Paul - Ed is correct about the inventory shortfall. I think I heard 200k units, either one or two weeks worth. Sounds like a bunch, but when you look at overall volumes of CPQ, it does not look that bad. You are a pretty level headed guy, but you sound a bit down on CPQ for using other makers chips. I keep bringing it up, but don't you think *all* boxmakers get a much better deal if Intel has to slug it out with AMD/Cyrix or others? Also, since CPQ is Intel's largest customer, it's pretty likely that if CPQ continues to have problems (and they said the problems were *NOT* consumer lines, but business - guess what chips live in their *business* Deskpro machines), then Intel will most likely also...
John
PS - As far as writeoffs, the prevailing view on the CPQ thread is writeoffs occur next quarter, and CPQ dumps everything in at that time. This drop also makes the DEC purchase that much cheaper, because the share/cash ratio is fixed, but not the share price. Not that we are happy about the recent price action in CPQ and INTC! |
