John, discussion about lines of business besides the core business caused me to look at Exodus' earnings (NON) report that came out today. They beat the street by losing only 14 cents a share vs. consensus 17 cents. According to SI's financial history feature, Exodus has not had a profitable Q as far back as SI goes, which is Q1 of 1997. Their loss this Q was bigger per share than in Q1 1997. Question is, if Exodus can't make money at their own core business, will Intel (at web hosting)?
IBM makes a lot of money in what they call e-services nowadays. I think it saves their ass vis a vis their hardware and software products. I don't know how they do it, and I think (not a lot of confidence though) that IBM does web hosting also. I do know that they do a lot of other stuff that they're very good at because of who they are, like managing other companies' corporate computers, networks, intranets, etc.
I used to think that, because Intel made almost obscene margins on its IAG products, they would turn anything they touch into gold. Now I know this is not true, and I believe now that it's a struggle anytime they go into something different. Not complaining, at least not yet, because there are too many hot product areas outside of cpu stuff to not go after some of them.
Just rambling,
Tony |
