FWIW, I went out and bought a copy of Barron's to read this article. My overall impression is that it was thrown together in a hurry, especially for something appearing on the cover. Everybody they interviewed seemed to agree SUNW will reach 60 this year. To the contrarian in me, that means it either won't get there, or will go well past. I'm hoping for the latter. I think a lot depends on how effectively Sun management have been able to deal with the Asian problem, if indeed it even is a problem. I believe it was Michael Dell who pointed out that on the cost side, the Asian currency situation can act to boost earnings. Memory and disk prices continue to plummet, which might help margins and also allow computer purchasers to move up-market in other areas, like processors, software, etc. I also have read recently, although I can't recall where, that European economies are improving, which may offset Asian problems.
I'm actually a bit interested in the ramifications of Sun's success for ORCL, whose stock I have bought recently. I think a lot of Sun servers run Oracle database software. ORCL stock has taken a beating.
I also bought AAPL on Wednesday (I've lost money on AAPL in the past, but it performed exceptionally on Friday -- I'm up about 20% in one market day!), on the theory that Java will help _all_ alternative platforms (not just Suns), and on the reported statement by a CompUSA executive that one of the reasons for their strong showing was the acceptance of the new "store-within-a-store" concept they're now using to sell Apple computers. I visited CompUSA, and was somewhat surprised to find that there were quite a few people looking at/playing with the Apples. There also is Rhapsody and the fact that AAPL seemed to be selling at relatively low price/book and price/sales ratios.
JMHO. Not intended as investment advice. |
