Munder Fund's Harris Sees
Bright Spots in Tech Sector
By DONNA FUSCALDO
Dow Jones Newswires
With a technology-stock portfolio that has lost about 44% so far this year, it might appear
otherwise, but Alan Harris, senior manager of Munder Future Technology Fund, still sees some
bright spots in the tech universe in which to invest.
Mr. Harris said the software, wireless and storage sectors are areas where customers are still willing
to spend and where the companies have the best insight into how their businesses will perform. As a
result, those areas are currently the main focus of the $704 million Future Technology Fund.
The fund, launched in October 1999, invests in both well-known large-capitalization tech stocks as
well as relatively unknown smaller issues. In choosing large-cap stocks for the fund, which will hold
no more than 40 stocks at a time, Mr. Harris and his portfolio co-managers will first look at a
company's leadership position, and then focus on companies with strong revenue growth and
margins.
The Birmingham, Mich., fund's largest holding is Microsoft Corp., which Mr. Harris likes because
of the Redmond, Wash., software behemoth's offerings, including Windows 2000 and the coming
Windows XP. "Microsoft tends to trade well ahead of product cycle launches," the money manager
said.
Another software favorite is PeopleSoft Inc., a Pleasanton, Calif., software maker that Mr. Harris
said has done "extremely well" while many of its competitors have fallen on tough times. According
to Mr. Harris, corporations that had put off buying PeopleSoft's enterprise resource-planning
software because of year-2000 concerns are now customers.
In the storage sector, Mr. Harris likes EMC Corp. and Veritas Software Corp. According to the
money manager, growth in data at enterprises continues to be strong, which in turn increases the
need for storage. "For example, the top enterprise customers around the world expect a 25-fold
increase in their data storage needs from 1998 to 2003," he said. |
