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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: phbolton who wrote (46803)	6/25/1999 2:55:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 53903

Editorial: Pulling Asia out of the DRAM rut By Matt Sheerin Electronic Buyers' News (06/25/99, 10:56:54 AM EDT) A trio of EBN editors spent a week in Korea and Japan earlier this month, and the resulting dispatches from the trip provide tremendous insight into what's going on with Asia's once mighty but now struggling component suppliers. (Go to www.ebnonline.com/digest to read what our editors sent in from overseas.) Over the past few years, most of these companies have been reeling from a huge drop in chip prices, as well as from severe economic problems in their own countries. As a result, they have dramatically cut capital spending and capacity expansion, at the same time focusing on core competencies and shedding certain businesses. Executives expressed optimism that these changes, coupled with signs of a semiconductor turnaround, would put them and their Asian competitors back into a growth mode. There appears to be much more restructuring to be done, but the companies are on the right track. As EBN's Jack Robertson and Andrew MacLellan reported a few weeks ago, four of Japan's leading DRAM makers-Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba-are moving away from the volatile mainstream PC memory market and into more profitable and reliable sectors such as servers, communications equipment, and consumer electronics. Aside from putting those companies on a more profitable course, the cutbacks in PC DRAM production, in theory, will keep the global memory supply down and therefore keep prices from falling. But don't bet on this happening anytime soon. For one thing, there's NEC, the lone Japanese DRAM maker publicly committed to the mainstream PC market. As EBN's story put it, “NEC hopes to hang in as one of a handful of very large DRAM vendors able to subsist on razor-thin profit margins by churning out tens of millions of commodity devices.” The rest of the “handful” includes Micron Technology, of the United States; a couple of Taiwanese companies; and several Korean outfits. And while the Korean players have restructured as well, there are few signs that DRAM capacity will shrink as a result. In fact, the merger of Hyundai Electronics and LG Semicon won't result in any manufacturing consolidation for at least 18 months. In other component sectors, both Korean and Japanese companies are wisely investing in technology development and capital expansion. Most noteworthy are moves by LG LCD and Samsung Electronics to extend their leadership positions in the flat-panel-display market. Only time will tell, however, whether these and similar moves by other Asian companies will be enough to get out of the DRAM rut they've been in for so long. ebnews.com

To: phbolton who wrote (46803)	6/25/1999 4:09:00 PM
From: Thomas G. Busillo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 53903

ph, the funniest number is the one that isn't there. Furthermore, Micron's balance sheet is strong and cash rich, totaling approximately $1.66 billion, including the Intel investment, which should enable the company to continue its conversions to 0.18-micron at an aggressive pace and further increase marhet share, while distancing itself from the competition. Where's the cash/share number? You know, the one that went from roughly $8.00 to roughly $6.50 then back up to roughly $8.00 despite that fact that it was based each time on the "$1.8 billion" figure? Don't tell me Gruntal just punted on the thing. C'mon, Gruntal, you were so close. Don't give up now on that cash-per-share ratio. Maybe you just need a little hint. Alright, let's do it. Got your pencils out? Good. Here we go: It's C-A-S-H PER S-H-A-R-E. No, you can't make that stuff up, which is why I say again, anyway who wants to can sign up for Multex and see it for themselves. Bloomberg needs to change the way they coverage ratings. In general, the financial media needs to change the way they cover analysts. Somewhere out there some analysts had to have come up with something a littel more realistic, but what does the financial media give us? What was yesterday's coverage? Gruntal/Eraiba - STRONG BUY Paine Webber/Lazlo - BUY DLJ/Boucher - BUY downed to Mkt. perform BBRS/Niles - L-T ATTRACTIVE (yeah, whatever) Merill/Osha - L-T ATTRACTIVE Why? Because Gruntal lowered their price target and estimates. Lazlo lowered his estimates. Boucher lowers his rating. Niles...I don't know. Does he even count since he had to release his own PR? Osha, of the 5, IMHO, he's alright. Unfortunately, he's at Merrill <g> What about the people who got it right? For example, John Joseph, who to be honest, I wasn't a big fan of when he was at Monty (I think that had more to do with my impression of Monty) - this guy nailed the top way back in Feb., had the thing at a nuetral ever since, and was looking for -0.08, and in terms of qualitative analysis, the stuff I've seen from him in the short time he's been at Salomon has been IHMO 1st rate. (Salomon is also offering a trial through Multex, so anyone can judge for themselves). But what happens? He gets no coverage for being right! Somewhere out there have to be other analysts in the same boat. Using the "sports-fan" analogy - that sucks. It's like writing up a ballgame and ignoring the guys who went 2-5, knocked in a few runs, turned a key double play and instead giving the ink to the guys who struck out with runners in scoring position and made a 2-run error. Good trading, Tom