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Name That Company
I came to life in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo and got my current name in 1958. I started in a corner of a department store, where my founder paid his engineers out of his own pocket. In my early days, I repaired radios and made items such as radio shortwave converters, electric rice cookers, vacuum tube voltmeters and electrically heated cushions. I later became known for my magnetic tape, tape recorders, compact portable cassette players, televisions, camcorders and more. I’m a nearly $70-billion company today and am one of the world’s top consumer electronics firms. Who am I?
Know the answer? Send it to us with “Fool Trivia” written at the top and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a nifty prize!
Last Week’s Trivia Answer
I delivered my first submarine more than a century ago and changed my name from Electric Boat Corp. in 1952. Some of the names that have been in my hangar over the years include Canadair, Cessna, Convair, Fort Worth, Gulfstream, Pomona, Stinson and Vultee. My slogan is “Strength on Your Side,” and I specialize in business aviation, information systems, shipbuilding and marine systems, and land and amphibious combat systems. I employ 44,000 people and rake in $10 billion per year in sales. Who am I?
Answer: General Dynamics (ticker symbol: GD)
Our Los Angeles Times winner is ...
Ken Seckman of Simi Valley, who will receive “Talking Money” by Jean Chatzky.
Ask The Fool: Insurance Liability
Q: How should I calculate how much personal liability insurance I need in various insurance policies? -- A.F., Nashua, N.H.
A. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself how much you have to lose if you’re sued. Add up the value of your home, your belongings and your financial assets. Tack on more for the cost of legal defense. (In some cases, your insurance company might provide a lawyer.) You want to be sure that a lawsuit won’t wipe you out or cause severe financial strain. If your total assets are substantial, ask your insurance company about an “umbrella” personal liability policy.
Umbrella policies generally offer much more liability coverage ($1 million or more) at lower premiums than individual policies such as homeowner’s renter’s and automobile insurance.
Q: How should I evaluate my bank’s services? -- D.J., Midland, Mich.
A. Here’s one telling exercise: Gather all your banking statements and records for the last three months. (If you’ve been tossing these out, make a point of keeping them for the next few, months before beginning this exercise.) Grab a sheet of paper and note how much you’ve been paying for the following expenses: automated teller machine surcharges, “foreign” ATM fees, other ATM fees, overdraft fees, monthly maintenance fees, check-printing fees, call-center charges, debit-card fees, low-balance penalties, per-check charges, returned-check/NSF (nonsufficient funds) fees, money order fees, traveler’s check fees and other bank fees.
Once you’re done, total everything and see what the bank’s services have been costing you compared with the interest you may be earning on any deposits you have there.
If you gasp in unhappy surprise, consider making some changes in your behavior or switching to a different bank or a credit union that costs less.
My Dumbest Investment: Counter Intel-igence
Fresh out of engineering school in 1972, I toured a computer company’s factory and viewed a dozen women peering through microscopes while they threaded wires through tiny ferrite beads to make “core memory.” Semiconductor memories were just coming onto the market, and as I looked at that room I realized that core memory was on its way out and semiconductor memory was the way to go.
At the time, the only company making semiconductor memory for the general market was a tiny outfit in Northern California called Intel. Though we didn’t use its products at my company, my co-workers and I watched and discussed Intel regularly. Still, it never occurred to me to consider investing in Intel, even though I had $2,000 or $3,000 sitting in the bank in a non-interest-bearing checking account.
Had I invested even $1,000 in Intel back in those early days, I’d be retired and living in Tahiti now. -- Dan Hicks, Byron, Minn.
The Fool Responds: That’s a great lesson. We should all apply our industry insights to our investing.
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Write! Send questions for Ask the Fool, Dumbest (or Smartest) Investments (up to 1.00 words) and your trivia entries to latfool@fool.com or by regular mail, with the first line of the address as “Fool Trivia,” ’Fool Investment” or “Ask the Fool,” c/o Business Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. E-mail trivia entries must be received by noon Thursday, but for snail-mail entries, we’ll wait until Friday morning’s delivery. In any case, you must include full name and mailing address. One winner will be chosen at random for each contest.
