Hi Pierre:
First, thanks for the shareholder meeting notes. It was appreciated. Second, thanks for the reading list - I will look into them.
You were absolutely right to zero in on my sentence concerning "Fujitsu, Hitachi, Maxtor". It was sloppy but the post was also written in haste so please forgive me. It should have been rhetorical with respect to Hitachi and Maxtor. Allow me to explain. Since the WDC investment which was solely based on various financial ratios, Haggerty's record, and the fact that I am fairly familiar with their drives - and watching in disbelief as the stock continually dropped, I decided I better start looking at the investment a little deeper. (Yeah, I got it backwards). After reading several articles on the current economic and currency woes in the Far East and actually reading the co.'s 10K, I was trying to figure just how much of their revenue was attributable to Asia. (The firstfrontal assault?). In conjunction and adding to my concern was my speculation on what Fujitsu might do, GIVEN the environment I believe we may be in, or in for. (The flank assault?). (Please note that I posted this worry PRIOR to Haggerty's second finger pointing). I have also been reading ALL the analysts' reports, for whatever thats worth.
Anyway, continuing my delving I made a call to a former colleague who works for a very well known computer equipment distributorship. He noted that stuff was flying of the shelves but the pricing, especially for the DD's was fierce - he also made the comment that the Maxtor drives were unbelieveably cheap. (Gulp). Then, as things would have it, the inlaws wanted to buy a new laptop. I decided on Gateway's Solo 9100 (and I'm a CPQ shareholder!) and while ordering I asked who's drive was in it - you guessed it - Hitachi. "Why", I asked, retort: "cost differential".
I also want to thank you for taking the time to explain how WDC operates. One question tho', and this willl show my lack of knowledge, what's the 150 mil per sequential qtr on R & D earmarked for?
With regards to GMR: I read an article in IBD I believe it was, that conjectured on possible licensing of the technology. (Is this where MF got it?). And since it seems QNTM is pretty locked in to MR, I thought WD could have a head start, as it were. Pretty feeble, I now know, but maybe I'm grasping at straws because, unfortunately, there is no small change invested in this company.
Finally and incidently, I received an email that I barely got to read because AOL (again) dropped my session (yep, I gotta switch to an ISP even tho my wife enjoys AOL) as I brought the mail up. I managed, tho', in that brief moment to note that the sender told me to stop with my "childish" posts and so I will. Allow me, abeit, to thank you in advance for any reply, Pierre.
I will continue to lurk because I find many folks on this board to be very sharp in addition to getting some lessons on this biz. I wish everybody good luck with their investment.
Regards, Bill |
