Gottfried,
<<<I'm no more expert than you are on semiconductor cycles. >>>
I don't think there are any. There are some at Intel who pretend to be, but they are no better at it they you are:
thestreet.com
<<<TheStreet.com spoke with Standard & Poor's director of technology research, Megan Graham-Hackett, about the reverberations to be felt from Intel's warning.
TSC: Intel had warned that first-quarter earnings would be down 15% from the previous quarter, and yesterday, they announced it will be 25%. Why didn't the company and analysts anticipate how steep the drop-off would be?
Graham-Hackett: The weakness appears not to be coming from the microprocessor for PCs, but from communications chips as well as flash memories. Those areas have not been as big a driver in earnings or revenue in the past. That's very surprising given the fact that these have not been large profit areas for Intel. Apparently, they misforecast some of the new markets they have penetrated in communications chips and networking. >>>
There is a huge silver lining in all this. The meltdown in sales and deterioration of GM can be blamed entirely on a generously Fed assisted/enhanced economic slow down.
Milton Friedman is right, the FMOC should be replaced by a computer program. This is inevitable whenever people get involved, they let politics skew data - and draw faulty conclusions.
Intel is probably better positioned to survive this economic event than almost any other company and may come out of this stronger than ever.
They have a chance to bury all their sins in the next two quarterly earnings announcement and position the company to be more investor friendly.
To do this, however, they have to get rid of their arrogant corporate culture, where, when they screw up, they tell the investor community to get lost if they don't like the way the company is being managed.
However, there may not be another time when they can do this. Management has to remeber they are hired employees and no matter how painful, they can be replaced.
Mary |
