Diebold Cuts Earnings Forecast

Ain't that a bitch?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Diebold Inc., the leading maker of automated teller machines, on Monday warned that third-quarter and full-year profits will fall below expectations due to problems at its electronic voting machine business.

The North Canton, Ohio, company cut its third-quarter and full-year earnings, citing costs for recertifying its electronic voting machines in California and for expenses related to a pending civil action in that state.


Diebold now expects to earn 67 cents a share in the third quarter, down from its previous forecast of 70 cents to 74 cents a share. Analysts, on average, expected Diebold to earn 72 cents in the third quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=5&u=/nm/20041011/bs_nm/financial_diebold_dc

aren't we all?

If they had made even the slightest effort to make reliable and auditable machines they'd be swimming in profit. Instead they chose to aid the criminals.

Poor Diebold. Guess that's what happens when your CEO makes nakedly politically opportunistic remarks at a public function, and lots of people hear about it -- suddenly, you have a microscope shoved up your ass, and it becomes obvious your machines don't have any more integrity than your CEO.

Actually, to be fair, Diebold's ATMs are okay -- I've never had any problem with them. They don't know whether I'm a Democrat or a Republican, though. If they did, my bank account would probably be a raging mess all the time.