Within minutes of the release of Qualcomm's earnings report, it's usually posted both here and in the moderated Qualcomm thread. Hours after this report is issued, it still isn't posted in either folder. Fair-weather fans?
The press release at the web site is available only in a very slow-loading pdf file, so I'm providing a link to a very short summary from C/NET:
news.cnet.com
Judith,
Each of us needs to make our own judgement about management. I admire your willingness to call Qualcomm's management into serious question.
You might remember that quite awhile ago I raised the issue that Q management was excluding so-called one-time investment expenses but wasn't excluding investment gains. In that context, the good news is that the management issues you cited might not represent a recent change for the worse. The bad news is that management might have been problematic for quite awhile.
When you compare IJ & Co. with Siebel & Co., I don't think Tom is squeaky clean either. Regarding Siebel's conference call, I posted on the Siebel thread on 10/23: "An analyst asked Tom if the first few weeks of October gave reason for him to be confident Q4 would, indeed, be in line with estimates. My impression was that Tom's response avoided the question rather than answer it. It didn't make me feel comfortable."
When you mention Qualcomm's inability to manage expectations, I don't think Siebel passed that test with flying colors either. Regarding Siebel's decision not to pre-announce, I wrote three days earlier in the same thread: "Siebel didn't have to pre-announce. But given management's announcement in the previous conference call that they expected earnings would be flat sequentially in Q3, pre-announcing was the appropriate thing to do."
If I had to invest only in companies that I was always happy with the way they do things over long periods of time, I don't think I'd be able to find a company to invest in. I'm reasonably happy most of the time with the management of the companies I'm invested in, but I'm not thrilled all the time with any of them. My wife isn't always thrilled with me either, but over the long haul she apparently has a good enough reason to stick around.
--Mike Buckley
P. S. And it ain't because of how I've managed our net worth lately, that's for sure. :) |
