The pervasive impact of e-commerce dominates the discussion,

It is not very pervasive. It is the fastest growing part (of new voting technology).

Given the success of our discussions to date, we expect to be able to conclude one or more of these alliances by the end of this year,

Recent movements in long-leading economic indicators and in raw material prices offer hope that an end to the spreading global downturn is in sight, ... Despite that, we continue to take actions necessary to emerge from these difficult times as a much stronger company.

Although the polyester industry and U.S. agriculture markets remain weak, most of our other businesses began to see some volume improvement,

We expect the challenges we faced in the second quarter to continue, exacerbated by slowing volumes from the growing effects of the General Motors strike and the Asian financial crisis.