Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: taxman who wrote (25350)	6/30/1999 11:03:00 PM
From: Uncle Frank	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

>> if microsoft has earned much more (or less) than 35 cents, mr maffei has lied. taxman, didn't he say he was "comfortable" with the consensus? That's a lot different than confirming the consensus. His comfort level might be 20% over estimate. >> as a result i don't think the price will go much higher in the next sixty days. Everybody has the right to their own opinion, and mine differs from yours. I'd be willing to wager we break 100 by the end of July. Frank

To: taxman who wrote (25350)	7/1/1999 3:59:00 AM
From: Dwight E. Karlsen	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 74651

>the quarter has ended so he now knows approximately how they did. if microsoft has earned much more (or less) than 35 cents, mr maffei has lied.< Hey buddy, MSFT is a big company, and Mr. Maffei doesn't do all the accounting single-handedly. Actually, he doesn't do any of it. He is there to be responsible and make the important decisions. As an accountant myself I take some offense to your insinuation that if Mr. Maffei's estimate is off by even a penny, that he has lied. Do you really think that all accounting is done instantaneously, in "real time"? Furthermore, the quarter just ended has only now ended, but still had four and a half hours to go when you made your post to this thread. Do you suppose that at that moment that Mr. Maffei made his statement, all accountants working at MSFT simply stopped working on the Qtr ending 6-30-99 financials?? Sure, some things are done in "real time", like payroll and payroll taxes, etc. But there are things like depreciation, where assets must begin being depreciated in the period in which they are "placed in service". That means if a new computer network in a given MSFT building were "turned on" today, it would have to be taken into consideration. Sure, Mr. Maffei can make a darn good estimate going by sales progress throughout the the month, prior quarters expenses, interest, depreciation, etc. When Intel announced that their 600MHz chip production would be delayed by a couple of months, would you say that someone had "lied" prior to that?? In the absense of knowing the future, sometimes in business you have to make projections and estimates. That goes for the engineering dept., the sales dept., the accounting dept., and practically every other dept. I worked until 11:30 (PST) tonight on the corporate accounting for the company I am employed by, and no I did not finish. In fact our corporate quarterly financial meeting is the day after MSFT holds their's: Ours is July 20th. And I will be working hard every workday until then, and will still be polishing and fine-tuning right up until then. Hope I made my point.