Prefer to grab and go? This newsletter is print-friendly.

Financing America's Fastest Growing Companies ^TM  

New Client Highlights 

Amerisource is pleased to announce it closed and funded 13 new client relationships in November and December 2010. This brings Amerisource’s total 2010 new commitments to just over 56 million in funding.

Monthly News Recap & Highlights

Business and Industry News

01/17      U.S. Private Equity Fund Raising Falls 16% in 2010

               Dow Jones

               In a new report by Dow Jones, the industry leader has found that although overall private
               equity fundraising is down for 2010, the fourth quarter showed significant growth and was up
               19% from the fourth quarter of 2009.  Read more.

01/12      Feds Arrest Seven Bank Employees in business loan scam

                Palm Beach Post

                A Boca Raton Man led a scam using his loan brokerage that resulted in ten million dollars worth of
                fraudulent loans from area banks.  Due to the scale of the operation, dozens more arrests are expected. 
                Read more.

01/10       Lenders Take Issue with Terms of Small Business Lending Fund

                Collections & Credit Risk
                The newly-released terms of the Small Business Lending Fund are being met with mixed reactions
                from industry executives.  While some are optimistic about the program, others feel that the
                terms are laden with traps such as Small Business Administration loans not being counted as small-
                business lending; volatile interest rates and forcing institutions to find matching funds for any
                money received.  Read more.

01/03        Turnaround Pros: Economic Lift Steady but Slow
                  TMA TrendWatch
                  A recent study done by the Turnaround Management Association finds that members’ opinions
                  vary on just how and when we may see a turnaround in the economy.  Factors such as heavy debt
                  in commercial real estate and the effect of reduced taxes on the public sector were cited as
                  main causes of uncertainty by members.  Read more.

Amerisource Community Outreach

Amerisource and its employees are committed to giving back and enriching the communities in which we live and work.  Recent contributions and support include:

01/14      Center for Hearing and Speech

                A donation has been made to this institution that teaches children with mild to profound hearing loss

                to speak rather than use sign language.  CHS has helped thousands of children develop listening,

                speaking and literacy skills needed to succeed in the mainstream hearing world.

01/11      Platelet Drive

                Several Amerisource employees took the time time to help another in need during a recent platelet
                drive.  The individual who benefited from the donations has been struck by a catastrophic illness, and
                credit was received due to these employees' selflessness.

01/03      Children's Scholarship Ball

                Each year more than 300 children are the recipients of the proceeds of this Houston event - children
                of all religious and ethnic backgrounds in need of financial assistance for infant care, day care,
                after-school care, summer camp and special needs programs.  Amerisource is pleased to contribute

                to this worthwhile cause.

01/01        Workspace donation to Houston Junior Woman’s Club
                 Amerisource donated nearly 5,000 square feet of workspace to the Houston Junior Woman’s Club
                 for their use throughout 2011.  The space will be used for the organization’s regular workshops
                 as well as storage and creation of crafts and centerpieces for the annual Holiday Happening,
                 which has helped the HJWC provide significant charitable financial assistance since its inception.

College Football Bowl Challenge

Congratulations to the winners of our annual College Football Bowl Challenge:

Greg Emminger - $1,000

WITJO - $750

Jim Padden - $500

Winners had the option to donate a portion of their winnings to the Texas Children's Cancer Center and all donations were matched by Amerisource.  Thanks to all who participated.  Information about the upcoming March Madness Basketball Challenge will be provided soon!

Interesting Data

60%

Percentage of the world’s oil painting that is done

in Dafen, China.  The location is also known as the

“town of painting replicas;” nearly all of the

paintings are knock-offs.

Source: Business Insider

204 hours

The average US worker puts in about this many

more annual work hours than they did in 1973, which
adds up to five extra weeks of work per year. If Americans

worked the same number of hours as they did in

the early 1970s, the working year

would end on about November 25.

Source: Huffington Post

106,500,000 viewers

The number of people who watched the
2010 Super Bowl, according to Nielsen.

Source: Bloomberg

Over $3 billion dollars
per day

Expenditures during Nancy Pelosi’s term

as Speaker of the House, totaling 5.34

trillion dollars in new debt.

Source: CNSNews.com

China
Largest projected world economy in 2050

Rising two places to the top, China is projected

to become the world's biggest economy by 2050.
While the demographic trend stops improving after 2030,

its growth through 2050 remains strong.

Source: HSBC

300,000

The number of Google Android devices being

activated daily, compared to the 150,000+

iPhones activated daily.  More Android phones

are now in use in the US than iPhones.

Source: Fortune

220,000 tons

The amount of methane gas that was released

into the Gulf of Mexico from April to July 2010. Only

0.01% (20 tons) still remains today.  Deepwater microbes

have eliminated all but an estimated .01% from

the summer spill.

Source: USA Today

2.5

The average number of television sets

per US household.

Source: Nielsen

Over $52 billion

Income from lottery-ticket sales in fiscal year

2009; a 0.9 percent drop from the previous year. 

2009 also marked the first decline since 1998 in

ticket sales and significantly cut profits, leaving

states with less cash.
Source: Bloomberg

34%

Percent of people under age 35 who say they’re

willing to take substation or above-average

risks in their portfolios, down from 48%

in 2005.

Source: CNN Money

38.5%

The percentage of time spent on mobile phone

internet that is devoted to email.  The next

highest-ranking activity? Social networking at 10.7%.

Source: Nielsen

42

The number of years Japan was ranked as

the world’s second-largest economy

(1968-2010) — behind the US.

China took the #2 spot last year.

Source: USA Today

Closing Thoughts

What’s Your Plan?

Every year at this time we are apt to look forward and make predictions.  Fanciful types will dip into their eternal wellspring of optimism and declare, “This will be the year when everything finally falls into place!”  For the rest of us mere mortal realists, we generally have a projection or a plan grounded in some sort of predictable measurement system. 
(Cheers to the fanciful!)  What’s your plan?

I wonder if Apple CEO Steve Jobs planned to take a medical leave of absence this year?  Jobs’ precarious health situation and leave of absence have caused uncertainty in the brand and a drop in Apple’s stock value.  How will Apple handle Jobs’ exit and will they continue to grow and innovate as they have while under his thumb?  Apple performed very well during Jobs' last leave of absence, with a nearly 60% increase in stock price during the six months COO Tim Cook handled the responsibilities of Jobs’ position. The effects of Jobs’ newest absence remain to be seen, but one thing is clear, Apple isn’t successful by accident and it isn’t successful just because it has a plan.  Apple is successful because it has a contingency plan; and more likely thousands of them.

Years ago, I could have shared my five-year plan with you on demand.  Today, I’d struggle to give you my plan for next week.  So what happened you ask?  Life happened.  I’ve learned that God’s sense of humor is substantially more powerful than my ability to plan; at least when it comes to long-term planning.  So my planning is relegated to a series of contingency plans aimed at addressing things as they go wrong. And everything goes wrong, especially if you don’t have a contingency plan!

Apple’s contingency plan for Steve Jobs is Tim Cook.  I wonder what Steve Jobs’ contingency plan is for Steve Jobs?  What’s your contingency plan for you?  What will remain after you’re gone?  Hopefully it will be a deeply-rooted legacy left in something or someone far more important than a computer, a career, a big business or a small fortune.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s okay to have a few plans for your career or business.  Just don’t get too attached to them.  My business plan, for example, is the same as it is every year….work myself out of a job and make lots of money doing it!  What’s your plan?

About Amerisource

Founded in 1984 and with offices nationwide, Amerisource is one of the largest and fastest-growing independent commercial finance companies in North America.  Amerisource provides working capital financing and outsourced management services to small and middle market companies with financing needs from $50,000 to $10,000,000. 

Core products include asset-based lending revolvers, accounts receivable factoring, seasonal bank "over-lines", outsourced A/R, credit and collections management, debtor-in-possession ("DIP") financing, trade finance for importers, and export factoring. 

Amerisource also provides portfolio management and servicing for banks through its private label program America's Back-Office for Lenders™, portfolio acquisitions and liquidations, and rediscount lines of credit.

Amerisource Funding, Inc. | 7225 Langtry Street, Houston, Texas 77040  |  713 863 8300
or 800 US MONEY

Have questions or comments? Contact the editor at kcotton@amerisourcefunding.com