8.23.2007
8.22.2007
Diebold Tried to Sell Voting Machine Unit - No Takers...
Diebold can't sell elections unit
Diebold Inc. confirmed on Thursday what had been widely speculated since January: That it tried and failed to sell its often criticized voting technology business.Instead, the company said, it will allow the unit to operate more independently, giving it a separate board of directors and perhaps a new management structure.
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Diebold did not rule out later selling part or all of the realigned business.
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"By putting it at arm's length, they make it possible to spin this off at some point," said Gil Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities.In a research note, Edward Wheeler, with Buckingham Research, said growth prospects in Diebold's core automated teller machine and security systems and services businesses remains solid and "on track with our expectations for accelerating momentum building over the next several years."
Diebold has often defended its voting machines and its own business intentions, even after its former chairman and chief executive, Wally O'Dell, sought with little success to convince critics his Republican politics and fundraising for President Bush were not the motive for the company's involvement in elections.
Thought for the Day:
What we should be doing is paying attention to the common and omnipresent threats to our health and welfare. You know what really hurts young people in America? Drugs, alcohol, vehicles, and relatives. Oh, and poverty. The poorer a child is, the more likely that drugs, alcohol, vehicles, and relatives can do serious damage to them. If poverty kills or maims millions of American children and video games kill and maim exactly zero, why do we see more stories about video games than poverty? If children tend to get hurt at home and almost never get hurt at school, why are we so obsessed with school violence and pay so little attention to home and family violence?