bottom line

1. The line in a financial statement that shows net income or loss.
2. The final result or statement; upshot: “The bottom line, however, is that he has escaped” (David Wise).
3. The main or essential point: “A lot can happen between now and December, but the bottom line—for now—is that the city is still heading toward default” (New York).

1. Concerned exclusively with costs and profits: bottom-line issues.
2. Ruthlessly realistic; pragmatic: a bottom-line political strategy.

Refers to a company's net earnings, net income or earnings per share (EPS). Bottom line also refers to any actions that may increase/decrease net earnings or a company's overall profit. A company that is growing its net earnings or reducing its costs is said to be "improving its bottom line".

Investopedia Says:
The reference to "bottom" describes the relative location of the net income figure on a company's income statement; it will almost always be the last line at the bottom of the page. This reflects the fact that all expenses have already been taken out of revenues, and there is nothing left to subtract. This stands in contrast to revenues, which are considered the "top line" figures.

Most companies aim to improve their bottom lines through two simultaneous methods: growing revenues (i.e., generate top-line growth) and increasing efficiency (or cutting costs).

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Net profit or loss. It is often used as an expression when seeking the result without asking for the reasons, as in ‘What is the bottom line?'

The ultimate result, the upshot; also, the main point or crucial factor. For example, The bottom line is that the chairman wants to dictate all of the board's decisions, or Whether or not he obeyed the law is the bottom line. This is an accounting term that refers to the earnings figures that appear on the bottom (last) line of a statement. It began to be transferred to other contexts in the mid-1900s.

The bottom line is, it's hard to tell when Americans truly began to focus on the term bottom line. We find an isolated early instance in 1967 from the San Francisco Examiner: "George Murphy and Ronald Reagan certainly qualified because they have gotten elected. I think that's the bottom line." In 1970 comes a financial attestation, in a book called Up the Organization: "All overheads should be brought down to the bottom line for bonus purposes on principles agreed to in advance." After that, bottom line became an established way of saying we were all business. "IBM has always been heavy on corporate paternalism," noted Newsweek in 1971. "Learson may well be willing to sacrifice some of that for those results on the bottom line." And in Harper's Bazaar that year: "His only interest is in the bottom line. He doesn't know or care about books or art or music or even his own wife--only about the bottom line."

The revolutionary, anti-authoritarian 1960s were over, and we were getting back to business. Today the bottom line is "the main theme, the final result, the end rather than the means." It can have any subject, even cigars, as in this 1973 question and answer: "Do you miss our Havana cigars?" "Well, in answer to that, and to get to the bottom line, I don't smoke."

We remain committed to bottom line in all sorts of contexts. In the Web pages of Heaven's Gate, whose members departed this world by poisoning themselves at Easter 1997 as the Hale-Bopp comet passed by, we find the heading "Do's Intro: Purpose--Belief: What Our Purpose Is--The Simple 'Bottom Line.'"

The last line in an audit, which shows profit or loss.

For articles with similar names, see Bottom line (disambiguation).

The Bottom Line was an intimate music venue in New York City's Greenwich Village, at 15 West Fourth Street between Broadway and Washington Square Park. During 1970s, it played a major role in maintaining Greenwich Village's status as a cultural mecca.

Meat Loaf the Bottom Line for the Bad Attitude - Live! recording in 1985, his first stage performance there since 1977

Owned by Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, the Bottom Line originally opened February 12, 1974. It enjoyed a multi-year string of success at pulling in major musical acts and at premiering new talent. Bruce Springsteen played legendary show-case gigs and Lou Reed recorded the album Live: Take No Prisoners there. The Bottom Line hosted mainly folk music, playing home to Loudon Wainwright III and others, but also hosting acts ranging from Dolly Parton to Ravi Shankar to the Ramones.The Bottom Line held 400 people and differs from modern clubs in that there was seating, rather than being standing room only. The club also had a no smoking policy long before it became law.

In later years, it was the site of In Their Own Words: A Bunch Of Songwriters Sittin' Around Singing, a series of performances with commentary organized by and initially hosted by radio personality Vin Scelsa. Another staple was the annual Downtown Messiah, a reworking of Handel’s work, directed by Richard Barone. Around Christmas, musicians like Vernon Reid and David Johansen made “Messiah” their own. Another reoccurring event was the Beat Goes On, in which performers covered pop songs falling under a certain theme, such as songs from a certain time period or Christmas songs. The Beat Goes On brought out many different performers including Fountains of Wayne, Richard Lloyd and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch's John Cameron Mitchell.

Its cachet faded with time, and by 2003 it was deeply in debt ($190,000 in back rent, plus several hundred thousand dollars in other expenses) and garnering very little attendance. Its landlord, New York University (NYU) kept the its rent at prevailing levels but the cost was too much and threatened eviction. Fans Karen and Carmine DeMarco started a petion at in support of the club on their website. Bruce Springsteen offered to pay the club’s back rent if NYU and the owners could settle on a lease. Sirius Satellite Radio offered the same but, rather than risk a takeover, Pepper and Snadowsky closed the club before they could be kicked out. The last show was on January 22, 2004, just shy of the club’s thirtieth anniversary. The building now houses NYU classrooms.

Pepper and Snadowsky claim to be seeking another venue that will carry the same name. They keep the website going, updating sporadically and using the site as an official history of the club and to sell merchandise, including t-shirts. On February 12, 2007, they announced on the Bottom Line Coporate Website they will release of a box set of archive footage on Koch Records. The box set is currently in preproduction.

Sources

• Bottom Line Corporate Website
• USA Today, "N.Y.'s famous Bottom Line gets reprieve", Oct 23, 2003.
• The Villager, "The Bottom Line tries to avoid end of the line", Oct 29, 2003.
• “CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; The Bottom Line, a Place Where the Music Always Came First”, Jan 26, 2004

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