From: "Phil Payne" 

> From 2006-04-24
>
> Sanjay Kumar, the former chief executive of CA, pleaded guilty on
> Monday to charges of financial fraud,
>
>
http://news.com.com/Former+CA+chief+Kumar+pleads+guilty+to+fraud/2100-1014_3-60
64516.html
>
> I liked this:
>
> "In one case, Kumar flew to Paris and personally signed a contract
> with a false date, according to Department of Justice prosecutors.
> They said he and Stephens encouraged others in the company to use this
> practice, which was internally refered to as a '35-day month.'"

An in joke is that "24 x 7" is the formula for the number of
hours in 31 December.

What matters with a large computer deal is whether it is
"bookable". Generally, a deal is bookable when the finance is
clean and the customer has signed a letter of acceptance.  This may be days
or weeks after the system actually goes into operation.  We'll leave
conditional withdrawal ("side") letters out of this.

Another interesting little nugget, if you've got the time, is the timing of
payments by IBM Credit Corporation to its parent IBM at the ends of
quarters.  ICC finances a lot of large IBM deals, buying equipment from its
parent and leasing it to customers.  The invoices are huge, and the timing
of their payment can dramatically affect the parent's apparent performance.

The asshole Wall Street analysts (and I use the term advisedly) focus on
the parent's earnings report and ignore the subsidiary.  Ten minutes with a
Hewlett-Packard exposes the sham - sometimes a billion or two winks into
and out of existence overnight.

You HAVE to dig.  One good piece of advice - never bettered - is to start
reading all corporate filings, earnings statements and annual reports from
the back.  Ignore the CEO's summary/intorduction.

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