As you may have heard, FedEx Corp.
posted its first quarterly loss
in 11 years during the fourth quarter. The sluggish economy and soaring fuel costs dragged net income down to $341 million for
the quarter, down from $610 million from the same time period in
2007. Revenue did rise, up 8%, to $9.87 billion.
We'll have more tomorrow on FedEx's strategy for offsetting the sharp decline in U.S. demand. But what struck us about the earnings report was the $696 million it cost the shipping giant to change the name of its printing division. As we previously
noted, FedEx announced in June that after four years as FedEx Kinko's, the company was changing the name of its printing and professional services unit to FedEx Office.
Now, the company says the charge was related to minimizing "the use of the Kinko
's trade name and a reduction in the value of the goodwill resulting from the Kinko
's acquisition." Still, that's one expensive name change. - Suzanne Stevens
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