The latest on RDRT - from Yahoo:
sec.gov 01288.txt
reflects that State of Wisconsin Investment Board is the owner of 8,392,300 shares of RDRT as of 11/09/2000
However Yahoo biz.yahoo.com
shows them to own 11,396,244
and on 09/11/2000 sec.gov 01136.txt
they were reporting that they owned 12,596,244 shares of RDRT
So it is a net sale of 4,203,944 shares. And they of course did it in the normal course of business.
I am sure they were liquidating a 1/4 of thier position to balance their stock portfolio. But I cannot prove that. All of the above
informatin is IMO and you need to do your own due diligence.
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and a great reply:
Lilliaput, you obviously did not do your due dilligence as you proclaimed you have,and have encouraged others to do.
Investigate further into the SC 13G/A filed on Nov. 9 of this past week and you will uncover the following:
On October 16 RDRT filed a S-3 registration statement indicating the State of Wisconsin's intent to sell 4,057,142 shares
through the exercising of warrants received during an earlier period. In effect, this amendment to the State of Wisconsin's
ownership of shares was no surprise as RDRT shareholders were privy to this knowledge approximately one month ago. Upon
further investigation, on Sept. 26 of this year Read Rite paid the first installment of interest on a convertible bond with cash,
rather than stock, which was an alternative, and this cash came from The State of Wisconsin. The S-3 filing in Oct. indicated
the disposition of 4 million plus shares by the State of Wisconsin and shareholders can quite clearly connect the dots here and
figure out that The State of Wisconsin's paying down of RDRT's debt load incurred through the issuance of the convertible
bond many moons ago was done through the selling of some of their holdings. Furthermore, it is obviously Reat Rite's best
interest to decrease the debt load for the company, and The State of Wisconsin obviously concurred here; it was a tactful
decision by management to bring on almost immediate profitable results for the company across the board. For Read Rite's 4th
quarter, Alan S. Lowe, president and chief executive officer of the company remarked: "We have solidified our position as the
technology leader with our superior performance on 20GB products; we
have restructured and streamlined our manufacturing operations resulting in savings of approximately $80-$100 million per year;
and we have improved our balance sheet by eliminating debt and increasing shareholder equity while at the same time reducing
interest expense by approximately $20 million per year" This debt conversion is obviously going to reap immediate positive
results for the company, and if you were to weigh that on a scale appropriately, The State of Wisconsin disposed of some
shares to assist in bringing the company back to profitability, which will inturn positively effect the share price and show larger
percentage gains for the 8.4 million shares they still hold in the company more so than if they were to retain all 12.6 million
shares and watch the debt load primarily through outrageous interest payments increase and hurt the company.
Understand? As you so eloquently put it, do your own due dilligence. RDRT is a strong buy here imo., and trading now at less
than 1 times sales. I look forward to hearing more from the Scionphotonics division in the next few weeks, as I already hear the
technology (optic wafers) is ramping up nicely. |
