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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (85017)	7/7/1999 5:11:00 AM
From: Amy J	Respond to of 186894

RE: "cut their reliance on legacy mainframes and run their company on IA servers. The same, I am certailn, can be said for Dell, MSFT, and INTC. If these companies can manage their operations without significant Mainframe assistance - I would then say there are very few companies, if any, that really has to go legacy mainframe." Mary, Good post. Amy J

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (85017)	7/7/1999 10:54:00 AM
From: Tony Viola	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Mary, Re: You are absolutely corrected about that - but not for the reasons you think. Getting a little bit know it all here? Lou Gerstner has done a remarkable job raising IBM valuation through shrewd buyback of shares with borrowed money to make earnings look good. In the same way he has made a legacy mainframe and legacy operating system (legacy - meaning obsolete, bloated, and high cost to maintain), and through remarkable marketing, make CIO's think they have no other choice for large server applications. Nothing of the sort. Many longtime mainframe customers tried alternatives, like networks of PCs and servers, with disastrous results, and came crawling back. Hate to sound like a broken record, but RAS was the killer. Of course, IA64 will make great strides beyond IA32, and Windows 2000 should help. Speaking of bloated OSs, that's the term for Microsoft's OSs. S390 is small in comparison, for what it does, believe it or not. And just ask Scumbria how reliable Microsoft OSs are. It's only the magic of Lou Gerstner that has kept this fiction going. Once he leaves, I believe this house of cards will collapse.> So, he can't be around a whole lot longer, and IBM stock has gone ballistic. Is it an obvious short when he leaves? Tony

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (85017)	7/7/1999 11:33:00 AM
From: Ali Chen	Respond to of 186894

Mary, <..buyback of shares ... to make earnings look good. It's only the magic of ... that has kept this fiction going. Once he leaves, I believe this house of cards will collapse.> Interesting. Just plug other names in your phrases and it would be exactly my thoughts about Intel:) (Sorry, couldn't resist)...

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (85017)	7/7/1999 8:13:00 PM
From: Fred Fahmy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Mary, <Fred Fahmy, a long time poster on this thread, who has been missing of late, has described how his company, a Fortune 500 type, cut their reliance on legacy mainframes...> Here I am <gg>. Actually, we are now in the Fortune 500 and we eliminated, not cut, our reliance on mainframes. We do have a handful of AS400's around the world, but no big iron. Overall, our IT support and performance has been excellent since we got away from mainframes. We have saved a ton of money and have a much improved environment. Re: Lou Gerstner and IBM Big Lou has done a good job of getting IBM's valuation up, but in my opinion it has been done largely with smoke and mirrors. I am convinced that IBM still has some very serious long term problems. What many Gerstner enthusiasts fail to realize is that the downsizing/streamlining of IBM was largely over before he got there. The huge headcount reductions (approx 100,000 over a few years) occurred under John Akers reign. Gerstner inherited a much improved cost structure which made "turning IBM around" a much easier proposition. FF