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bottom line

 
Dictionary: bottom line   (bŏt'əm-līn')

n.
  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).

bot·tom-line adj.
  1. Concerned exclusively with costs and profits: bottom-line issues.
  2. Ruthlessly realistic; pragmatic: a bottom-line political strategy.
bottom-line bot'tom-line' v.

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Investment Dictionary: Bottom Line
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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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Learn this easy-to-understand technique of analyzing a company's financial statements and reports. Introduction To Fundamental Analysis
Learn what it means to do your homework on a company's performance and reporting practices before investing. Advanced Financial Statement Analysis
Learn the basic tenets that helped this famous investor earn his fortune. Pick Stocks Like Peter Lynch


Business Dictionary: Bottom Line
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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?'

Idioms: bottom line
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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.


Word Origin: bottom line
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Origin: 1970

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.'"



Economics Dictionary: bottom line
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The last line in an audit, which shows profit or loss.

  • By extension, “bottom line” refers to the final, determining consideration in a decision.
  • “Bottom line” also has a derogatory implication when it refers to those people whose attention to the bottom line prevents them from recognizing the value of anything else.

  • Wikipedia: Bottom Line
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    The Bottom Line was an intimate music venue at 15 West Fourth Street between Broadway and Washington Square Park in New York City's Greenwich Village. During 1970s the club played a major role in maintaining Greenwich Village's status as a cultural mecca. Owned by Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, the Bottom Line opened on February 12, 1974 and enjoyed a successful three-decade run, presenting major musical acts and premiering new talent. Bruce Springsteen played legendary showcase gigs at the club and Lou Reed recorded the album Live: Take No Prisoners there. Harry Chapin held his 2000th concert at the Bottom Line in January 1981.

    The Bottom Line hosted an extremely wide variety of music and musicians. Among the thousands who performed on its stage were Van Morrison, Loudon Wainwright III, the New York Dolls, Lyle Lovett, the Electric Flag, Pat Martino, Gram Parker, Dire Straits, Chris Hillman, Dolly Parton, Tracy Nelson, Emmy Lou Harris, the Pointer Sisters, Betty Carter, Ravi Shankar, the Ramones, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Mose Allison, Muddy Waters, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Ray Barretto, Al Kooper, Tom Waits, Melvin van Peebles, Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka, Billy Joel, Patti Smith, Flo and Eddie, Hall & Oates, Toots and the Maytals, Cheech and Chong, Tower of Power, Tim Hardin, Roger McGuinn, JJ Cale, the Meters, Ry Cooder, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Sam and Dave, and the Ronettes.[1]

    The Bottom Line seated 400 people and had a no smoking policy long before that restriction became New York City law.

    In later years the club hosted In Their Own Words: A Bunch Of Songwriters Sittin' Around Singing, a series of performances with commentary organized and initially hosted by radio personality Vin Scelsa. Another staple was the annual Downtown Messiah, a reworking of Handel directed by Richard Barone. At Christmastime, musicians like Vernon Reid and David Johansen made “The Messiah” their own. Another recurring event was The Beat Goes On, a show in which performers covered pop songs around a theme, such as Christmas songs, or songs from a given time period. That show presented performers including Fountains of Wayne, Richard Lloyd and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch's John Cameron Mitchell. The Bottom Line was also the site, in April 1995, of four concerts by Joan Baez in which she collaborated with a number of female performers, including Dar Williams, Janis Ian, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Indigo Girls, and Mary Black, the results of which were recorded and released as the album Ring Them Bells.

    The Bottom Line's cachet faded with time, and by 2003 the club was deeply in debt ($190,000 in back rent, plus several hundred thousand dollars in other expenses) and no longer bringing in large crowds. Its landlord, New York University (NYU), increased the rent to market level, which was beyond the club's ability to pay, and in a contentious negotiation the university threatened eviction. Fans Karen and Carmine DeMarco started a petition on their website in support of the club. 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 Bottom Line show was on January 22, 2004, just shy of the club’s thirtieth anniversary. The building now houses NYU classrooms.

    Pepper and Snadowsky are seeking another venue to carry the Bottom Line name. They maintain the Bottom Line Corporate Website, updating sporadically, and use it to provide the club's official history and to sell merchandise, including T-shirts. In February 2007 they announced plans to release a box set of archival recordings on Koch Records. That set is currently in preproduction.

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    Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Investment Dictionary. Copyright ©2000, Investopedia.com - Owned and Operated by Investopedia Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Business Dictionary. Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Word Origin. America in So Many Words, by David K.Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Economics Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bottom Line" Read more