The stock issuance was to TI was to buy their fabs, and the Intel deal guarantees that they have enough cash to upgrade all the fabs to .18µ AND develop RDRAM at the same time. This should not cause dilution, but should scale up the size of the operation.
As for the employee stock purchase program, I think that is their retirement program. In as much as they have always placed additional shares into this program, they no doubt have to increase the number of shares available for this program periodically. Thus this doesn't tell me anything one way or the other as it is nothing new.
Since FY2000 begins in Sept. 1999, people looking at the estimates for FY2000, which are over $2.00/share, are only looking out 9 months, which is not unreasonable, not to August 2000 which would be. Yes, a lot of things can happen in nine months, but the market typically looks forwards at least that far. Since MU has ample cash to execute its plan over the next year, valuing this company based on FY2000 projections is not unreasonable.
By the way, thanks for your posts. A good dialogue is always healthy and educational.
Carl
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