weazel words

"...intended to secure in excess of $700 million worth of potential contracts..."

What does it mean to secure potential contracts? Oxymoronic statements make me nervous, especially when there is no indication of what Quickstep have agreed to do in order to "secure" these potential contracts.


"...turnover of $50 million by 2015..."

I hate to be a cynic, but turnover is irrelevant. Its ROI we care about.

2015 is a long way ahead. How much has to be spent first? How many get-out clauses are there?


776 jobs created is going to chew up a lot of that $700 million, and that's not even considering source materials and equipment. After fixed and variable costs, what would be left for profit?

I like this company's technology, but they are in a weak negotiating position and now they seem to be prepared to make pie in the sky announcements with impressive sounding numbers but nothing substantial to back it up. It just makes their negotiating position weaker because they can't afford to lose this contract now.