Diebold Weighs Strategy for Voting Unit (may sell off unit)

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070304/D8NLIOJO0.html

Diebold Weighs Strategy for Voting Unit
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Mar 4, 3:29 PM (ET)

By M.R. KROPKO

CLEVELAND (AP) - Diebold Inc. (DBD) saw great potential in the modernization of elections equipment. Now, analysts say, executives may be angling for ways to dump its e-voting subsidiary that's widely seen as tarnishing the company's reputation.

Though Diebold Election Systems - the company's smallest business segment - has shown growth and profit, it's faced persistent criticism over the reliability and security of its touch-screen voting machines. About 150,000 of its touch-screen or optical scan systems were used in 34 states in last November's election.

The criticism is particularly jarring for a nearly 150-year-old company whose primary focus has long been safes and automated teller machines.


Randy Fox, right, explains how to work the printer housing on a Diebold Electronic Voting Systems unit during a training session in Cleveland in this Oct. 11, 2006 file photo. Just five years after Diebold boldly plunged into the changing United States e-voting market, some close observers think it may soon try to find a way out. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

"This is a company that has built relationships with banks every day of every year. It pains them greatly to see their brand tarnished by a marginal operating unit," said Gil Luria, an investment analyst who monitors Diebold for Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc.

FULL story at link.

[Trillo]

1. Sometimes, when cleaning and organizing,

it is necessary to decide that some things go in the trash.

Wouldn't it be nice if the common person could declare a loss on everything they throw away?

(sorry if this seems off-topic, in that case, read it as a mixed literal metaphor)

I guess my greater point is that sometimes it's better to throw something away, than selling it to others, where it will continue to be used.

[crikkett]

8. we should buy it then expose it

[hippiechick]

2. Sell ? To Halliburton, perhaps? Or Carlyle?

:puke:

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Too bad George Soros just put all that money down for some stocks

[crikkett]

9. i thought he bought halliburton

[Vincardog]

4. Do you think they might have been better off if they had built a transparent

accurate voting machine with a voter verified paper ballot?

Cry me a river for the poor corporate shills.

[Stevepol]

5. They stole the technology they wanted from Avante, but...

they forgot to steal Avante's voter-verified paper print out, that snips the vote off and deposits it in a box so it can be safely recounted.

Avante has a suit against them I think (?) about theft of their technology. Would be nice to see Diebold paying out the nose to Avante, an honest voting machine company for a change, one that doesn't get selected probably because they refuse to pay under the table or offer huge campaign donations to the S of S's they deal with. They just have a good machine that has almost no undervotes and is as verifiable as it's possible to make such a machine, IMHO.

Of course no machine beats HCPB.

[peacetalksforall]

6. "...paying out the nose to Avante..." Nice, but losses get passed on to us

from the banks.

This is the second one possibly going down or sold out?

[w4rma]

7. Diebold isn't a bank. They are best known for providing services for banks… and this BS. (nt)

[MissWaverly]

11. since the architect of the Help America Vote for Bush Act

Mr. Ney, is now in the Big House and I am not talking about the House of Representatives.
I doubt that the purpose was ever a tamper free device.

[nicknameless]

10. They were spreading the same rumor a year ago.

Maybe to take the heat off?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x412216

[sutz12]

12. I always love that one.....

They can build reliable ATM's but not voting machines? There's the gold plated turd in the jewelry box right there. That's just asinine. ATM's are what......six-sigma accurate or so? And how hard is it to hack one of them?

They took lucrative government contracts, wrapped them around some surplus 80's hardware and hired some high school hackers to write Windows Access code for them.

Sure, they want to get out now. The money's all gone dry.

[onehandle]

13. Cut out the middleman and "sell" it to the GOP. nt

[Kolesar]

14. New spinoff name: Repub-lo-tech Corporation ... eom

[cmd]

15. Diebold my dump e-voting headaches

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=340019&Category=5&subCategoryID=0

CLEVELAND (AP) — Diebold Inc. saw great potential in the modernization of elections equipment. Now, analysts say, executives may be angling for ways to dump its e-voting subsidiary that’s widely seen as tarnishing the company’s reputation.

Though Diebold Election Systems — the company’s smallest business segment — has shown growth and profit, it’s faced persistent criticism over the reliability and security of its touch-screen voting machines. About 150,000 of its touch-screen or optical scan systems were used in 34 states in last November’s election.

(snip)
Some of its voting machines have been criticized for lacking a voter-verified paper trail for post-election audits. Last summer, the Open Voting Foundation issued a report alleging that Diebold touch-screen functions can be changed with the flip of an internal switch. Activists have found source code online. And there have also been numerous lawsuits and leaked internal memos.

FTN Midwest Securities analyst Kartik Mehta wonders if a business that has been a lightning rod for criticism is worth it. He said Diebold leaders need to decide “if that negative publicity is hurting them in selling products to financial institutions, security products to government or any of their other customers.”

(snip)
“If I were in these guy’s shoes, I’d be looking close and hard at what I’m doing in this marketplace,” Brace said. “But given the uncertainty, who would buy it?”

[Sapere aude]

16. They didn't work, Dems won too many elections.

There were too many people unhappy with the repukes for the great heist of 2006 to take place.

[rocktivity]

17. TRANSLATION: Diebold wants to dump chance of being sued/investigated

:evilgrin:
rocknaiton