Want to force Universal to support Blu-ray?

[Josh]

Universal Studios is owned by General Electric. As a member of the general public, you have absolutely no say in what GE does in regards to releasing content in high definition. As an owner of GE stock, you have a voice, and are free to contact them daily to express your disapproval with Universal's decision to support only HD DVD.

Well, here is your chance to be heard.

One Share allows you to buy a single stock of GE, making you an investor in the company. This service is for gifting, so you have to select Paper Frame, Plain Matte, and No Engraving to get down just to the stock, but once you do, it comes up to $79.

So, now that you've spent $80, you have a right to contact these people:

GE Investor Contacts

Call them daily, weekly, whatever. Just call and let them know how you, as an owner of GE feel about it.

So, how serious are you?

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Josh

Universal Studios is owned by General Electric. As a member of the general public, you have absolutely no say in what GE does in regards to releasing content in high definition. As an owner of GE stock, you have a voice, and are free to contact them daily to express your disapproval with Universal's decision to support only HD DVD.

Well, here is your chance to be heard.

One Share allows you to buy a single stock of GE, making you an investor in the company. This service is for gifting, so you have to select Paper Frame, Plain Matte, and No Engraving to get down just to the stock, but once you do, it comes up to $79.

So, now that you've spent $80, you have a right to contact these people:

GE Investor Contacts

Call them daily, weekly, whatever. Just call and let them know how you, as an owner of GE feel about it.

So, how serious are you?

VERY interesting...

[shug7272]

I have to ask... would the people answering the phones really know if you held any stock? Seems like even if you held one piece they would not know it or be able to verify it. Not saying its a bad idea, just wondering if you would need to spend the 80 bucks.

[Iceman_II]

THAT my friend, is a hell of an idea!

[buckshot]

but the stock is currently valued at just under $40. I bought a few a while ago for the dividend and have sent them a few emails today as a concerned investor.

[Josh]

Originally Posted by shug7272

I have to ask... would the people answering the phones really know if you held any stock? Seems like even if you held one piece they would not know it or be able to verify it. Not saying its a bad idea, just wondering if you would need to spend the 80 bucks.

The stock is issued to you by SSN, so I imagine they have a database they could look you up and verify who you were.

Originally Posted by buckshot

but the stock is currently valued at just under $40.

Yeah. The $39 is a transfer fee. They have already purchased the stock and are transferring it to you (cost money to do this). Think of it as a brokerage fee, except you can't just buy one stock from a broker.

[ground chuck]

this all depends on where your shares are held. if they are held at a brokerage firm, GE may not be able to look it up by SSN. GE would only know that XYZ brokerage holds X amount of shares.

[buckshot]

Originally Posted by Josh

The stock is issued to you by SSN, so I imagine they have a database they could look you up and verify who you were.



Yeah. The $39 is a transfer fee. They have already purchased the stock and are transferring it to you (cost money to do this). Think of it as a brokerage fee, except you can't just buy one stock from a broker.

I was meaning if you have one of the various online brokerages such as scott trade or etrade the stock is currently valued at $39 and the fee would be $7.99 or $12.99 depending. you can buy 1 share or a few.

[Manco]

I'm a business owner. Anybody can pressure my business by all kinds of scheming manipulations to force me to do something I otherwise would not do. They don't have to be a shareholder. Whether I choose to cave in is another matter.

As a general consumer you can do all kinds of things.

1) stop buying GE products. (write a letter, tell them so)
2) stop buying Universal products. (write a letter, tell them so)
3) stop watching NBC & MSNBC. (write a letter, tell them so)
4) write advertisers on NBC -- tell them you stopped buying their products until Universal supports both formats.
5) SELL stock you own in any of these companies. Call their Investor Relations dept and let them know.
6) Write letters to Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc... where GE consumer products are mostly sold. Tell them you will no longer by any GE products from them.
7) Picket Universal Studios. Yep, you can stand right out there on the street 10 ft from the Big Black Tower on Lankershim Blvd.

Lot's of stuff you can do. When they start getting feedback like this it goes up the chain. You don't have to be a stockholder.

Pressure from the general public counts much more heavily than a complaint from a one-share stockholder. Maybe if Warren Buffet voices his opinion. But not yours.

[Xerious]

OR... you could wait until after christmas

[Gremal]

Yeah, but Josh does have a point. We live in an age of corporate greed where companies don't give a crap about the general public or quality or social values. All they care about is the bottom line and the only people they seem to be beholden to are investors; their shareholders.

Universal would place more value on shareholder comments.

[Deane Johnson]

It might be interesting if some clever person were to obtain a list of names and address of the board of directors of GE. Writing each of them might raise some questions at the next board meeting.

It's my understanding they are already a little uptight over NBC.

[buckshot]

Originally Posted by Manco

I'm a business owner. Anybody can pressure my business by all kinds of scheming manipulations to force me to do something I otherwise would not do. They don't have to be a shareholder. Whether I choose to cave in is another matter.

As a general consumer you can do all kinds of things.

1) stop buying GE products. (write a letter, tell them so)
2) stop buying Universal products. (write a letter, tell them so)
3) stop watching NBC & MSNBC. (write a letter, tell them so)
4) write advertisers on NBC -- tell them you stopped buying their products until Universal supports both formats.
5) SELL stock you own in any of these companies. Call their Investor Relations dept and let them know.
6) Write letters to Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc... where GE consumer products are mostly sold. Tell them you will no longer by any GE products from them.
7) Picket Universal Studios. Yep, you can stand right out there on the street 10 ft from the Big Black Tower on Lankershim Blvd.

Lot's of stuff you can do. When they start getting feedback like this it goes up the chain. You don't have to be a stockholder.

Pressure from the general public counts much more heavily than a complaint from a one-share stockholder.

whatever your business is START SELLING BLU RAY OR THE PUPPY GETS IT!!!!

ha. couldn't help but get a lame joke in.

but there is no real way for them to tell if you own shares or not. they have so many outstanding shares that they would never check anyway. but if enough people contact them saying that stock holders are not happy they may listen. but that would take quite a bit of lettering.

[CptGreedle]

Originally Posted by Manco

I'm a business owner. Anybody can pressure my business by all kinds of scheming manipulations to force me to do something I otherwise would not do. They don't have to be a shareholder. Whether I choose to cave in is another matter.

As a general consumer you can do all kinds of things.

1) stop buying GE products. (write a letter, tell them so)
2) stop buying Universal products. (write a letter, tell them so)
3) stop watching NBC & MSNBC. (write a letter, tell them so)
4) write advertisers on NBC -- tell them you stopped buying their products until Universal supports both formats.
5) SELL stock you own in any of these companies. Call their Investor Relations dept and let them know.
6) Write letters to Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc... where GE consumer products are mostly sold. Tell them you will no longer by any GE products from them.
7) Picket Universal Studios. Yep, you can stand right out there on the street 10 ft from the Big Black Tower on Lankershim Blvd.

Lot's of stuff you can do. When they start getting feedback like this it goes up the chain. You don't have to be a stockholder.

Pressure from the general public counts much more heavily than a complaint from a one-share stockholder. Maybe if Warren Buffet voices his opinion. But not yours.

Those are all great ideas... except one thing...
I have a job and a family to support. I can't afford to start taking off work to go picketing, I have no stock to sell and wouldn't be happy selling something that makes me money, there are so many GE products out there is it hard to not buy them at times, I don't watch NBC anyways, and I have no idea what items they advertise on their channels.
So this might work for others, and I will do what I can, and send what I can, but I unfortunately have to think of my future and my family first, and make sure I can afford to do those kinds of things.

[Iceman_II]

Originally Posted by ground chuck

this all depends on where your shares are held. if they are held at a brokerage firm, GE may not be able to look it up by SSN. GE would only know that XYZ brokerage holds X amount of shares.

ACTUALLY, if they are issuing a paper certificate, it by definition has to be issued to the individual stock holder, in their SSN, and can not be brokerage house held stocks.

I bought a single share of Philip Morris back when they had Kraft and Miller, the perfect recession proof stock, when times are good, people smoke, drink beer, and eat mac and cheese... when times are bad, people smoke, drink beer, and eat mac and cheese. I didn't have a problem getting a single share through AG Edwards (you have to hold a single share to set up a DRIP to get stock directly from the company) but by the time they finished adding fees, up to an including a fee for issuing a paper certificate, it was right around $40... so this is actually not a bad deal.

[stockstar1138]

For people who don't own any GE stock, short the stock until Universal goes blu.

[Deane Johnson]

A more tightly focused letter writing campaign might be to Jeff Zucker, head of NBC. He is directly over the head of Universal.

[aygie]

He he good thread, you know Greenpeace one of the main shareholders in Shell. So then they get oppose all kinds of stuff and know exactly what the company is up to. Very clever. I'm up for it!

[helli3yte]

is there a good hacker in here that could deface the universal website and put up a blu ray logo right on the front of it.

[bluflu]

Sounds like a plan, but we will need a date to dump the stock before it tanks in case Universal decides not to release on Blu soon. Lets say the first trading day after January 1st?