Posted By:
warshawlaw"Sportscard grading revenues for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively, declined significantly compared to the same periods last year, indicating a continued degradation in the demand for sportscard grading."
What a load of crap.
What I relish about this form of corporatespeak is how it twists a statement that the writer needs to make about the company into some sort of vague statement about the business in which the company is engaged, so that the company doesn't look as bad. Someone labored over this passage, intentionally tweaking it to avoid saying that PSA's business is worsening. Instead, they twist the grammar and make a generalized statement about some amorphous "continued degradation in the demand for sportscard grading." Really? Anyone ask the other companies about their submissions??
Translated into "normal" English instead of corporatespeak, the writer would have said: "We've made less money on card grading this year than for the same period of last year because there is less demand for our services."
So much for the post-Enron openness and honesty in corporate statements.