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

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

Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.

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