In the past, I've playfully (and not so playfully) been more than a little harsh on Visa, but my, my, this Steve Reeves makes me look like a shareholder...lol
Visa Keeps Throwing Away Billions for Lawsuits | The StockMasters
by Steve Reeves
Its a good thing Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) raked in $6.2 billion in revenue last year as today they are setting aside another $700 million to cover lawsuits. Let's not forget Visa put $3 Billion in its litigation fund in March 2008, and another $1.1 billion in December. But hey, what the hell, just charge it!
Editors Note: I took the liberty to add those up, and the total figure is a whopping $4.8 Billion dollars in their litigation escrow fund. Guilty conscience or not, they do seem to have covered their butt in case a company points (for example) that although PIN debit is the most secure and safest form of payment in the brick and mortar space, it's amazingly absent in the fraud ridden web space, costing Internet Retailers hundreds of millions of dollars on Interchange fees. Brick and Mortar retailers are up in arms over Interchange, but Internet Merchants are curiously quiet, yet they are the ones that pay the highest fees. So, $4,800,000,000 since March of 2008 equivocates to $340,000,000 per month over the last 15 months.
Anyway, back to Steve Reeves story...
Visa Inc. shares aren't doing much today, standing still at $62 on today's news, here's a quick look at the high's and low's for Visa's share price:% From 52-Wk High ($ 82.84 ) -31.30 %
% From 52-Wk Low ($ 41.78 ) 33.78 %
% From 200-Day MA ($ 57.44 ) 8.96 %
% From 50-Day MA ($ 65.27 ) -3.46 %
Price % Change (52-Week) -23.80 %
The credit and debit card network has spent $2.1 billion in a settlement with American Express Co (AXP.N) over anti-competitive practices, and last year it agreed to pay $1.89 billion to Discover Financial Services (DFS) over several quarters in a similar settlement.
Visa said the new addition to its litigation account had the effect of a $700 million repurchase of the company's common shares. Under the terms of its initial public offering, Visa's U.S. bank shareholders agreed to have their stakes diluted to fund litigation in order to save other shareholders from direct losses from lawsuits in certain U.S. court cases.
Visa -- for shareholders, they are everywhere you want to be, except when it comes to massive lawsuits.
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