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Politics : Ask Michael Burke

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To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (86904)12/15/2000 2:24:06 PM
From: benwood  Read Replies (1) of 132070
 
Skeets, as I recall, the last quarter for MSFT showed just 3% rise in profits from sales, and the rest was from their investment windfalls.

What I'm thinking will happen to them, and a lot of other companies next year:

Sales slow == drop in earnings
Payouts to their own retirement == drop in earnings
Loss of the "profit" from the investment of the retirement pool == drop in earnings
Investment income drops, or disappears == drop in earnings

All those nifty accounting things to pump up the earnings will now work in reverse.

Also, for Microsoft and Intel and a few others, didn't the put option scam end about a year ago? That income will be lost as well. Too bad they stopped that before the stock tanked -- what luck! Of course, it was one of the things propping it up, too.
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