Hello Twister, Ingram Micro ?. Well I'd be a little leery.
They have razor margins, but on the other hand they have great
management and they are really expanding. One thing that bothers
me is the shift to the "DELL" model of reselling. Although CPQ
HP, and others have said they will adopt a similar model, it
doubtful they will be able to ramp quick enough to make a
big dent in the reseller market (at least for a while). I do
think there is big potential threat of Dell stealing their
market share. I probably would direct some funds toward "Sure"
things such as CSCO or ADPT. Both these companies make most
of their money on their software value-add even though they
look like hardware companies. I really like companies who have
adopted software "in their revenue stream". For the same reason,
I sold all my HWP stock, because they have beome a reseller of
commodities, which leaves them very vulnerable. That's why I've
always liked Microsoft, because of the earnings potential of
that software revenue stream. As a microsoft shareholder, I do
have some concerns about the billions being invested in TCI and
Comcast. But, I suppose there is a bit of long-term planning
going on for the set-top market, so we'll see. As far as my
investment in Sun is concerned, I think there is room to invest
in both. Java isn't going to go away and I think that it will
be difficult for anyone to control it, including Sun or Microsoft.
The developers might get the final say so in the matter. I'm
still somewhat chagrined by Microsofts pushing the Feds again.
I think this is an area they would really want to stay clear on,
because the federal government is like a sleeping bear in
hibernation, hard to wake up, but once disturbed is going to
want to eat. MSFT could probably have sold\distributed just
so many IE versions as they do today without the hassle they
now have by using their marketing muscle. Even if Java takes
off, Window 95\NT wouldn't go away anytime soon, just as Java
isn't going to replace windows on the desktop. Sure there are
some uses for NC's, but they won't replace the desktop boxes
1:1. As far as Sun management is concerned, I think they are
very good, but McNealy goes a bit far sometimes. SUNW has
been very succesful being an enterprise computing company and
they are beating the pants off of HP and IBM. (except that
low-end Workstation market !). Personally I think there's room
for both, but I hope MSFT will see it that way as well.
Here's a bizarre stock, TMO Thermo-electron, any opinion ?
Dave |
