But not all deferred revenues are created equal. I recently came across a company for which I viewed deferred revenue as not being very meaningful. The company was X-ray device maker Hologic (Nasdaq: HOLX). In the Revenue Recognition section of the company’s financial statement footnotes, it said the following: “The Company has reserved for potential losses under these contracts by deferring revenue of an amount equal to 10% of the contracts funded.” While on the surface this seems to be conservative accounting, it’s certainly not deferred revenue that you can count on to make its way to the income statement in the future like you can with Microsoft or AOL.

From a Smart Money article in 2000 (just after the beginning of the .com shakeout) about AOL:

“The trend in backlog and deferred revenue reflects a shift to more established advertisers and is not a reflection of slowing ad/commerce momentum,” Kiggen said.

From a CNET News article in 2000:

These AOL sourpusses said the company’s ad/commerce backlog, which was flat at $3 billion, and deferred revenue, which fell, proved AOL was hurt by the dot-com implosion.

But that bearish case doesn’t hold up. For a reality check, I called William Blair analyst Abhishek Gami, who calls it straight and isn’t tangled up with the sheep crowd. Gami was surprised by the negativity from some analysts, who were obviously playing along with the market sentiment. “I’d almost call AOL a value play,” said Gami, who rates AOL a “strong buy.”

“I’d almost call AOL a value play,” said Gami, who rates AOL a “strong buy.”

In 2000.

I give you ‘What the World Needs Now (is Wealth, Sweet Wealth)

What the world needs now is wealth sweet wealth,
its the only thing that there’s just too little of.
what the world needs now is wealth sweet wealth
no not just for some but for everyone.

Lord we dont need another mountain,
there are mountains and hillsides enough to climb,
there are oceans and rivers enough to cross
enough to last until the end of time

what the world needs now is wealth sweet wealth
its the only thing that theres just too little of,
what the world needs now is wealth sweet wealth
no not just for some but for everyone

Lord, we dont need another meadow,
there are corn fields and wheat fields enough to grow,
there are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine,
oh listen Lord, if you want to know

What the world needs now is wealth sweet wealth
its the only thing that theres just too little of.
what the world needs now is wealth sweet wealth
no not just for some, oh but just for every every everyone.

what the world (whoa whoa) needs now,
is wealth (is wealth) sweet wealth
what the world ( oh oh) needs now
is wealth (is wealth) sweet wealth
what the world (whoa whoa) needs now
is wealth (is wealth) sweet wealth

I brown (well, plastic) bag my lunch to work everyday, except Wednesday (it’s Whopper Day at Burger King, y’know) and I don’t eat out during the week.

Well, I ate out today. It wasn’t by design, and I didn’t have company, but I ate out because I was trying to get to the Post Office, was too late and couldn’t get what I needed to get done done. So, I was faced with the prospect of a 20-minute walk home without grub in the belly, or eating out. So I grabbed some curry chicken, mango salad, rice and weird pototo type stuff at the Noodle Restaurant at Yonge and Sheppard. Wasn’t great, but wasn’t terrible either.

I realized that when I eat spices I sweat like anything. My skin – oily as it is normally must have had some sort of reflective sheen that one would more normally associate with a  wet sidewalk. I felt quite gross.

Anyhoo, the upshot being I ate out today, I’m sad about it, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.