Guest Article: BP’s Continued Existence Seen Coming Under Threat as Gulf Oil Spill Continues

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 16:25:00 +0000

The continued failure of BPs efforts to stop the Gulf oil spill and mounting political pressure are putting the very future of the British-based oil giant in question.

BP shares plunged again on Tuesday, wiping $17 billion off the market capitalization of the company. Premiums on credit default swaps to insure the companys debt soared 75% to $178,000 for $10 million as analysts began to question whether the company can survive the financial and reputational costs of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

A former Clinton cabinet member, ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now an economist at Berkeley , went so far as to urge the nationalization of BP by the U.S. government so that authorities could take direct control of the efforts to stop the spill and clean up the damage to the environment.

The existential threat to one of the largest companies in the world hits a company whose origins date back to the discovery of oil in the Middle East . BP began life in 1908 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to exploit oil fields discovered in what later became Iran .

When Iran nationalized its oil industry following World War II, the British government supported a CIA coup in that country that brought the shah to power and restored partial ownership of Iran s oil revenue to the British company, now called British Petroleum.

After a series of mergers in the 1980s and 1990s, including the acquisition of Amoco, the company adopted its present name, BP plc. Its advertising slogan in recent years has been Beyond Petroleum, playing on that abbreviation.

But now, say analysts, the company will have difficulty in the face of civil and potentially criminal liability, shaking the damage to its reputation from the Deepwater Horizon accident and ensuing oil spill.

The failure of the companys latest effort to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf the so-called top-kill bombardment with mud made it likelier that only the drilling of a relief well would stop the flow. But that solution could take until August, with the risk that the shares and balance sheet of the company could continue to be hammered in the interval.

A weakened BP could be the target for a takeover or even bankruptcy, analysts suggested.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/BPs-Continued-Existence-Seen-Coming-Under-Threat-as-Gulf-Oil-Spill-Continues.html

By. Darrell Delamaide for Oilprice.com who offer detailed analysis on Oil, Geopolitics, Gold and most other Commodities. They also provide free political and economic intelligence to help investors gain a greater understanding of world events and the impact they have on certain regions and sectors. Visit: http://www.oilprice.com

How Internet Reputation Management Can Save You or Your Company From a Disaster

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:28:08 +0000

Internet Reputation Management is the practice of manipulating or reshaping one’s search results to reflect a more positive, or accurate, depiction of a particular person or company. This industry got started in 2006, originally to defend children from the dangers of social networking sites. However, it has evolved into something more than that. The Internet, and search engines particularly, has become more important as a source for information, whether that is an impression of a celebrity or a review of a product. Think about itwhen you are going to try a new restaurant, go see a movie, look up a celebrity, buy a new product, you look to the Internet, and especially search engines, for information. Search engines allow for the aggregation of a great deal of information, most of which is user-generated, rather than produced by any professional journalist. Using a search engine to find new information about a subject has become so common, in fact, that “Google” has become a verb. You’ve heard it before, “‘I don’t know anything about H.L. Mencken.’ ‘Well Google him!’” User-generated journalism, often in the form of blogging, is incredibly unpredictable, though, and notoriously unreliable. Negative search results are quite common, and although they are sometimes perfectly understandableoften they are ridiculous or simply false. Input “Octomom” or “David Vitter” and you will see a plethora of negative comments which any person would say they may or may not deserve. However, I think we can all agree that both Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and David Vitter have a right to publicize themselves in a positive light, too, rather than letting their reputations be held hostage to the whims of angry bloggers and forum trolls. The only effective way to fight back against this anonymous barrage of negativity in their search results is to hire an Internet Reputation Management professional. They will conduct a campaign, on a business or individual’s behalf, that will help them to publicize themselves more positively. Although they cannot remove the offending search results, they can push them down in rankonto the second, third, or fourth pagewhere hardly anyone will see them. This is the essence of Internet Reputation Management, the suppression of links through the elevation of positive publicity.

financial investment information » Reputation

Guest Article: BP’s Continued Existence Seen Coming Under Threat as Gulf Oil Spill Continues

How Internet Reputation Management Can Save You or Your Company From a Disaster