Warmongers EDO Corp Report Loss of $900,000.

analyst | 27.04.2006 14:25 | Anti-militarism | South Coast

Brighton arms dealers EDO MBM Technology Ltd, US parent company EDO corp reported 1st quarter financial loss of £900,000 today.

Profiteers have become losers after High Court showdown

EDO Corp had to file a financial report today 27 April 2006 that showed they lost $900,000 in their first quarter of business for 2006. EDO blamed the loss on a delay in orders for their Warlock troop protection system from the US defence department, but a closer look also reveals they have had to pay out 2.5 million dollars in legal costs.

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=marketsNews&storyID=2006-04-27T115558Z_01_WEN5854_RTRIDST_0_ARMS-EDO-EARNS-URGENT.XML

In 2004 EDO Corp acquisition Merlin Inc. were found to be responsible for breaking US arms trading laws in deals with the Swedish and South Korean governments and forced to pay 1.5million in fines. EDO have also faced financial penalties for polluting the environment at a former manufacturing site in Deer Park, New York State.

The latest legal bill (at least $900,000 and counting ) has come from EDO’s UK subsidiary EDO MBM Technology Ltd in Brighton who have failed in a High Court bid to ban anti-war protests outside their factory and been forced to pay their own and defendants costs and expenses after a humilating surrender and a High Court judgement that ruled they had abused the legal process. This was a highly damaging political and financial loss that also led to national bad publicity for the company in the UK press, and a domino effect of collapsing criminal cases against protesters who could have raised questions

If EDO MBM had not taken the controversial action in the UK it is possible that EDO Corporation would not have dipped below the line between profit and loss and will now face the merciless response of their investors on the New York Stock Exchange.

Karma or simple cause and effect, whatever it is, a multi-national arms company have taken a beating after trying to suppress the right to protest in Brighton and Hove.

Let us be merry!

analyst
Homepage: http://www.smashedo.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

EDO Corp president grilled by investors over 2.7 million dollar legal bill

27.04.2006 17:31

In the April 27th phone conference between EDO Corps major investors and President James Smith (now available on the Edocorp.com website) the President faced difficult questions about the company going into the red and 2.7 million dollar legal costs that EDO have incurred in the last three months.EDO made a TOTAL loss of 935, 000 dollars this quarter

In an introduction Smith refers to two legal matters that caused the expense, a contract dispute (where EDO were the defendant) and a law suit (in which EDO were the plaintif).

Investor1, ' That seems like a very high legal bill'

James Smith ( EDO President), 'Yes we think that 2.7 million is very high too but lawyers get paid win lose or draw.'

Investor2, ' In the lawsuit where you were the plaintif are you expecting any payment from the defendant?

James Smith, ' No.'

Investor3, ' Can you give me a breakdown of the 2.7 million legal costs between the two...'

James Smith, ' No. I can't do that'

Investor4, ' Were some of the legal costs incurred in the UK?'

James Smith, (pause) erm some..a part of.them.(mumble)

Investor5, 'My question is why don't you hire a banker and sell the company, I'm sure thats what your shareholders want.

James Smith, 'So you speak for all the shareholders?'

Investor5, 'lets put it to a vote.'

Investor6, 'As a large shareholder I too am very disappointed in this comapny, you have consistently failed to meet targets you have forcast and your guidance figures are a disgrace.
Your attitude is attrocious (hangs up)'

James Smith,' Operator can we end the phone in now please.'

Mr Kirkpatrick, Cardinal Capital Management

these are upsetting figures.

28.04.2006 10:16

and a disappointing result for a company that looked so young and thrusting not long ago.

my portfolio is looking shabby right now.

maybe if they weren't evil corrupt murderous bastards they would find their backs to be a bit

further away from the wall. oops is that libel?

clearly it works. keep doing it.

vexed shareholder

EDO share price drops 7% on the news of 2.7m legal costs

28.04.2006 14:47

http://news.google.co.uk/news?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&hl=en&q=edo&btnG=Google+Search&percentage_served=*:100&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

smith

They can't say we didn't warn them this world happen

28.04.2006 17:24

I don't know why Wall Street is acting all suprised about this. People on Indymedia UK have been warning the world that EDO was going down for over a year now.

Can't these capitalist scumbags read?

Edowatch

Justice

30.04.2006 14:15

As the article points out had EDO not taken the step of trying to crush completely lawful protest they would have made a very small profit. Total VICTORY.

I would guess they were very keen to complete the court settlement ASAP so they could then point out that these expenses were non-recurring in this results report. But of course there is still the small matter of any counter claims that anyone may care to make against them. Since the injunction initially applied to everyone in the world they could have quite a few actions to deal with and again the lawyers would be queueing up to help.

I notice there aren't too many comments from the man who liked anagrams and those other twits. Could be they're too busy fighting to keep the UK division profitable so that the US parent don't shut them down.

Peaceful demonstration and solidarity does acheive results...

Pete

EDO Corp Surrenders (national press coverage)

09.05.2006 13:52

The Guardian has reported the victory of protesters in Brighton against the might of EDO Corp.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,,1770468,00.html.