Jules, thought you might find this article interesting.
nytsyn.com
IBM Taking Its Analyst Meeting the Web
By DUNCAN MARTELL
c.1997 Bloomberg News
RMONK, N.Y. -- International Business Machines Corp. is taking its analyst meeting to the World Wide Web.
In past quarters, IBM watchers schlepped to a tony New York City hotel to hear the computer maker review its earnings and view charts outlining its progress. On Monday, they'll see graphs detailing IBM's second quarter on their office personal computers as acting Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Ricciardi discusses the results on a phone-in conference call.
While comments by IBM executives on the closely monitored call frequently roil the stock market, the switch to the anonymity of cyberspace isn't because IBM expects a bad quarter or Ricciardi is shy about his first high-profile appearance as acting CFO.
``It's more efficient for everyone, rather than making people troop to a central place,'' said IBM spokesman Fred McNeese.
That remains to be seen. In the past, navigating the Web wasn't part of the equation for analysts who were busy scribbling notes and preparing comments for their clients.
``Luckily, I have an assistant who's pretty proficient in that sort of stuff,'' said George Elling at Lehman Brothers in New York. ``I'm not hopeless but would I have confidence in myelf not screwi? Probably not.''
Fortunately for Elling, his Lehman Brothers PC has access to the Internet.
Others aren't so lucky.
``I'll have to find somebody in the firm who does,'' said William Milton, an analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. The conference call and Web images are open only to analysts.
Meantime, Milton planned to pick up the phone and summon an older technology as a backup in case the Web can't deliver the graphs and information he needs.
``I'm going to give this company a call and make sure they fax them,'' he said.
(The Bloomberg web site is at bloomberg.com )
NYT-07-20-97 1920EDT
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Regards, Michael |
