Now assume that G.E. buys another company with a stock-market valuation of twenty billion dollars and annual profits (or potential profits) of two billion dollars.
Figure 2 compares the profits of three strategies under different levels of stockout probability.
I added up the 2012 profits of nine of the biggest drug makers and came up with about $60 billion.
For comparison, in its sequentially preceding quarter, Twitter had revenue of $312 million and profit of two pennies per share.
That's in contrast to a profit of two cents a share in the year-ago period.
Management now expects to report a net loss of seven cents to eight cents a share for the quarter, below expectations for a profit of two cents.
Last year its taxes soared to 63.3percentt of its profits because of two unusual circumstances.
And in fact they reported profits last year of two and a half billion dollars.
The Wynn's four night clubs average a profit of fifty per cent.
The company's quarterly profit of thirteen billion dollars exceeded the annual G.D.P. of Iceland.
