The 24/7 Wall St./Flame Index: Companies With The Worst Press (May 31)

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Published: May 31, 2011 10:47 am

Last Updated: May 31, 2011 10:48 am

Chiquita Brands (NYSE: CQB) was sued for supporting dangerous para-military groups in Columbia in 2007. The EU began what is likely to be a vigorous examination of the Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) takeover of Samsung’s disk drive business. The Flame Index started as a research tool in 2008 at the NY Innovation Design Lab (nyidlab). It was used as a general metric to evaluate companies and their risk in the media. Publicly traded Fortune 500 companies are used as a measure to calculate an overall market of negative news and the companies are ranked within that market.

Rank	Company	Ticker	Score	Change in Rank	Comments
1	Google	GOOG	35.86	+4	More concerns that Android does not make money
2	Chiquita Brands International	CQB	35.729	+656	Columbia paramilitary payoffs
3	Research In Motion Limited	RIMM	34.034	-1	Still being beaten down by Apple
4	Massey Energy	MEE	30.687	+3	West Virginia may block M&A
5	General Motors	GM	29.789	-2	May auto sales will be weak
6	Western Digital	WDC	28.731	+326	EU may stop purchase of Samsung disk unit
7	Hewlett-Packard	HPQ	28.166	+6	Management turnover grows
8	Comerica	CMA	27.804	-4	Bank gets low rating in new reputation report
9	Pfizer	PFE	26.891	+6	About to buy Ferrosan’s consumer healthcare business.
10	Fannie Mae	FNM	26.442	-1	Will almost certainly be shuttered
2	Chiquita Brands International	CQB	35.729	+656	Trouble with Columbian payments
6	Western Digital	WDC	28.731	+326	EU scrutiny of deal
14	Freddie Mac	FMCC	25.297	+168	Issues new three-year reference notes
15	BB&T Corp.	BBT	23.24	+181	Criticism of bank’s trust preferred securities
21	Exxon Mobil	XOM	21.617	+42	Restarts key LA refinery