Corporate annual reports can be fun!

In my idleness, I'm taking an online investor relations course. Our end-of-term project involves poring over 7 companies' annual reports. We got to pick the companies, although you had to pick 3 from every industry because you could pretty much bet at least half the companies would be slack and never send you the report. Why anyone invests in them, I can't imagine. (Yes YOU, Coca-Cola!)

It's a really, really boring project, but here are some nuggets of amusement:
- Tiffany's manufactures most of its jewelry in Rhode Island. Who knew?
- In the part where you have to list risks that could damage next year's revenues, Halliburton cited the risk of getting sued if that stolen radioactive material ever, ahem, turns up. Other risks noted by Halliburton included sanctions against Libya; war; peace; a negative outcome in the asbestos lawsuit the company is fighting; and getting investigated for accounting irregularities.
- The key to profitability in the porn industry is to recycle content. Push it online, push it through cable, and dub it for international distribution. (Do you really have to dub porn?)
- Motorola's inside cover features an all-American family of four watching TV while the dad aims the remote. Dad is hogging the couch, the kids are sitting on the floor, and Mom is kneeling behind the couch. Everyone is having the goddam time of their lives, like they never watched a TV before. Oh, and the daughter and mom are blonde, son and dad brunette.
- The next photo in the Motorola report features a Japanese kid using his cell phone.
- It's true, everyone is incorporated in Delaware. Except Bacardi, which I wasn't allowed to use because it is incorporated in the Bahamas, and Vanguard, which has some sort of Communist ownership structure that apparently includes myself.
 

¶ 9:57 PM