Chrysler repays $7.6 billion in outstanding U.S., Canadian loans

DETROIT -- Chrysler Group today repaid $7.6 billion in loans to the U.S. and Canadian governments, nearly two years after the No. 3 automaker was rescued.

The company said it made a payment of $5.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury and $1.7 billion to Export Development Canada -- retiring loans that allowed Chrysler to exit bankruptcy in June 2009. Chrysler completed repayment of the loans six years ahead of schedule.

"Less than two years ago, we made a commitment to repay the U.S. and Canadian taxpayers in full and today we made good on that promise," CEO Sergio Marchionne said in a statement. "The loans gave us a rare second chance to demonstrate what the people of this company can deliver and we owe a debt of gratitude to those whose intervention allowed Chrysler to re-establish itself as a strong and viable carmaker."

With today's transaction, the U.S. government's stake in Chrysler has been reduced to 6.6 percent from 8.6 percent, and Canada's interest has been cut to 1.7 percent from 2.2 percent, a company spokesperson said.

Fiat SpA now owns a 46 percent stake, up from 30 percent, and a United Auto Workers trust owns 45.7 percent, down from 59.2 percent.

Chrysler's fortunes have been boosted by improved sales as it rolls out 16 new or refreshed models this year. In the first quarter, the company reported a net profit for the first time since exiting bankruptcy under the control of Italy's Fiat.

The automaker borrowed $5.1 billion from the United States and $1.6 billion from Canada in June 2009.
Chrysler said it has paid $6.5 billion in total to the U.S. government, and $2 billion in total to EDC. The amounts include $1.8 billion in interest.

President Obama said today the final payment in bailout funds extended by the U.S. government was a "significant milestone" and a sign that the U.S. auto industry is recovering.

Last week Chrysler secured new financing that allowed it to pay off the loans. The financing package includes a loan of $3 billion, debt securities totaling $3.2 billion and a revolving credit line of $1.3 billion.
The new financing will save Chrysler an estimated $350 million a year in interest expenses.

Fiat is now within striking distance of its goal to own 51 percent of Chrysler in 2011. Once Chrysler develops a vehicle that gets 40 miles per gallon on a Fiat platform -- a development expected in the fourth quarter -- Fiat can go to 51 percent.

Fiat has options to increase its Chrysler stake to more than 70 percent, Chrysler said this month in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those options include the right to buy the U.S. Treasury's remaining stake in the 12 months after it repays the government.

Fiat also has an option to acquire 40 percent of the original stake held by the UAW's retiree health-care trust, Chrysler said. The option is exercisable from July 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2016, and in amounts of as much as 8 percent in any six-month period, according to the filing.

Bradford Wernle and David Phillips Automotive News -- May 24, 2011

Are All Sales Opportunities Equal?

The most widely accepted definition of a qualified sales opportunity is a decision-maker with a budget to purchase a product or service. But are all sales opportunities equal? Are identical offerings to two different buyers equal in value to the sales rep?

In the 1940s, Frank Bettger, author of the sales classic, "How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success," made several game-changing observations over a 12-month period:

-- 70% of sales were closed on the first meeting.
-- 23% closed on the second meeting.
-- 7% closed on the third meeting or after.
-- 50% of his time was spent chasing the 7% that closed on the third meeting or after.

By eliminating sales that did not close by the second meeting, Frank doubled his income!

When I learned Frank's simple and brilliant philosophy, I wondered if I could eliminate weak sales opportunities on the front end. How could I avoid high-effort, low-return sales, and sales I would never close?

Qualifying by itself is not enough for evaluation, so I assessed my best and weakest sales with questions like these:

* Which sales netted the highest profit with the least effort?

* What did those sales look like, including lead origin, products and services sold, price range, discount, and cycle length?

* With which types of customer was I most successful, company size, organizational makeup, decision-maker's position, buying committee size, and personality types?

From the answers, I developed a quantification method that helped me evaluate and segregate new sales opportunities.

By eliminating high-effort, low-return sales that pay lower commissions, wear you down, and drain your enthusiasm and passion, you can focus that lost time with a better attitude on high-return, lower-effort opportunities. This is a secret of top producers.

Auto Dealers Adjusting to New Business Environment

Auto Dealerships Are Making Money Again, But in Markets That Lost the Largest Percentage of Dealerships, the New Normal Means Different Things

The reduction of the dealership network over the past four years has left survivors in prime financial shape.

The average dealership net pretax profit as a percentage of sales was 2.1 percent in 2010, the highest since 1986, reports the National Automobile Dealers Association. The net pretax profit was 1.5 percent in 2007 before the economy crashed.

Dealers have learned to make more money with fewer sales because the downturn forced auto retailers to streamline operations. Low interest rates have slashed floorplanning costs.

But while financial results have improved at individual dealerships across the industry, Detroit 3 dealerships in some markets are still waiting to reap the benefits of the dealership consolidation.

The anticipated increase in sales and service business -- and a corresponding boost in profits -- that was supposed to kick in after the dealership consolidation has yet to happen.

In 2007, among all domestic and import brands, the average U.S. franchise posted 322 new retail registrations. In recovery year 2010 -- with fewer Detroit 3 dealerships and lower industry sales volume -- that dipped 11 percent to an average 286 per franchise, based on retail registration data from R.L. Polk & Co.

Although one of the reasons given by General Motors and Chrysler for eliminating nearly 2,800 dealerships was to increase dealership throughput, all of the surviving Detroit 3 brands except Buick (up 3 percent) and Ford (off 4 percent) suffered larger per-franchise losses than the industry average.

Despite the lack of gains in throughput -- and loss of share in some of the markets that absorbed the largest percentage of reduction in dealerships -- surviving Detroit 3 dealers say they are making the best of the new, leaner retail networks.

The economic recovery is fragile. Some of the factors helping to revive profits -- historic low interest rates and high used-vehicle values -- are variables beyond dealers' control, such as gasoline prices and the economy.

Dealers also worry that renewed factory pressure to improve dealerships could burden them with debt, undermining the efficiencies they put in place during the recession.

"Bad times breed good habits," says Tyler Corder, CFO of Findlay Automotive Group, a group of 24 dealerships based in Las Vegas. "The challenge is to sustain that when times get good again."

Bouncing back
The last time dealership net pretax profit margins were this good was in 1986, when Ronald Reagan was president, the average price of a new car was $12,950 and gasoline hovered around $1 a gallon, government data show.

World Class Automotive Group in Spring, Texas, helped Ford close down four Ford and three Lincoln stores in Dallas and Houston to increase volume at its own five Ford stores.

"Profits are soaring," says World Class CEO Randall Reed. And Reed's Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep store, which "took a beating" during the bankruptcy, is "now on absolute fire," he says.

"That was the whole intent after bankruptcy when the dealer body was shrunk," says Randy Berlin, global practice director for Urban Science in Detroit. "This was the intended result." Urban Science acted as a consultant for General Motors and Chrysler when the automakers' rejected dealerships sought reinstatement through arbitration.

Over the past three years, the U.S. dealership population saw the biggest decline in history, from 21,461 stores on Jan. 1, 2008, to 17,653 on Jan. 1, 2011, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

The vast majority of those losses were among Detroit 3 brands. As of Jan. 1, there were 18,744 Detroit 3 franchises, a 35 percent drop from the 28,724 franchises that were around at the start of 2008, Automotive News Data Center statistics show.

Urban Science used its own data to compare dealership count in U.S. markets for 2007 -- the year before the market crashed and dealership consolidations began in earnest -- and 2010, after consolidations were mostly finished.

The 10 hardest-hit markets lost 23 to 27 percent of their dealerships and 24 to 32 percent of their franchises, the consulting firm found.

Several of the markets -- such as the Allentown, Scranton and Reading areas of Pennsylvania and the Canton, Ohio, area -- consist of older, industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest. Urban Science's Berlin notes that the South, with its growing population, suffered fewer declines.

All of the purged areas had way too many dealerships, he says.

Andy Daub, a partner in the Brown-Daub Auto Group, a group of seven mostly domestic-brand stores clustered around Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton, Pa., says there are still too many dealerships.

He says vehicle sales are on the rise but still about 10 percent lower than they were in 2007. Last year, Daub says, the group sold 4,000 new and 6,000 used units.

Post-recession profits are better, but only because inventory is tight and his organization cut back expenses, he says.

"I hope it lasts," Daub says. "But some market changes are based on factors out of our control."

Other factors
It will take more than a slimmer dealership network to sustain the industry's fatter profits.

"New-vehicle sales are improving, but new-vehicle gross profits generate less than 40 percent of the total gross profit of a dealership, and in many cases generate less than 30 percent of gross profit," says Carl Woodward, a Bloomington, Ill., accountant with more than 200 dealership clients in 15 states.

"Though new-vehicle sales are important, the other departments collectively are more important," Woodward says.

The service and parts and used-vehicle departments have contributed heavily to dealership's glowing results.

In 2010, NADA says, the average dealership's absorption rate was 59.6 percent, the highest in more than 10 years. The absorption rate is the percentage of dealership overhead covered by gross profit from service and parts.

"There has been more emphasis on such things as dedicated oil change lanes, aftermarket parts sales and display areas and other efforts to obtain more service and parts sales," says Paul Taylor, NADA's chief economist.

The tight supply of used vehicles has raised values and helped increase profits in used-vehicle departments. In 2010, the average retail gross profit per used vehicle jumped 28.6 percent year over year, to $2,214.

But the most critical boost to profits has come from historically low interest rates, which caused a plunge in floorplan expense, the interest dealers pay to finance vehicle inventory.

In 2010, NADA says, the average dealership's floorplan expense fell to the point where it was canceled out by factory incentives, resulting in a credit balance of $39 per new unit retailed.

As gasoline, food and other prices rise, dealers fear federal fiscal policy will change and interest rates will climb to stave off inflation.

"At some point, interest rates have got to go up," says Corder of Findlay Automotive.

More efficient
Dealers also have improved profits by whacking expenses and paying down debt.

"Right now we're up over last year with fewer stores than we had," says Chris Saraceno, vice president of Kelly Automotive Group in Emmaus, Pa. "We lost two Saturn stores."

Sentry Auto Group, which retails Ford, Lincoln and Mazda vehicles from three Massachusetts locations, also is more profitable on lower volume.

"For instance, we still spend heavily on advertising, but we spend less on a per-car basis than we did five years ago with no loss of effectiveness," says Chris Lemley, Sentry's president.

NADA statistics show the average dealership's net debt-to-equity ratio was 0.97 percent in 2010, the lowest since 2005, and the average return on equity was 24.8 percent, the highest since 2003.

But in addition to gasoline prices and product shortages, dealers recognize pressure from the factories to launch construction projects could put a stop to their progress.

"Many dealers have been asked -- or forced -- to make upgrades in recent years," says NADA's Taylor, explaining the recent multiyear climb in the average dealership's debt-to-equity ratio.

Dealers complain that as industry sales rebounded, the factories have resumed applying pressure to remodel or rebuild dealerships.

Overall, though, dealers say they're in better shape to meet economic challenges they expect to face this year. And they're cautiously optimistic the recovery will continue and business will boom.

(Source: Automotive News, 05/17/11)

In Consumer Behavior, Signs of a Gas Price Pinch

High gasoline prices have not derailed the economic recovery, but that's small comfort to Loraine Greene. A customer relations manager in the Hudson Valley of New York, Ms. Greene spent the weekend packing up to move to a rental house much closer to work.

At $4 a gallon, gas is too expensive to justify the 50-mile round-trip commute.

"The option was either to sell my truck and get something smaller, or to try to get closer to work," said Ms. Greene. She chose to move. The new house is just eight miles from the office.

Economists say steady job growth over the last three months, as well as this year's federal payroll tax cut, have offset the downward pull of rising energy costs on the economy as a whole. But like a lot of economic news these days, what looks good on paper does not feel good for Americans still digging their way out of the recent recession.

At a True Value hardware store in Wilmington, Del., customers stressed by the cost of filling their tanks are buying more replacement parts for wheelbarrows and lawn mowers instead of buying new equipment.

In the San Francisco Bay area, the daily number of cars driving across the Golden Gate Bridge has dropped while passengers on the buses and ferries have risen.

"If all your customers are paying $50 for a tank of gas that they used to pay $25 for, somebody is not getting that $25," said William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business.

According to a recent survey, one in four small businesses cited weak sales as their No. 1 problem.

Although gas prices have eased slightly in recent weeks, they are, on average, up about 30 percent over a year earlier. High oil prices have also driven up prices of food, airfares and even taxi rides in some regions, diverting consumers from other purchases.

The nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, which reported earnings on Tuesday, said high gas prices had restrained its shoppers, and its business. Sales at stores open at least a year fell by 1.1 percent in the first quarter, as visits to stores in the United States declined.

"Our customers are consolidating trips due to higher gas prices," said Bill Simon, who oversees the United States business. It was the eighth consecutive decline in same-store sales at Wal-Mart.

Lowe's, the home improvement chain, which reported a 5.7 percent slide in quarterly profits on Monday, said its traffic was down 3.4 percent in the quarter as customers made fewer trips.

"Rising gas and energy prices are cited by homeowners as the top factor affecting future spending plans, followed by the state of the overall economy and inflation in general," said Lowe's chief executive, Robert A. Niblock, explaining earnings that missed analysts' expectations in a conference call with investors.

MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which researches consumer spending, reported on Tuesday that the gallons of gas pumped nationwide in the last month fell by 1 percent from the period a year ago.

Conserving miles has become a new business priority at Topical BioMedics, where Ms. Greene works in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Her boss, Lou Paradise, recently invested in cloud computing so employees could access documents and programs and work from home more. He hands out gas cards as bonuses and birthday gifts, and holds seminars on how to make a car more energy-efficient. And when employees have to drive somewhere on business, he urges them to use the company cars -- a Volkswagen TDI, a clean-diesel car and a Ford Transit Connect van, which is relatively fuel-efficient.

Other companies are also trying to help workers cope with high gas prices. Robert Trow, who runs a small distribution company in Mashpee, Mass., recently gave his employees a raise -- on top of the one he gave in December -- to help them deal with pump prices.

At the hair products business Paul Mitchell, which is based in the Los Angeles area, the company gives employees 20 cents a mile when they carpool, and covers bus fare in full. More employees are taking the company up on the offers now. Even the chief financial officer, Rick Battaglini, has begun carpooling to work.

Overall, the economy, though still slowly mending, has largely been able to shrug off the effects of high gas prices. Since the beginning of the year, employers have added more than 750,000 jobs, which puts more money into the economy in the form of additional paychecks.

And while the rise in gas prices since the beginning of the year roughly translates into a loss of $75 billion to $100 billion in spending power if sustained for the entire year, the payroll tax cuts adds back about $112 billion, according to an analysis by Credit Suisse.

"It looks like those two things have fought each other to a standstill," said Neal Soss, chief economist at Credit Suisse.

Some have benefited from the higher gas prices. Online sales boomed in April as shoppers stayed home on weekends, clicking a mouse instead of driving a car. E-commerce sales grew 19.2 percent in April compared with a year earlier, the biggest increase since July 2007, according to SpendingPulse.

Car sales have also risen recently as consumers choose smaller cars. In April, vehicle sales rose 18 percent, as shoppers turned toward compact and fuel-efficient models like the Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Fiesta and Focus models, and even electric cars like the Nissan Leaf.

Tom Veasey, owner of the True Value in Wilmington, said that customers had been grumbling to cashiers about the high cost of driving, and those who might previously have traveled five miles to a Home Depot were now shopping in his store. But total sales were still flat, he said, as an increasing number of customers replaced parts rather than bought new gear.

"A new wheelbarrow is $59.95" and they can get a new tire for $20, Mr. Veasey said. "When things are going good they will just buy something new and save themselves the time it takes to repair something."

Airlines and hotel companies say that improvements in the broader economy are helping them continue to sell tickets and rooms. A Gallup poll released on Monday showed that more than six in 10 Americans planned to take a vacation away from home this summer, although they expected to pay more for transportation costs than last year.

Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst at Forrester Research, said he had detected a deceleration in advance reservations. "The booking path has been slowing down," he said. "We're now getting into the heavy intense period for summer vacation planning and there is concern among hotel operators that because gas prices are higher whether the customer is flying or driving, there will be less discretionary budget to spend" on things like restaurants, entertainment and other businesses that rely on travelers. For now, analysts expect oil prices to level off rather than shoot higher. But if the recent softening reverses and gas prices go higher, economists suspect that more consumers will react.

"There is some point where people may get a little more panicky about it rather than simply adjusting to it," Mr. Soss said.

(Source: The New York Times, 05/17/11)

Weak Dollar Responsible for High Gas Prices?

The weakening of the dollar since 2008 has added 56.5 cents to the price of gasoline, the congressional Joint Economic Committee (JEC) has found.  The average price of gasoline would be $3.40 per gallon, instead of the current average price nationally of nearly $4, if the dollar hadn't declined, says the Weekly Standard.

• The study of the dollar's impact was conducted by Republican congressman Kevin Brady of Texas, vice-chair of the bipartisan committee, and Republican staff.
• They blamed the Federal Reserve and its efforts to spur economic growth for the price increase.
• "Since the Fed launched its program of quantitative easing in late November 2008, the value (trade-weighted) of the U.S. dollar has declined 14 percent," the study calculated.
• "The declining value of the U.S. dollar has added $17.04 per barrel to the price of oil (Brent Crude)," thus driving up the price of gasoline.

The study used several yardsticks to measure the dollar's effect.

• For instance, while the price of oil has risen 150 percent in the United States since the end of 2008, it has gone up only 96 percent in Canada.
• The Canadian dollar's value has strengthened in recent years against the U.S. dollar.

Source: Fred Barnes, "Study: Weak Dollar and Federal Reserve Responsible for Sky-High Gas Prices," Weekly Standard, May 16, 2011. 

In Shift, Ads Try to Entice Over-55 Set

After 40 years of catering to younger consumers, advertisers and media executives are coming to a different realization: older people aren't so bad, after all.

Marketers like Kellogg's, Skechers and 5-Hour Energy drink are broadening their focus to those 55 and up, who were largely ignored in most of their media plans until recently. During this week's upfront announcements, the annual preview of the fall television season, network executives are planning to introduce shows created to have broad appeal, including to older viewers, and the ad dollars they represent.

This amounts to a reversal in thinking that took hold during the 1960s, when advertisers first started aiming for baby boomers, the largest segment of the United States population. But the reasons for the shift are not just demographic, they are economic.

As a result of the recent recession, unemployment rates for younger age groups have been far higher than those for older Americans. The most recent unemployment rate for those 20 to 24 years old is 14.2 percent; for those 25 to 34, it is 9.4 percent. The rate for people aged 55 to 64 is only 6.2 percent.

Financially, the disparity is similar. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those people aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 had the highest median weekly earnings of any age segment in the United States: $844 and $860, respectively. Meanwhile, those 20 to 24 had weekly earnings of only $454. Those who are 25 to 34 earned $682.

Stephanie Pappas, a senior planner for BBDO NY, said there was now good reason for ad clients to seek the mature audience.

"In some ways, they are the ideal consumer. They have money, they consume loads of media, and they remain optimistic," she said.

The bimonthly magazine for AARP has been pushing to attract new advertisers, according to Patricia Lippe Davis, the vice president for marketing for AARP media. Recently, products previously thought of as youthful -- brands like Jeep and Shape-ups by Skechers -- have advertised in AARP The Magazine.

"The grandkids say I'm 'really cool now' but what they don't know is I always was," reads the text of the Jeep ad.

"We've seen an increase in advertisers targeting this booming demographic, many of whom are not the types of advertisers you'd expect to see in our media properties," Ms. Davis wrote in an e-mail.

For decades, television has been the most determined proselytizer on behalf of the premium value of reaching consumers aged 18 to 49. In the 1960s, ABC found itself hopelessly uncompetitive with CBS and NBC in what was then the standard ratings measurement, total households. So the network adopted a strategy to appeal to younger viewers with programs like "Batman," "Shindig," and "Mod Squad."

The idea caught on, and even as the boomer generation grew older, advertisers continued to court younger viewers -- first on the theory that they had not yet established brand loyalty, then because they were harder to reach than mature viewers who watched far more television.

Since then, all advertising sales have been based on two main groups, those people aged 18 to 49, and those 25 to 54. Once viewers reached 55, they were considered all but valueless.

In the last decade, NBC has been a central force in pushing that view, as the home of youth-oriented hits like "Friends" and "The Office." But Alan Wurtzel, the president of research for NBC Universal, initiated a study last year into a group he labeled "alpha boomers," the leading edge of the baby boom generation, which is now turning 65.

For companies to avoid shifting advertising and marketing attention toward older Americans is "a big mistake," he said. "You risk not only growth, but at some point you risk your brand."

Mr. Wurtzel said that as NBC put together its lineup of potential new series for fall, he made the programmers in the company aware of the attractiveness of the 55-plus audience. He described it as "one of the things we look at when we look at pilots."

The network has already ordered a new series, "Playboy," set in the 1960s, and this week renewed the drama "Harry's Law," which stars Kathy Bates, who is 62.

Mature consumers also seem to be spending on categories not traditionally associated with older people. NBC's study of those people 55 to 64 showed that they spent more than the average consumer on categories like home improvement, large appliances, casual dining and cosmetics.

They have also become heavy spenders on electronics and digital devices. The study also showed that members of the 55-to-64 age group were just as likely as those ages 18 to 34 to have high-definition televisions, digital video recorders and broadband service.

"They don't buy everything," Mr. Wurtzel said. "These folks don't play video games. But iPods? Yeah. iPads? Absolutely."

By contrast, CBS has for years argued that viewers of any age should count -- and CBS had by far the oldest audience. Recently, CBS seemed to build an effective strategy for reaching all audiences with broad-based hits like "CSI" and "NCIS" that feature older actors like Mark Harmon (although they are typically surrounded by younger performers).

The dismissal of CBS's strategy seems to have ended. "There is no perception that CBS has an inferior audience," said David F. Poltrack, the chief research officer for CBS.

The median age for audiences for every broadcast network has moved upward since 2006. NBC has moved to 50.1, from 48.5; ABC increased to 52.3, from 47.4. Fox, always the youngest network, aged to 45.4, from 41.5. CBS began at 53 and is now at a median age of 56.

"American Idol," once considered the hot show for young people, finished its first season 10 years ago with a median age of 32.1. This season, its median age is 47.2. ABC's biggest hit, "Dancing with the Stars," has a large complement of 50-plus viewers.

Patricia McDonough, senior vice president for insights, analysis and policy for Nielsen, said, "35 to 64 is becoming a relatively common target now."

Brent Bouchez, the founder of Agency Five-0, which caters to older consumers, said the biggest misconception about the group was that older Americans wanted to be younger. He cited the example of Ketel One, a vodka brand that he drank before it changed its advertising to aim for a younger audience. Mr. Bouchez said he stopped asking for the vodka at bars.

"I don’t want to look like the 53-year-old who's trying to look 30," he said.

(Source: The New York Times, 05/13/11)

Time to Sell Fort Knox?

The United States may have run up a huge debt, but it is not a poor country by any stretch of the imagination.  The federal government owns roughly 650 million acres of land, close to a third of the nation's total land mass.  Plus a million buildings.  Plus electrical utilities like the Tennessee Valley Authority.  And an interstate highway system.  Not to mention millions of ounces of gold in Fort Knox worth billions of dollars, says the Washington Post.

Economists of a conservative or libertarian bent have long argued that the federal government needs to get out of certain businesses, unload unneeded assets, and privatize such functions as passenger rail service and air traffic control.  No one advocates selling Yellowstone, but why, some economists ask, should the federal government be in the electricity business?

Economist Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute said the federal government should consider the sale of interstate highways.

• Motorists would have to pay tolls to the private owners, he said, but the roads would likely be in better shape.
• Federal, state and local governments could raise hundreds of billions of dollars through highway privatization.

The Obama administration is not opposed, in principle, to asset sales.

• The Treasury department is steadily unloading the mortgage-backed securities it acquired in the 2008 economic meltdown.
• The administration also has a program known as the Civilian Property Realignment Act that would sell some assets.
• But these asset sales aren't connected to the debt-limit debate, and aren't framed as a way of significant source of revenue for easing budget deficits.

Source: Joel Achenbach, "U.S. Should Sell Assets like Gold to Get out of Debt, Conservative Economists Say," Washington Post, May 15, 2011.