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Whether you're walking a tightrope or scribbling in your checkbook, balance is a good thing. And, one of the best ways to evaluate a company is to glance at its balance sheet to see what it owns with what it owes.
The balance sheet is a paragon of simplicity and is made up of three components: assets (the stuff it owns), liabilities (the money it owes), and shareholders' equity (the company's value to its shareholders).
Assets take two forms: short-term (or current) assets and long-term assets. Under short-term, there¿s good ol' hard cash. Then, there¿s something called "cash equivalents," which are assets like short-term bonds that can be sold so quickly, they might as well be cash. There you factor in inventory, which (if you're a reasonably competent business owner) you can sell to customers in return for--you guessed it--cash. (The raw materials a company owns to make that inventory also falls under this category.)
Long-term assets are things that are harder to convert into cash. (Think real estate and equipment.) Long-term assets depreciate, meaning they lose some value over time. Also under the long-term category are what's called intangible assets: things like patents and brands, that are important, but hard to quantify. Accountants earn their stripes figuring out the real overall value of these assets.
Once you know your assets, it's time for liabilities. As with assets, liabilities are separated into short-term or current, and long-term. Current liabilities are what a company owes in that year: Things like payments to employees or accounts payable to suppliers. Long-term liabilities are debts paid over several years.
Shareholders' equity is determined by subtracting the liabilities from the assets. That number represents the value of the company after all its bills are paid.
Obviously, investors should pay close attention to balance sheets. Spikes in the amount of debt carried, or a reduction in shareholders' equity, are usually red flags.
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Monday, June 30, 2008
Expand Networks Optimizes US Air Force JSTARS Aircraft Communications
Comtex
SLOUGH, England, Jun 30, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----Expand Networks (www.expand.com), the leading provider of WAN Optimization solutions for mobile networks, announced that Northrop Grumman and the United States Air Force have integrated the Accelerator 4820 and Accelerator 6940 into the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communication system to provide application acceleration and bandwidth optimization.
Deployed in production, Joint STARS aircraft and ground stations, Expand Networks Accelerators enhance the functionality of the Joint STARS BLOS communications architecture by providing the Beyond Line of Sight system with accelerated WAN performance to minimize bandwidth requirements for internet protocol (IP) traffic. The Accelerators mitigate the effects of latency and ensure that all applications receive adequate capacity. Optimization is achieved through the implementation of Expand Networks' patented byte-level caching, compression, Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS-based) TCP acceleration (www.scps.org) and Quality of Service capabilities.
"The Expand units have been very reliable and provide necessary user insight on the performance of the link. The techniques used have provided a significant increase in bandwidth utilization and link reliability," stated Bill Guttadauro, chief architect of the Joint STARS BLOS system.
The E-8C Joint STARS is an airborne battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform. Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with ground surveillance to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the delay, disruption and destruction of enemy forces. As a battle management and command and control asset, the E-8C can support the full spectrum of roles and missions from peacekeeping operations to major theater war. "Expand has been an excellent partner in bringing true airborne networking to Joint STARS," said Stu Schreiber, Joint STARS BLOS program manager.
"Expand Networks has long and widespread experience with national security communications programs in the air, at sea and on land," said Howard Teicher, Expand Network's Vice President for Public Sector & Satellite Markets. "Operating enterprise-class applications over low bandwidth-high latency satellite links demands a dynamic, robust WAN Optimization capability to satisfy the users' performance requirements. Optimizing the Joint STARS BLOS architecture demonstrates the power and flexibility of Expand's technology and our ability to deliver high performance mobile communications, while saving taxpayer resources."
Expand Networks has delivered over 9,000 accelerators throughout the U.S. government and in all branches of the United States military since its initial rollout in the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in 1999. Battle-proven in Afghanistan and Iraq with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, Expand accelerators are also deployed in U.S. government enterprise networks, such as the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
About Expand Networks
Expand Networks is the pioneer and leader in helping organizations simplify their IT infrastructure while delivering remote offices fast, reliable and secure access to networked applications. This results in improved user productivity and cost-effective IT management. Expand offers a multi-service integrated platform that ensures superior performance for any application over any network. From its headquarters in Roseland, NJ and its global locations, Expand Networks (www.expand.com) serves more than 3,000 enterprise and public sector customers in over 100 countries including: American Express, Bacardi USA, BMW, Continental Airlines, Carr America, Colgate, Elizabeth Arden, Reed Exhibitions, Target and United States Department of Defense with over 36,000 units deployed. Expand is the largest supplier of WAN Optimization products to US Government and Military agencies (greater than 6,000 units) and also has the most units deployed at a single corporate location, (4,500).
Expand Networks, Accelerator, Expand Compass, ExpandView are trademarks of Expand Networks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.
SOURCE: Expand Networks
Cohesive Communications Jennifer Manning, +44 (0) 1291 626200 expand@cohesive.uk.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008 ********************************************************************** As of Thursday, 06-26-2008 23:59, the latest Comtex SmarTrend� Alert, an automated pattern recognition system, indicated a DOWNTREND on 06-09-2008 for NOC @ $71.78. For more information on SmarTrend, contact your market data provider or go to www.mysmartrend.com SmarTrend is a registered trademark of Comtex News Network, Inc. Copyright � 2004-2008 Comtex News Network, Inc. All rights reserved.
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