Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Julio Quinteros with Goldman Sachs.
Julio Quinteros - Goldman Sachs
I guess just let me start off real quickly with the severance charges, some new severance charges into the fourth quarter. Any thoughts, Martina, around severance into 2010?
Martina Hund-Mejean
You know, obviously as you know, we have been now taking severance charges every quarter and we really are trying to make sure that we get all of the actions that we need to take into this year and that is why we are finishing off in the fourth quarter. You know, with this kind of environment, you never know what could happen in the future but we are really trying to take the opportunity at this point in time to do the right decisions from an efficiency point of view as well as from a reallocation of investment point of view, so it should be substantially done.
Julio Quinteros - Goldman Sachs
Okay, great. Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Donald Fandetti with Citigroup.
Donald Fandetti - Citigroup
Good morning. Just a quick question, and I was wondering if you could comment on your expectation for price increases. I know Visa is expecting to be a little bit higher than normal in ‘010. Just let me get your thoughts there.
Martina Hund-Mejean
We’ve been stating this pretty steady for the entire year, as well as from our long-term performance objective point of view that we do believe that every year we will be targeting price increases in the neighborhood of 200 basis points. I don’t think at this point in time we are prepared to say anything differently.
Donald Fandetti - Citigroup
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Craig Maurer with CLSA.
Craig Maurer - CLSA
Bob, I was hoping you could provide some commentary on what you see in the advertising environment as the spend was quite a bit lower than what I was looking for in the quarter. Thanks.
Robert W. Selander
I don’t think there’s any startling thing here. We had indicated that we wouldn’t be spending a lot more in the second half of the year during our second quarter conference call. From the standpoint of the allocation and timing of the spending, what cost us a little bit by surprise was the rate in the third quarter and we fully expect to spend what we had anticipated would happen in the third and fourth, in combination of course the two -- across the two quarters, which is why Martina in order to help provide you with a little more specificity, indicated that we are anticipating the fourth quarter will be approximately 20% above what we saw last year.
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