PSoTD

If you can judge a company's future by the sheer desperation of lurching into a cheesy email spam strategy, then I think Countrywide should be deemed VERY desperate. I'm getting a couple of these cheesemails every day.

I bet it wasn't hot tubs.

I had just noticed that nobody had posted that phrase in Google. Period. With the economy's outlook, I'm just setting a marker.

The Bus Station seems to cover a LOT of territory.

Dear International Delight Management,

You may want to have a discussion with your packaging design department. Your coffee creamer plastic bottles might contain some sweet syrup to improve the taste of coffee, but they are also fabulous vessels to leak that same syrup in one's refrigerator. We try not to buy your product because the container malfunctions so often. Maybe you should just copy Nestle's.

Sincerely,

A Coffee Drinkin' Household

This story would be funny, if the protagonists, Countrywide and Mozilo, weren't so involved in such national damage.

And if Mozilo wasn't paid so handsomely for all the ugliness.

The CEO of Countrywide Financial sold off $145 million worth of company stock options months before Countrywide plunged toward bankruptcy in the subprime mortgage crisis.

Angelo Mozilo earned $48 million last year and stands to walk away with an additional $115 million in severance and benefits if Bank of America goes through with its plan, announced last week, to buy Countrywide for $4.1 billion. Mr. Mozilo got out comfortably in time. Most investors didn't, as the company's stock price fell from about $40 to less than $6. Meanwhile, thousands of borrowers across the country were losing their homes and defaulting on Countrywide's loans.

Maybe Mozilo is too busy to speak in San Diego because he's gotta talk to the lawyers...

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wants to know how Mr. Mozilo can rake in millions while so many others lost everything.

Hard to believe the value decline in this decade. From Hoovers:

The company has seen its ownership change a number of times. After being acquired by VeriSign for about $15 billion in 2000, Network Solutions was sold to investment firm Pivotal Group in 2003 for $100 million. Pivotal sold Network Solutions to General Atlantic, a private equity firm specializing in information technology companies, early in 2007.

I wonder what General Atlantic thinks of Network Solutions' status - and reputation - in the marketplace at this point.

Oh, the irony of this bit of email spam:

Countrywide: The Trusted Name in Home Loans

My mortgage with them is less than a year old. Favorable fixed rate, everything's good, why would I do a deal with them now? Desperation...

Bad News for the Coupon Clipper mailhouse companies - the web is catching on.

Somehow, this purported deal in the works reminds me of an "It's A Wonderful Life" exchange:

Potter (laughs): George, now that's just what I like so much about you. (pleasantly and smoothly-like a snake) George, I'm an old man, and most people hate me. But I don't like them either, so that makes it all even. You know just as well as I do that I run practically everything in this town but the Bailey Building and Loan. You know, also, that for a number of years I've been trying to get control of it...or kill it. But I haven't been able to do it. You have been stopping me. In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing. Take during the depression, for instance. You and I were the only ones that kept our heads. You saved the Building and Loan, and I saved all the rest.

George: Yes. Well, most people say you stole all the rest.

Potter: The envious ones say that, George, the suckers.

Last year we remodeled our house, and when it was over we refinanced, and as always, took a fixed interest rate. No ARMs for us. Our mortgage company? Countrywide.

Yesterday we get junk mail, like we've been getting pretty regularly now, from Countrywide trying to offer us something called the Fastrack Loan Program, which is meant to entice us into a fixed period adjustable rate with a 5 figure dollar number which they describe as cashing out "from home equity".

I don't know Stephen Brandt, Executive Vice President of Countrywide, but this seems like a very, very stupid thing for us to do, considering our already low interest rate. Do they really think so low of their customers? Or are they that desperate? Or both?

I suspect we get some marketing letter from Countrywide to change or add financing with them every two weeks at this point. A year ago, we didn't get any, and they were our mortgage company then, too. Smells desperate.

For Iowa's Bed and Breakfast Inns.

I'm curious to see a number as to how much money the caucus generated for Iowa as a tourism item.

I wonder how many other people are going to write that date on checks today.

I suspect, with the real estate market smelling like it's going to be overripe for a while, that we'll see a lot more companies like this and this specializing in high end and theme basement remodeling, as owners upgrade their existing homes rather than trying to sell and buy another in the current climate.