And Now, Fake Earnings
With earnings season here once again, and the term fake news ricocheting across social and traditional media, it’s not too great a leap to get to the concept of fake earnings.
Lots of companies present earnings that aren’t really earnings. For example, in January Intel reported earnings of $10.3 billion, and then adjusted earnings of $13.2 billion, about 30% higher . . . At Google, net income was $4.9 billion but adjusted net income was $6.0 billion or 23% higher . . . Drug maker Celgene reported net income of $2 billion, but also presented investors with adjusted net income of $4.8 billion, 140% higher.