Poor $108 Million Big Business

So Dear Few, Yet Faithful Readers:

I have come to a continuation in my battle with big business. I have decided on writing a piece on best way to cheat a telemarketing firm. I have decided to do this because after working for two of them and getting the shaft - it's time. This will be a lengthly post that will appear merely as a link later in our broadcast.

But first - Sympathy for the RIch.

We here at Transitional Fossil first brought you the article about Corporate America's attempt at silencing those who would criticize their business practices in the August 19th edition of AlterNet in an article entitled, "Free Speech:Going,Going". This article outlined how corporations sue people who are outspoken against them in effort to drain any financial resource that a criticizingg force might bring. These types of suits are call SLAPPS, which stands for "strategic lawsuits against public participation".

To take it a step further the September 14th edition of the Wall Street Journal had a very interesting article with the following title, "Aggressive Patent Litigants Pose Growing Threat to Big Business". Basically it tells of people who are suing big business for patent infringement and big business saying how horrible it is b/c they can't afford it. The article, written by William M. Bulkeley, poorly illustrates how people who sue corporations b/c their patents have been used without compensation are just another bunch of greedy, immoral people. Pot, Kettle, Black, WHAT!!

The article mentions one company in particular that I wanted to identify which is Boston Communicxations. It has a 2004 revenue of $108 Million. Now for those who get confused with all this accounting, like I do, here are definitions from Investopedia.com:

Revenue:
The dollar amount of sales during a specific period, including discounts and returned merchandise. It is the "top line" figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income.

Margin:
In a general business context, the difference between a product's (or service's) selling price and the cost of production.

Profit Margin:
A ratio of profitability calculated as gross earnings divided by revenues (or, said another way, gross profits divided by sales). It measures how much out of every dollar of sales a company actually keeps in earnings.

So, Boston Communications, which employs 400 people was convicted in a court of law of stealing someone else's patent is bitching b/c now they have to pay and (whaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!) it's, not, fair!! It's kind of strange, a week after this company was sued for patent infringement they went public. Their stock plumeted...hmmmm....

The article also lists some other companies in the same boat, but my favorite one, of the poorest is Microsoft. Yes, they got nailed for $560 Million and most recently got nailed stealing technology from another poorhouse, Sun Microsystems.

In closing, the rich start to bitch when the rest of us want our piece. And in these particular cases I believe that they are justified. So like Lemmy from Motorhead sang:

Come on baby, eat the rich,
Put the bite on the son of a bitch,
Don't mess around, don't give me no switch,
C'mon baby eat the rich