Snowdon is a dummy

You cant go blaming 9/11 on the IC's incompetence, and Benghazi, without them assuming you want them to do something about it.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/17/lawsuit-aside-nsa-scandal-is-bad-news-for-ibm.aspx#.Urd48NJDvSs

The NSA problem
With fears of industrial espionage as well as government spying front page news across the globe, IBM is going to continue to face struggles overseas whether it cooperates directly with the NSA or not. The taint of being an American company, in this case, is the whole problem, and that means its being the scope of IBM's management to do very much about where it is based, nor the implications.

Worldwide, but particularly in countries like China, Brazil, and Germany where the scandal is getting the most coverage, NSA policy is directly threatening American companies' competitiveness in technology. Those buying anything that is security-sensitive are increasingly choosing European or Asian alternatives.

In the long run, the only thing that's going to end this is wholesale policy reforms, and so far politicians haven't made more than a cursory effort to touch the matter. In all likelihood it's going to take years to resolve this. That means a lot of lobbying from both civil liberties groups and the companies affected, which we're already seeing in the form of public calls for reform.

What this means for IBM
IBM makes great business solutions and they're going to remain a top dog in the domestic IT market as a matter of course. The problem is that the US market is already pretty mature, and their growth was supposed to come from overseas.

Still, floating near its 52-week lows one might be forgiven for seeing IBM as a buy at these levels, something to sit on and wait for the rebound. It's hard not to be sympathetic to that position when the company is a world-class one like IBM. With $36 billion in debt and the NSA scandal likely to be a very long-term drag this may be a time to wait and see if there's a cheaper entry point in the future. Either way, stopping the bleeding on overseas sales is going to take a while, so this is something you'd buy for the long term.

Then there was Siemens
But IBM's troubles may be other companies' gains. Those companies that are ditching IBM because of the NSA are probably not just putting their buys on hold, and are no doubt looking for a (preferably not-American) replacement.

Siemens AG (NYSE: SI ) springs immediately to mind as a company comparable to IBM in size, focus, and product quality. Even more appealingly, it's German and therefore has the inside track across the EU for replacing IBM in security-sensitive applications. If they can also use IBM's stumble to grow their business in China, so much the better.

Siemens boasts a better price/book ratio and was already growing at a healthy clip, one that should be even healthier with IBM no longer in the mix for certain contracts. With its history of dividends and its broad international appeal there was already a lot to like about Siemens, and there's even more to like now.

Final Foolish thoughts
IBM isn't going anywhere, but its competitiveness is stunted internationally and likely for years to come. Because of this, companies like Siemens should continue to make inroads in the fast-growing overseas markets, making it the place to be in the near term.

So is your connection to reality so once more would you care for links to the finances articles on how damn must this silliness is costing all of us or not?

Most likely you just wish to keep your head in the sand until the economic go into another tail spin cause by this bullshit.

I have a picture of you in a year or two pulling your head out of the sand and asking what the hell had happen.

Bill...go worry about the grassy knoll or Area 51

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/shinal/2013/12/08/nsa-spying-has-damaged-overseas-business-of-strongest-us-tech-companies/3891765/

Cisco, whose switches and routers lie at the core of Internet traffic around the globe, saw its top five emerging markets post year-over-year order declines between 18% and 30% in its most recent quarter.

IBM last month reported a 22% decline in revenue from China, which contributed to a 4% drop in the company's quarterly profit.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57615663-92/ibm-faces-shareholder-lawsuit-over-cooperation-with-nsa/

IBM's cooperation with a National Security Agency surveillance program caused sales in China to "abruptly halt" and the company's stock price to decline, a shareholder lawsuit claims.
In a complaint filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the Louisiana Sheriffs' Pension and Relief Fund accused the company of defrauding investors by concealing its involvement in the agency's PRISM program, leading to a dramatic drop in sales in China. The program, which was revealed in classified documents leaked to the press by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, allowed the agency to collect and process foreign intelligence that passed through servers belonging to US tech companies.
The disclosure of the program led China to sever its business relationship with IBM and a handful of other companies, resulting in IBM reporting a 22 percent drop in sales in China for the third quarter. The lawsuit also accuses IBM of lobbying for Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which would allow IBM to share customer data with the NSA.
"The company knew but misrepresented or concealed from investors that the disclosures of its lobbying and its association with the Prism and NSA spying scandal caused businesses in China as well as the Chinese government to abruptly halt doing business with IBM, leading to an immediate, and precipitous decline in sales," the pension fund said in its complaint.

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Bill...go worry about the grassy knoll or Area 51

The only thing that come to my mind is that you are a complete fool/crazy...

You are another nut who will not face the reality that NSA actions are hurting the nation in many ways including harming our technology section?

This go beyond stupid when the details of this already happening is in all the news media and not a matter of opinion as far as what had already occur.

This position approached you being completely unconnected to reality.

Your position is rapidly approaching complete disconnect with reality, Bill.

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Your position is rapidly approaching complete disconnect with reality, Bill.

Poor baby not being able to accept and deal even with black and white information contain in finance journals if that information does not support your world view.

Okay, Bill...the sky is really falling.

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Okay, Bill...the sky is really falling.

The sky is falling enough for major shareholders to had already launch a lawsuit against IBM and we are only in the first few months of the effects of finding out what businesses and NSA had been doing behind their customers backs.

RSA and it parent company is likely to be in deep finance trouble from both lost of businesses and lawsuits over taking ten millions dollars from the NSA to screw their customers.

Now that it is known that American firms had placed back doors into software and perhaps hardware for the benefit of the US government why would anyone buy from a US firm if there is equally good software and hardware that in being made by non US firms?

Woe to all of us.

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Woe to all of us.

With very special note of IBM and Cisco and RSA parent company stockholders and the employees of those firms.

I do not know Frank is the sky worth up to 500 billions over the next ten years in network switching gears in China alone that US firms are likely to mostly be missing out on? Not only is the Chinese market growing super fast but a lot of the current hardware need to be replaced to handle the change over from IP4 to IP6 standards.

But then Frank no amount of harm will matter to you now will it?

Tell me, Bill...is the harm being caused because the US spied...or because some misguided individual decided on his own to tell the world about the spying?