The 24/7 Wall St./Flame Index: Borders Gets Burned By The Press
February 17, 2011 by Douglas A. McIntyre
Nothing like the Chapter 11 filing of a major public company brings in poor press notices. Borders Group filed for bankruptcy and closed 200 stores which is also bound to hurt it in local stories posted by media around the country. Borders’ actions pushed it to the top of the 24/7 Wall St./Flame Index of negative press.
Right below Borders on the list are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Federal government officials my shutter both of the mortgage firms after investments from taxpayers to support them soared toward $400 billion.
Note: The Flame Index scans thousands of news sites 24 hours per day and ranks companies getting the most negative press right now. The Flame Index Media Analysis Algorithm crunches the data for an up-to-the-minute ranking of the hardest-hit companies.
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 | Borders Group | BGP | 66.128 | +8 | Chapter 11 and the shuttering of 200 stores |
| 2 | Fannie Mae | FNMAS | 50.157 | -1 | Government wants out of the mortgage business |
| 3 | Chevron | CVX | 35.174 | -1 | Worries continue about $9.5 billion judgement against the oil firm in Ecuador. |
| 4 | Freddie Mac | FMCKJ | 31.604 | -1 | Federal mortgage business exit, Part II |
| 5 | NYSE Euronext | NYX | 26.941 | +13 | Deal to “merge” with Duetsche Borse may be blocked |
| 6 | Ford Motor | F | 25.452 | -1 | Concerns about Europe and China car sales more than offset progress car company has made on its debt load |
| 7 | Goldman Sachs Group | GS | 24.314 | -1 | May close part of trading operations which are essential profit engine |
| 8 | Altria Group | MO | 23.285 | +479 | Company sues Chinese website for selling counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes |
| 9 | BP | BP | 21.054 | +6 | Ken Feinberg says BP may have overpaid into $20 billion liability fund to cover Gulf spill |
| 10 | DISH Network | DISH | 21.025 | -6 | Investor dismay over Hughes Communications deal |
Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.
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