I'm inclined to agree about CPQ, perhaps because I still own a good sized slug of it from several years back. Still, it's been dead money for the past couple of years. CPQ still has a lot of turnaround potential (as did AAPL) but my instincts tell me that DELL is the one to watch in the server space going forward precisely because it is about to move into DELL's sphere of competency (high volume, high quality assembly).
I realize that SUNW adherents are very fond of the company and its management. Certainly the stock has been very good to its shareholders over the past few years, but as they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results. SUNW's root problem is twofold. First, they have elevated being odd-man out into an art form. As the only non-INTC server vendor left you have to believe that they are right and the rest of the computer industry is wrong. Second, what began as poking fun at MSFT has become a compulsion to badmouth everyone else in the industry. McNealy's behavior has progressed from being mildly amusing, to in bad taste, to just plain boorish over the years. He has sprayed his verbal venom far beyond Redmond and now routinely insults INTC, HWP, IBM, and EMC as well. Actually, it's become a good barometer as to where the competition is pinching, so a good buy signal for DELL might be when Scott starts hurling barbs towards Austin. |
