Jill,
Not to belabor it, since it was a theoretical discussion to start with, but I go back to my original premise. Which would be better... to "guide" expectations like Microsoft and Intel and Cisco do each and every quarter, when you are convinced the China news is going to break any day, or push the pro-forma numbers and let the speculation continue unabated? Put it another way... if we hadn't heard a peep about a seasonal slowdown, they had emphasized the royalty increases, and the China news got subsequently released, driving QCOM up to $250 per share, would you feel more comfortable than you do now? Wouldn't the negative impact of any slowdown in ASICS be that much greater at the next earnings release?
90% of conference calls after earnings announcements these days are "what will the company say", but more importantly "how will they say it, what will they emphasize and/or de-emphasize". To think that for some reason QCOM management isn't capable of playing Wall Street just like all the other big boys would be to undermine their capabilities.
You may think that it's your market, and no CEO can spin it one way or another, but I think otherwise. Were the comments by Steve Ballmer that Microsoft shares were overpriced a goof-up or a purposeful move? Do you think all the FUD that Ericsson threw out about CDMA had any effect on "your market" prior to last year?
I agree totally that Irwin was being honest. If in doing so he got the mo-mo-morons to let some of the air out of the balloon before the next big breath came along, that's great too.
DWB
Q2.5K/Y2K+5 |
