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