Yesterday I found the strangest article while doing a search for research reports on NTAP at ML's site. It is soooooooo un-ML-like that I seriously wonder whether ML's Steven Milunovich has become a George Gilder disciple or is getting into Zen. The bulletin is titled, "The Meaning of Life…And Technology Stocks." Here are a few tid-bits:
Fundamental Highlights:
· Technology valuations are increasingly hard to understand. Here we
consider a more qualitative way of thinking about the importance of the
Internet Age.
· Creativity is core to human happiness and the meaning of life.
· The Internet is unleashing creativity at an unprecedented way. Flatter
organizations, wealth creation, and new business models are symptomatic
of the changes.
· Business and philosophical principles may be moving into better alignment,
helping explain why traditional valuations don't seem to apply anymore.
The value creation for both businesses and people's lives could be
enormous.
[snip]
We picked up If Aristotle Ran General Motors, a
philosophy book by Tom Morris, former professor at Notre
Dame. Truth to tell, if we weren't in stocks, we might be a
poorer but wiser philosophy professor.
What Makes Happiness?
[snip discussion of Morris' book]
[in italics] The meaning of life is creative love, loving creativity.
Love as a dynamic power moving out into the world and
doing something original. [end italics]
[snip]
Unleashing Creativity
The Internet Age is unleashing creativity in a way unseen since the renaissance. The business environment in which to create has never been as fertile thanks to receptive capital markets and theventure capital community. The free flow of capital and ideas most visible
in Silicon Valley is spreading around the world. It's reflected in more casual dress, crazy company names, and new business models. Uncertainty is high but opportunity appear to be too. The Internet has quickly surpassed the personal computer as the largest legal wealth
creator, to use John Doerr's phrase.
Morris writes of the double power principle, where anything that can be used for good can equally be used for ill. The Internet is creating successful companies that we think deserve extremely high valuations. It's also resulting in hype and gross overvaluations. The job for
investors is to distinguish the two. He describes business as “people in partnership for a shared purpose.” The traditional military-like hierarchical corporate organization has given way to a flatter, more democratic model. Incubators hatch ingenious new companies by the score. Employees become owners. Ability is more important than seniority, creating an ample supply of young, dot-com billionaires. Although it's easy to look on in jealousy, a rising economic tide can lift all boats. Most of us will be better off in the Internet Age, even with the problematic divide of technology haves and have-nots.
So our qualitative conclusion is that, despite excesses, something real is going on here. And it's more than tangentially related to business aligning with philosophy, to the hunger for profit being simpatico with our innate need to create. That more and more people are choosing to do what they love results not only in potential monetary gain but the discovery of the meaning of life.
[end of Bulletin]
So this is ML's latest for NTAP! The same bulletin shows doing a research search for CSCO and SUNW, but not when searching for DELL (or QCOM, so he's problably not into Gilder).
I'm not really quite sure what to think. Are we shareholders of NTAP, CSCO, and/or SUNW forward thinking in the upcoming, "new" age? Or, are we deemed most needy of some philosophical reflection on our past and future appreciation of our holdings? Either way, I interpret this bulletin as giving NTAP a 'strong buy,' even though NTAP is not mentioned once in the article.
Regards,
Lynn
Oh, Frank, I need some more brandy after reading the entire bulletin. |
