We define cash productivity as the amount of free cash flow that a retailer produces per unit of retail space.

FORBES: Connect

But at least one source who has seen the building's books says the buyers will be buying a small amount of negative cash flow while making a long-term bet on the building's eventual profitability as the most prominent and expensive asset in midtown Manhattan.

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An increasing amount of analysis based on cash flow is now carried out among institutional equity investors to calculate the real cash return on assets.

ECONOMIST: Robert Wade replies

There is no question that dividends are one way public companies return cash flow to investors, but statistics prove that float shrink is better for overall price performance as the stock of companies who shrink the float using free cash flow rise more then companies using the same amount of cash to pay dividends.

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And as interest rates stay down, the best and safest corporate use of free cash flow is to shrink the overall amount of shares, rather then making anything resembling a risky investment.

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FRS17 shortfall would amount to less than 25% of their free cash flow (profits plus depreciation).

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In addition, Cyprus's government is preparing aggressive curbs on the flow of cash out of the country, which will cap the amount of cash people can bring out of the country, as well as the amount of credit-card purchases of goods outside Cyprus.

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We consider free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by the business that, after the acquisition of property and equipment, including information technology infrastructure and land and buildings, can be used for strategic opportunities, including investing in our business, making strategic acquisitions, and strengthening the balance sheet.

ENGADGET: Google's Q4 2011 results: $2.71 billion profit, $8.13 billion in revenue, Wall Street disappointed