OT re Agilent, HP:
My brother works at HP. I looked at them a while ago, and decided against investing in HP or their progeny, because:
1. As a general rule, I don't like conglomerates. I think a company can, at best, do one thing well. That means, I don't like companies with more than one sales force.
2. HP makes profits in it's core original business. Everything else sucks up capital and has never managed to give back consistent earnings. A generalization, but broadly true.
3. Most spinoffs maintain the corporate culture of the parent. There is a vast amount of inertia, in large organizations with a long history. So, if I don't like the parent, I don't like the child. The mistakes made by the parent, tend to, sooner or later, be repeated by the child. I like QCOM, and will probably hold onto their chip division, when it gets spun off. I never liked T, and predicted (for years) that LU would stumble and fail.
4. Whatever biotech company is the next MSFT, I'm very certain it will not be a spinoff of a mature company. There is a consistent pattern to how new industries evolve, and that's not it. It will be a startup, possibly one that hasn't been founded yet. The CEO is probably currently an undergraduate at Caltech. The first 100 employees are his friends, and their friends. |
