screen high-definition TVs to smaller LCDs found on digital cameras, cell phones and gadgets like Sony 's new PlayStation Portable.
In a business world of flat hierarchal structures and emphasis on "teamwork" above all, there is a lack of responsibility to come to any conclusion.
This year's Breeders' Cup also offered further evidence, as if any were needed, that Ryan Moore is currently the best jockey in the business of international Flat racing.
The manufacturer, which had $2.1 billion in 2001 revenue, has consistently lost as it fought privately held Kinetic Concepts for control of the advanced bed market, Hillenbrand's fastest-growing business, amid flat sales of coffins and conventional beds.
The work was hard, especially, she said, on the feet - no one in her line of business wore flat shoes - but the women who did it were treated as society-by-association, with couture gowns loaned for the evening and an entree anywhere.
North America's second-biggest maker of telephone equipment, Nortel Networks, said yesterday that it would cut 3,500 more jobs and might sell its optical-parts business amid new projections of flat to lower second-quarter sales.
Legal & General is writing more new business this year, defying forecasts of flat growth in the U.K. market.
In the business of higher-priced flat-panel LCD TVs, Sony accounts for less than 5% of the North American market according to iSuppli, well behind Hitachi, and Sharp, which together account for more than one-third of North American sales.
At Goldman Sachs, he complains, "The old-fashioned kind of business (making flat commissions on transparent exchange-listed trade) was increasingly seen as not profitable enough".
The company announced that while its core online game business was flat because of the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which led to the closings of many Internet bars where its games are played, SARS had no significant impact on advertising and wireless services.
