Posted on 03/11/2012 4:06:57 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
One week agao, on Saturday night, March 3, 2012, Carbonite announced its decision to break off relations with its key radio endorser. It appears to have been a fateful decision.
From Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch, Don’t ‘rush’ to Carbonite shares (h/t commenter Eliot Ness):
When Carbonite Inc. stock took a quick plunge this week, there was an obvious consensus about what caused the move: The company pulled advertising from Rush Limbaugh’s talk-radio program after the controversial host made inflammatory remarks about a Georgetown University law student.
Yes, the market could have feared that Limbaugh’s fans would cancel Carbonite’s service, an online back-up solution for consumers and businesses, or mount their own boycott. Or maybe investors assumed Carbonite will suffer because it will no longer have access to Limbaugh’s audience.
Jaffe goes on to point out that Carbonite has underlying business problems which are driving the long term decline in the stock price, but quotes another analyst as pointing out that the result drop likely is attributable to the Rush controversy:
“There is no way Carbonite’s underlying business is changing as much as the stock trading says it is on a daily basis,” said David Trainer, president of New Constructs Inc., a research firm based in Nashville. “That says there is a lot of excessive trading going on; maybe it’s the Rush thing or maybe not. … For the average investor, a stock this young being pushed around by like this traders is a wing and a prayer.”
Reader Zane makes a related point at his blog:
However, the reality is, with the exception of a zealous few, there will be likely little customers to be had amongst the activists – certainly not the amount of customers that were reached by the Limbaugh show. By the time next Valentines day rolls around will the money spent by the activist come close to money spent by listeners of Rush- likely not even close.That being said,
One more thing : I don’t know if boycotting Limbaugh was a good business choice and I think, no one else knows either. What I do know is: making decisions based on the loudest screamers of the moment, does not usually bring about good business results.
That was my first reaction when Carbonite dropped Rush. How many of the DailyKos and Media Matters screamers actually used or were considering using Carbonite. Probably few.
Why did Carbonite make such a precipitous decision?
There are few things that cannot wait for Monday morning, yet Carbonite issued its statement on a Saturday night, in what appears to be a matter of executives’ personal and political opinions outweighing shareholder interests.
Shareholder are getting massacred as a result.
And hope your house isn't hit by a tornado or fire.
Let me apologize. I have been up all night ;) I wholeheartedly agree with you and should have been clearer.
My post was meant to point out that once (back then) it was not effective but now it is and because it now is, we have to get our collective act together to counter it. If we do not, we’re toast.
Poorly worded on my part - I claim lack of sleep as an excuse ;)
One can to a degree.
Many people are unaware of the politics of a company if the company or CEO are not vocal.
OK as far as it goes. But I’m thinking it has to go deeper than that. Media Matters *in and of itself* has no real power. I’m thinking more of a mafia shakedown sort of deal where someone from govt. says, in effect, “Nice business ya got here”.
I think there is something to all of this. If you winter (or summer for that matter) in Aspen, and head out to the Hamptons for the oh-so-trendy parties, and your friends are of similar persuasion, there is definitely a sense of wanting to be ultraPC for business reasons, for social reasons, for networking reasons etc.
Yet I still would not want to exclude some heavy handed pressure being applied by someone with real authority as so many companies bailed and so quickly. To me it smells like a shakedown, although I agree with you that the things you mentioned play a role as well.
I have been using a combination of thumb drives - quick backup of important files as I create/modify them - and a external hard drive to keep the aggregate safe. While good practice dictates a separate location, I’m more concerned about protecting against a hard drive crash or a bad virus. It’s cheaper in the long run and doesn’t require bandwidth or putting my files out on the net - even encryption isn’t fool-proof, plus who wants the possibility of the gubmint deciding to get a warrant if it decides I’m one of them “subversive citizens”? Just being on FR probably makes us all persons of interest...
carbonite business is also based on trust. If customers don’t trust them because the owner is a flakey left-wing lunatic who is a Soros mini-me, then the business is doomed. Can you believe they will keep your backed-up files confidential? I can’t. So, it’s not just the fact they tried to be part of a bandwagon effect against Rush, which backfired. But, also because people can not longer trust them.
Oh, I do not doubt for a moment Axlerod and co. used a few companies as a canary in the coalmine and ‘encouraged them to play along...promised them backup if it failed and now says ‘Hey, you did it not us” and threatens them with audits if they squeal.
Not for a NONOsecond do I doubt the possibility, even the PROBability. But CorpCulture is SO PC these days that I can just as easily see this, due to their PC indoctrination as a “We’ll be heros!” moment and thinking it would give them a leg up on the competition.
Either way, or both, they haZ a truck full of fail to show for it and the fallout IS damaging the whole “PC/Lib” thing well beyond anything they ever imagined.
And like the Cheezeburger cat, I haZ a happy ;)
All buying and selling occurs at the margin.
Carbonite was so close to the edge that this event pushed them over.
Buyers control the downside. No buyers, big downside.
I guess it could be just an ironic coincidence that Carbonite announces they will no longer advertise on Limbaugh’s show and 48 hours later their stock price had fallen 25%, but hey any speculation is just that. (eye roll)
I’ve been using Amazon S3 storage backup. Basic pricing structure is 12.5 cents per month per GB with the first 5 GB free. I think I’m using about 20GB so with the 5 GB free, that works out to about $1.87 a month which is about what my last bill was.
Amazon does the encryption but my client app (duplicity for linux in my case) *also* does encryption so even if Amazon wanted to they couldn’t access my data.
It all runs in the background and I’ve tested it to retrieve the odd file and it works just fine.
Unlike carbonite you have to provide your own client software, but for linux that is dirt simple and I presume such software is readily available for other platforms.
Cheaper, more secure, and a way to tell carbonite to piss up a rope.
The external drive or thumb drive solution is fine as far as it goes but it’s not offsite and it requires manual effort (in most cases). My solution is effortless, secure, cheap, and works entirely in the background.
“There are few things that cannot wait for Monday morning,...”
Do not forget that Jim Zumbo literally destroyed his own career over a weekend. (Google it.)
Actually I think you are wrong. Media Matters is the shakedown arm of the administration. Do a search for the Rally for Rush threads here on FR or on American Spectator.
Their media PR guy is the same one the managed the StopBeck campaign. He was just laying in wait for Rush to ‘step in it.’
Righto.
If MM has the full force of the government behind it (which seems plausible to many) than that makes me right not wrong. If MM is the glove and the IRS or the FCC (or whatever) is the iron fist inside it, than that is exactly the point that I have been making. I think our positions are closer than you portray them.
Very interesting read/series of events. Thanks for that heads up!
Same here three accounts with May renewal. Canceled.
Carbonite: OK. Now we’ll talk Carbonite. And about Mr. McLaughlin of Sleep Number. And two of the co-founders of Legal Zoom.
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/03/05/rally-for-rush/5
Start at about page 5. If you haven’t seen this your in for a surprise. It is also why I did raise question about Rush, as he admitted on his show last Monday...to knowing the “leanings” of these companies.
I’ll agree to that. The PR guy for Media Matters is the trigger for these liberal front companies.
Likely senario
Carbonite is having financial trouble.
They were already a Dem owned operation.
One of the National Dem Operatives offered a bail-out if they would drop Rush and contribute to the left’s attempt to derail the damage of the abortion mandate.
Carbonite executives bought in.
Sales subscriptions fell 50%.
Carbonite is dead.
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