Thanks for the post Jules. No argument on the fact that in most categories IBM has been flat for years. It also seems obvious that WS doesn't care. The Street has bought the services pitch IBM has made, and that they will show double digit growth in that segment. Also, IBM's PE is pretty reasonable. I stand by my argument that the balance sheet is strong and they have more than sufficient cash. If they elect to stop the ongoing buybacks I suppose the cash balance would inflate once again and your argument on that point would become moot. As for Dogtel, I could do a mirror post showing pages of figures on how it's growth has stalled and profit is down. I was somewhat of a doubter a couple years back on IBM, but came around. As for Dogtel, it's obvious (as with CPQ) that WS is taking a 'show me the money' attitude. I'm also not convinced that AMD will go away and die anytime soon, it seems to me that it is in the best interest of the boxmakers to insure that AMD does stay around. Remember IBM was in the doghouse for a long time, and actually went down a bit further when Gerstner appeared. It was only when they stared surprising on the upside that the stock started to move, and never looked back. Perhaps the same will occur when profit growth revs up again here. I hope 'Chrome', voice, ADSL, etc all take off and drive demand for faster chips. If not, maybe Dell will buy Dogtel if Dell continues to appreciate at anywhere near the rate it has and Dogtel continues to stagnate... <ggg>
John
PS - Who knows, at some point IBM may be in the doghouse and Intel may shine! It's an interesting game, I'm sure many Dogtel stalwarts have been pulling clumps of hair over the past few years. I wonder if Engel has any hair??? <ggg> |
