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

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (25356)	7/1/1999 7:01:00 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Respond to of 74651

WSJ on SEC flap: Read it at interactive.wsj.com MSFT longs will love this part: Were the SEC to conclude that Microsoft hadn't followed proper accounting procedures, it might force the company to restate its quarterly earnings -- an action that would ironically lead to even higher profit figures. Analysts said they didn't expect much to come from the probe. "If the SEC wants to force Microsoft to be less conservative, Wall Street will just increase earnings" projections for the company, said Rick Sherlund of Goldman Sachs. Talk about a "downside" longs can live with. :)

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (25356)	7/1/1999 7:13:00 AM
From: Kevin Hay	Respond to of 74651

re: <<Hope I made my point>> thanks for saving me the typing. inmho it's somewhat telling that maffei said 'very comfortable' and not just 'comfortable'. maybe I've been spending too much time interpreting GreenSpeak, but Maffei's roll is the conservative/guide the street down guy. 'comfortable' = beat consensus by ~0.02. 'very comfortable' = beat consensus > 0.02 As far as the sec/reserves in general, no company has ever been sued for being overly conservative. *if some one has an example, please share it* Companies get in trouble with the sec for overstating earnings, not understating. And this does have nothing to do with tax accounting. The worst case is the sec forces msft to report revenue faster, which could definitely add stock volatility. but any adjustments to past earnings would be up. no shareholder harm = no exposure cheers, -Kevin