$200 million and all I got was this crappy [The Stoppable Force]

[Arcdelad]

This is an article that talks about how much money Blizz is spending yearly on server maintenence, customer service (dont laugh too hard), design and updates (again dont laugh) and such...

http://pc.ign.com/articles/910/910652p1.html

...course...the article doesnt mention that 10 million people (assumed) x $14.99 a month x 12 months = $1,800,000,000, meaning they take in $1.6 billion dollars of profit annually, and thats IGNORING actual profits from buying the box off of the store shelf (so novemeber theyll get a huge bump there too, especially from you "Collector's Edition" fools)...

[Muridin]

whats wrong with getting a Collectors edition?

and what is up with your DP?

[Zario]

                                              Outlook for          Outlook for
                                              Quarter Ending     Quarter Ending
                                              September 30, 2008    December 31, 2008

    Net Revenues (GAAP)                        $636.0             $1,850.0

$'s in millions

Looks like they're predicting a pretty solid holiday season with Lich coming out.  But do remember that Net Revenues are very different that Net Income--top line vs. bottom line. 




Still only puts out 11 cents diluted EPS 


"For the December quarter 2008, Activision Blizzard expects net revenues of $1.85 billion and earnings per diluted share of $0.11"
http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=325621

[Zario]

You also need to consider that their pay structure is different around the world.  No all countries run on a flat monthly fee.  Some charge for time logged in, which may or may not result in $15/month per account. 

[Muridin]

i really would prefer to pay by time logged in, or even having the pre-paid time expire as im logged in, not by calender days.

[Shadowwolf]

Keep buying those collectors editions and whatnot, part of my retirement 401K is vested with Vivendi Universal / Activision

(Bronze Parachutes FTW!)

Being laid off by NBC/GE in a takeover has its advantages =)

[Muridin]

From what i've heard from my news stations that your economy and stock markets are in trouble. Several billion dollar investors going bust or something.

[Shadowwolf]

Summary of the news media:

BOO!

Scared yet?

Its got problems, but this isnt 1929 by any means

Most of the problems at the moment stem from bad lending practices with banks and mortgage companies and Realtor agencies all driving the price of homes up the last few years till it went bust. People paying on a $1mil home making barely above minimum wage now cant pay, they cant be sued for the money, so the banks eat it because they cant sell the house anywhere near what they lent money for it originally.

[Muridin]

Ahh, media making it worse that it really is. Not surprised.

[Shadowwolf]

Basically the housing market got inflated and its having a negative impact nationwide on all fronts. The cost of oil going too high isnt helping the situation either.

All comes down to poor planning and unregulated markets (housing and lending).

Cost of oil drives the price of food and other essentials up because shipments cost more, cost of oil drives the cost of commuting up so weekly standard expenses go up, housing market hits bust and prices drop so lending companies hike interest rates on the flexible interest mortgages they lent to offset the amount of foreclosures which creates more foreclosures, and it all spirals together.

China isnt helping things either with its powerplay move trying to regulate its own market and not conform to worldwide standards. They are self-inflating their own company values so the economy here is being impacted. Im not sure the details on the China thing, but I know its not good.

[Muridin]

Meanwhile, our economy over here down under has picked up, but we frequently receive backlashes from your end.

[JohnnieRat]

Please don't suggest a strongly regulated market/economy... that would sound awfully "red" to me.

~JR McCarthy

[Shadowwolf]

Nah, im not. Just saying when big biz owns politicians like they do, this is what happens.

Free market and free economy is good, but it also needs to be watched for abuse, something our govt doesnt do very well.

[Muridin]

Please don't suggest a strongly regulated market/economy... that would sound awfully "red" to me.

~JR McCarthy

Whats wrong with that, comrade?

[Trismus]

Regardless of what we do about it, I think the chain of events that lead to this situation is fairly clear:


"Red Lining" is a policy where banks would decide not to lend to certain areas (traced on a map in a "Red Line") because those areas were impoverished and would be bad investments of the banks' money. This areas were usually minority neighborhoods, and many of these policies managed to keep people in these areas. A quick and seemingly effective solution was to force banks to lend. This was justified as claims of racism filled the air.

Long story short, the banks started to lend to these areas. The adjustable rate mortgage was born, and many people began to take out mortgages that they really couldn't afford. As a result, some of these mortgages went bad. How could the banks mitigate losses? They lumped bad mortgages with good mortgages into packages and sold them; if one or even several mortgages went bad it wasn't going to bring the overall value down, the financial burden was no longer directly on their shoulders, and everyone was happy. Fanny and Freddie found their genesis.

Fast-forward. Due to a number of factors, many people are defaulting on their mortgages causing these companies managing "high risk" loans to take massive losses. This causes bankruptcy, and since we don't like it when big businesses go bankrupt, we bail them out.

This is caused by a housing bubble, which is a mis-allocation of resources caused by bad government policy. More specifically, housing expanded because of the expansive monetary and fiscal policies utilized by Clinton/Bush, and now the markets are correcting as the resources attempt to re-allocate.




That's just my take on it. I have thought the Dow was over-valued for quite a while now, and I think it has probably found a bottom but who knows? With these things it's hard to be certain but it will pass and just as many people have lost millions upon millions many people we make millions upon millions.




-Tris



P.S. www.mises.org