Level 3 Communications may want to explore a new name
Remember Ayds, the diet candy that was once popular for its alleged appetite suppressing properties? Its fortunes went south when the disease known as AIDS popped up on the public’s radar. Both the candy and the medical condition were pronounced the same.
That memory came to us after reading a droll piece by Jonathon Weil, a columnist with Bloomberg News, who wrote about the terminology used by the Financial Accounting Standards Board regarding different methods companies may use to value assets on their balance sheets.
It’s a topic that is on many accounting minds these days as the value of many investment instruments tied to subprime mortgages remain an unfolding mystery.
Level 1 would be the most reliable way: go online and get a market quote for a stock or bond. That is known as “mark-to-market.” But what happens when that’s not possible? Level 2 refers to the method used to value an asset that has no easily quotable price by inferring a value using other “observable” inputs.
And then, as Weil writes, “there is the dreaded Level 3,” where valuations “are based on ‘unobservable’ inputs reflecting a company’s ‘own assumptions about the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability.’ Or, as I like to say, mark-to-make-believe.”
As Weil writes, this nomenclature is particularly unfortunate for the company called Level 3 Communications, the Broomfield, Colo., supplier of telecommunications and information services.
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Honestly, this is a pointless commentary, and I’m struggling to find the meaning of its publication.
Level 3 revers to the OSI standard 7-layer model of computer networks. This refers to the fact that Level 3 prides itself on offering everything from level 3, level 2, level 1 on down which are: (3) Network Layer, (2) Data Link Layer, and (1) Physical Layer (i.e. fiber, cables, etc.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model
The Open Systems Interconnection Basic Reference Model (OSI Reference Model or OSI Model for short) is a layered, abstract description for communications and computer network protocol design, developed as part of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) initiative. It is also called the OSI seven layer model. The layers, described below, are, from top to bottom, Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical. A layer is a collection of related functions that provides services to the layer above it and receives service from the layer below it.
1 History
2 Description of OSI layers
2.1 Layer 7: Application layer
2.2 Layer 6: Presentation layer
2.3 Layer 5: Session layer
2.4 Layer 4: Transport layer
2.5 Layer 3: Network layer
2.6 Layer 2: Data Link layer
2.6.1 WAN Protocol Architecture
2.6.2 IEEE 802 LAN Architecture
2.7 Layer 1: Physical layer
If Level 3 refers to the OSI model shouldn’t it be Layer 3? Surfdude - Are you they don’t know the correct terminology?
“Honestly, this is a pointless commentary, and I’m struggling to find the meaning of its publication.”
Ditto
Actually - the name fits with the sub-prime market connotation. Level 3 Communications is loosing customers and falling in a number of ways (geez - look at their stock and all the stupid business decisions they’ve made over the last three years; Buffet can’t be happy). They continue to have network problems, their internal tools for clients are primitive and fail often. They’re trying to reinvent themselves for the umpteenth time as a CDN. Will it work? I have my strong doubts. Word I’m hearing is several large clients are abandoning L3.
I have to say, this story has changed my life… on 3 different levels.
Yeah, sort of like how the word “Jack” refers to “Jack-off”…I see what you mean.
is this guy really employed as a writer? holy cow man, thank god i have you to help me with my stock advice. i dont know how i would survive without your useful insights.