Earnings per share - total net earnings divided by the average number of shares of common stock outstanding.

Energy trading and marketing - the buying and selling of energy according to market needs without the restriction of geographic or defined service areas.

Future of our industry - ain't what it used to be ... it's still much better!

Generating capacity - the amount of energy we can produce using all of our power generation facilities.

Growth investment - financial returns are projected to increase in the future, after a period of development.

Independent power producer - builds and/or owns and operates generating facilities without any geographic or service area restrictions or relationships to traditional utilities.

Institutional customers - energy marketers, electric and gas utilities, municipal utilities, industrials, other energy producers and generators, and large, national companies.

International business - the part of our business that develops, builds, owns, and operates utilities and power production and delivery systems outside the United States.

North American business - the part of our business that markets energy and develops, builds, owns, and operates power generation facilities in the United States outside our traditional business in the Southeast.

Payout ratio - the percentage of earnings that is paid to shareholders in the form of dividends.

Regulated business - the part of our business that generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to commercial, industrial, and residential customers in most of Alabama and Georgia, the Florida panhandle, and southeastern Mississippi.

Retail markets - markets in which energy is directly sold and delivered to the ultimate end users of that energy.

SO - the New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol for Southern Company.

Total return to shareholders - the sum of the change in market price for a share of common stock and the dividend.

Value investment - projected financial returns are immediate, with relatively small expected growth.

Wholesale markets - markets in which relatively large amounts of energy are sold to Institutional customers who may then sell it in retail markets or - in the case of large industrial customers - use it.