tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post4414061272801675953..comments2023-05-31T11:46:50.421+02:00Comments on Financial Translation Blog: The Lionbridge Situation: A Moderate Proposal for Constructive ActionMiguel Llorens M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06617102771655076833noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-74809870875102341262011-01-07T22:17:51.278+01:002011-01-07T22:17:51.278+01:00Oooh, shorting stocks is highly dangerous. I don&#...Oooh, shorting stocks is highly dangerous. I don't do it and I certainly don't recommend that anyone do it. Remember: when you buy a stock, you can only lose all your money. When you short a stock, you owe as much as it costs you to buy it back, which could theoretically be many times what you put into the short, as the hapless bear raiders on Volkswagen learned to their eternal chagrin in what is now called "The Greatest Short Squeeze Ever."Miguel Llorens M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06617102771655076833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-56931134380337514612011-01-07T21:58:12.402+01:002011-01-07T21:58:12.402+01:00speaking of free markets, you can of course also s...speaking of free markets, you can of course also show disapproval of lionbridge's practices and earn money at the same time (assuming that those bad practices sooner or later lead to bad numbers) by simply shorting its stock :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-37355784203426329582010-11-25T13:46:31.546+01:002010-11-25T13:46:31.546+01:00@Didier
Hello again. Yes, I think LIOX is a subpri...@Didier<br />Hello again. Yes, I think LIOX is a subprime dealer of translation services. However, its short-sighted policies can do a lot of harm (not just to itself) before it passes on. Why should our industry leader be such a disappointingly poor company? Why isn't the biggest company in our sector an elite outfit that everyone would want to be associated with? Is that too much to ask?<br /><br />@john<br />I believe in free markets, but I am far from believing they are perfect. They say on Wall Street that the market can remain irrational for a whole lot longer than you can remain solvent. Likewise, a company as large as LIOX can gobble up a whole lot of market share and generate a whole lot of misery for a whole lot of time before the survival of the fittest catches up with it.Miguel Llorens M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06617102771655076833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-89179062525082332692010-11-24T17:32:51.466+01:002010-11-24T17:32:51.466+01:00As translators do we want Lionbridge to mend its n...As translators do we want Lionbridge to mend its naughty ways, or would we be better served if the company went bankrupt or was taken over. I suspect the latter. Let's help their clients and investors discover their dirty little secrets!johnrawlinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05483219429357988683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-64962412726707010072010-11-24T11:49:45.459+01:002010-11-24T11:49:45.459+01:00"it is the largest company in the industry wo..."it is the largest company in the industry worldwide. It sets a standard through its sheer size"<br />Sure it is, but I am old enough to have known other dinosaurs:<br />- remember Ashton Tate #1 of databases, Lotus #1 of spreadsheets, WordPerfect #1 of word processing, Novell #1 in networks? I was with Borland at the time, this may give you a clue about my attitude<br />- OKay this was decades ago, lets' try in 21st century: remember when MySpace was the #1 "social network" and everyone wanted to be there, when the Pocket PC revolution was the latest hype gadget everyone wanted (I was having a Palm), how many years ago?<br /><br />Whatever Alan Walsh could say, you do care and support Lionbridge much more than many fellow translators: you try to amend them, you advise Goliath about his weaknesses when we prefer to ignore them while they fall (or perhaps help David?).<br /><br />Looking at the Lionbridge France balance sheet, that I have known under the #1 names of INK, RR Donnelly or Stream before this latest incarnation, demonstrates that they are sucking their vendors' blood in an attempt to survive yet a few months or years, do you really want to discuss payment terms with them?<br /><br />These Behemoth translation mills are the windmills of Don Quichotte, their customer management is 20th century and their vendor management 19th century; I am on the vendor side, I know that they will pay me if they must and cut my throat if they can (believe me they tried!) so I will rather keep your #1 suggestion: stay away!<br /><br />I believe that their lies will progressively come to light:<br />- they share their workforce with all other translation companies, and their "database of expert professionals" is a dusty paper directory of yellow pages in "translation and interpreting", most of the entries never even return thier calls<br />- they sell chinese T-shirts and jeans by the truckload, when a number of customers require Haute Couture and dedication to their specifics that a team of translators may much better offer<br />- they pretend to have "unlimited project size" and continue to inundate market places and translators' inboxes with frantic calls for anyone able to work on this so urgent and important project that they promised to their customer<br /><br />In financial terms they are selling short: their salespople promise the moon and the stars at the price the customer may dream of, then they go to the market and attempt to fulfill with whoever is available and still willing to work for them. <br />Look at the "subprime" job bundles they subcontract to 2nd or 3rd level agencies, does that not remind you a process of selling short other subprime contracts?<br /><br />Customers and analysts are not dumb, their will discover the inside of this industry, realize that they order a special meal in a chic restaurant and see the waiter call by a backdoor for unemployed cookers after the order; their customer side is brick and mortar, the illusion remains and it may hold a few years like Novell or Lotus, but their vendor side is on the click side and may fail as fast as MySpace.Didier Fourcotnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-20911224422616721892010-11-23T14:08:11.674+01:002010-11-23T14:08:11.674+01:00Hi Tomasz,
Why? It's a mystery to me why a co...Hi Tomasz,<br /><br />Why? It's a mystery to me why a company would sacrifice its standing for a couple of peanuts. My purely speculative guess is that, faced with stagnant revenue growth they have decided toconjure some earnings out of thin air.Miguel Llorens M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06617102771655076833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-28418932466587638752010-11-23T14:01:59.919+01:002010-11-23T14:01:59.919+01:00Sounds like Lionbridge is changing the way transla...Sounds like Lionbridge is changing the way translation services are provided: paying on-line CAT tool, paying job platform. Why do this?Tomaszhttp://www.monopolish.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-27635127419343850802010-11-22T15:56:18.410+01:002010-11-22T15:56:18.410+01:00Hello Didier,
Your point is well taken. Although ...Hello Didier,<br /><br />Your point is well taken. Although I feel also that in the short and medium term the only option for vendors is to turn elsewhere for work, it is important to try to get Lionbridge to mend its ways. Mainly because it is the largest company in the industry worldwide. It sets a standard through its sheer size. If it lowers the bar below ankle level, you can bet that other companies will follow.Miguel Llorens M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06617102771655076833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-50139441159468415302010-11-22T15:21:52.836+01:002010-11-22T15:21:52.836+01:00Let's look at point 5) of your proposal: "...Let's look at point 5) of your proposal: "30 days net payment for freelancers". As we are both working on financial translations, and I am French (and stopped working for them more than 10 years ago), I have looked at the published balance sheet of Lionbridge France:<br />http://www.societe.com/cgi-bin/anafi?rncs=381979525<br /><br />This gives an idea of what they consider worth publishing and these are data that they endorse and consider true.<br /><br />You may note that the revenue has dropped from 10M in 2008 to 5 in 2009, but this is not our point, (or perhaps a consequence of our point?).<br /><br />let's look at the line<br />"Délai règlements fournisseurs (en jours)" this is the weighted average payment terms of vendors in days, and what can we read there?<br /><br />2008: 59 days<br />2009: 84 days<br /><br />So Didier Hélin's point "we DO pay our translators" is a bit weakened: is 59 days in average acceptable? Is 84 days what you put your pride in this year?<br /><br />If you consider that this weighted average is heavily biased by paying the smallest amounts much later because they are less likely to send their lawyers and after all we will pay them someday if we need them again, then you realize that as nobody is paid before 30 days, you can probably expect 3 to 4 months between a job for the Lion and any improvement on the balance of your account, perhaps our fellow colleagues actually working for them, if there any left, will be able to enlighten us.<br /><br />What is striking me is the variation: last year Lionbridge France has substracted 25 days of business from his vendors, if you look at the other elements of the balance sheet, this amounts to 2 to 3 times their profits.<br /><br />The point is clear: they have a profit, more or less equivalent to last year, but the whole of this profit comes from the pocket of their vendors, and without this borrowing, they should have a loss at least equivalent.<br /><br />So Lionbridge France is NOT a translation company when it comes to their profit source, they make their profit by borrowing to their vendors, sort of a bank in fact.<br /><br />Then do you really believe that point 5) is feasible? This should for sure put Lionbridge France out of business, because their bank or their shareholders won't be as nice as their vendors.<br />In all fairness we do also have to consider that the situation is worse on the accounts receivable side: 110 days average, but how much of this comes from real customers and how much from Lionbridge Corp, I don't know, it could be that the Big Lion took a too big share on the small French Lion that had to bite his share on the back of the poor vendors.<br /><br />My conclusion is: with the data I can see, point 5) is close to impossible, so my suggestion is: work for companies who have a chance of being able to pay you at reasonable terms and who make a better job than shrinking their business by half in 2 years.Didier Fourcotnoreply@blogger.com