Smokinhot

Tobacco Company Yields are Smokin'

It's more about personal freedom. If someone wants to kill themselves driving a car (more deaths from cars than tobacco) or smoking or cliff-diving or over-eating - then let's not let you dictate that YOUR narrow definition of "killer industry" is what the rest of us need to be concerned with. But thanks for your deep perception on the subject - I'll go and read up on this supposed cancer vs tobacco linkage.

Could Earthlink and United Online Still “Dial up” Big Profits?

Wayne, yeah, ELNK can't compete with the big boys on DSL/Cable Modems (since ELNK basically bulk buys from those same big boys - and then resells to the end users) - but they run so lean, that they can hang in there profitably for a long time. And with dialup at $10 vs fast access at $40 - lots of recession'd users will opt for lower speeds to save that $30 per month delta. ELNK (if it wanted to - and after spending it's allocated $200 million to buy back 30 million shares) could probably pay a $1.00 per year dividend for the next decade and still have a pile of cash (and accruing cash) in the bank.

Tobacco Company Yields are Smokin'

I personally enjoy my $3.40 Div from RAI on a $38 price point. The interesting upside on the tobaccos is the marijuana legalization play. The talk is that alcohol and tobacco consumption get diluted and reduced if marijuana gets legalized or further decriminalized. On the other hand, with weed legalization, maybe tobacco becomes a gateway drug to marijuana - a rejuvenation, eh? Or maybe even big tobacco gets into the commercial marijuana business themselves and some actual growth accrues to the tobacco bottom lines. Let's get creative folks.

Could Earthlink and United Online Still “Dial up” Big Profits?

Yeah, I agree, Wayne didn't do much homework on this article. ELNK has cut way back on marketing and has laid off more than half of its staff. He also isn't aware that much of ELNK's business is in broadband access these days. But these things aside, nice article - to even remember that UNTD and ELNK still exist. What ELNK should do now is start paying out a big dividend like UNTD does. At least return some value to the shareholders.