Re: ML a paragon of honesty
Have you noticed that David H. Komansky, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co, only apologizes for the "unprofessional emails?" Apparently, he thinks that the only crime committed here was being honest in emails. It's just smart business to lie to small investors as long as it is done professionally.
I think that the Internet analysts were new to Wall Street and had not been totally corrupted unlike the professional analysts who have years of experience in fleecing the little guy. Henry Blodget, for all his faults, apparently had sufficient residue of honesty left that he could express it in emails. Or, perhaps, he had not had the time to learn the ways of Merrill.
As far as Merrill's coverage of Sun, it began to change as Sun's market cap declined precipitously. Apparently, the possibility of big investing deals with Sun was setting. Why not use Sun as a whipping boy to gain favor with other major potential customers like INTC, MSFT and IBM? The Merrill opinion of Sun really collapsed when Merrill started touting Intel (at $26 about 3 or 4 months ago). Merrill wasted no opportunity to mercilessly denigrate Sun (I have every single one of those reports). And, when IBM had its accounting problems, Steve Milunovich was certain to show up on CNBC to defend IBM's practices. While you are whipping Sun, why not upgrade the $300+ billion MSFT when they just lowered estimates for next year?
Analysts earn their keep by steering business to their firms. And Steve Milunovich is especially qualified in this aspect, IMO. |
