Thanks for the "quickie" on A. I agree fully with what you say and I worked there for 20 yrs.
If I remember correctly, A has 4 divisions: chip test, instrumentation, biotech, and IC development. The market and investors don't like "conglomerates" and prefer to invest in pure plays.
They got caught up over investing in Fiber, a group I helped staff and start back in 1984 (nearly 20 yrs ago!), after I left. They were fooled by the WCOM telecom profitable growth numbers like everyone else. Only Maxim had a good enough business model to absorb their fiber folks while most everyone else in the industry has had to lay off people which is costly as they try to hold on as long as possible, thus bleeding profits. The real HP is Agilent as the ICs, Instruments and test was core HP before the HP3000. Bio, of course, came much later.
The market and investors don't like "conglomerates" and prefer to invest in pure plays.
Yes, and it usually gives higher beta/volatility. Agilent fell like a pure play, matching the Nasdaq, so the opportunity seemed good. Even at current prices, you might be getting a diversified conglomorate at a pure play depressed price.... but if we correct, it will correct like a pure play as all the pieces that give diversity are all having troubles now.
Hmmm... news out of HP not so good. I should listen to the CC. If the market was to correct, this "double top" level now would sure be the place to do it from.... Scorch a few just getting back in and embolden the bears one last time before a recovery.
K |
