Economic trends favor the occurrence of write-downs at other companies. Crude oil prices have been cut in half and product inventories (remain at record levels). The thing that I think is more telling is that (these companies) are taking write-downs now in anticipation that crude prices will be low for the next few years.
Quotes about write-downs (5 Quotes)
We think we're doing this the right way, handling it in an appropriate manner. We've fully and openly disclosed the impact of each of our write-downs. We break that out in our earnings statements and filings. We've had many write-downs in the last six years, and we've handled them the same way.
There was a drop in flash memory prices in the quarter, with a precipitous drop in prices at the end of the quarter. This had a significant adverse effect on our sales in the quarter, and resulted in lower revenues, lower gross margins and inventory write-downs in the period.
The write-downs are more of a reflection of what's happened in the past rather than an indicator of the future. The value of television and radio stations have clearly declined in the last three to four years as those media compete with other forms of advertising, namely the Internet.
For 2005, we again generated industry leading operating cash flow, despite lower earnings resulting from industry-wide cost pressures and the impact of several non-cash accounting write-downs.