Let's Liquidate the Mgmt(figuratively speaking), not the Co.
IMHO, the company actually did not do too badly in its first
fiscal quarter. Sales were flat but this fact should be considered
in the context that apparently substantial sales were pushed into
last year's final quarter; Sun's sales were also not too stellar
and I believe that Intergraph's revenues were also flat or down.
Moreover, it appears that the Co. engaged in practically no
advertising whatsoever in its first fiscal quarter; someone in
senior mgmt. seems to have incorrectly assumed that customers
would not be affected by the absence of advertising while the
Co. came up with its new marketing themes. On top of this, the co.
appears to have made a rather muddled embrace of NT, adversely affecting, to put it mildly, O2 sales.
The co.'s results, when placed in this context and in light of the
results of competitors, are really not too bad; the problem is that
Big Ed simply no longer possesses any credibility with the
investment community since it had been led to believe that there
would be significant revenue growth.
I hope the company does not go through the process Apple went through, with reports of ongoing sales or mergers negotiations,
destroying its revenue and customer base in the process.
FWIW, after listening to a number of co. conference calls, Gary
Lauer, who appears about to be canned, was the only person I
heard who sounded like he had some sense of direction and perhaps a bit more humble and modest than the other participants. |
