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Technology Stocks : Network Associates (NET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AlienTech who wrote (5560)	7/23/1999 11:40:00 AM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6021

Alien, thanks for the kind words. When I first bought NETA I did a lot of research, and it seemed as if the company was poised for major growth. I was uncomfortable with Larson, and as I held the stock my discomfort grew. Instead of heeding Buffet's advice about looking for quality management, I instead relied on analysis of numbers and the opinion of analysts. I got my first major dose of the Larson song and dance with the acquisition of Network Associates. It was clear that the man was blowing smoke when he talked about "accretion". The only thing that was accreted was his and Denend's bank accounts. But still, I held on. And last December it looked as if things were going well. But stupid me, I didn't take proper heed of the posts that talked about gutting R&D. Well, it turns out that most of the "sales" we were seeing were bogus. Sales were booked into the channels and there was no sell-through to the final customer. Now we are getting another song and dance. This time we hear about the increased time it takes to close deals because of Europe and larger deal sizes. Plus, we are hearing of "Y2K lockdowns". Is Y2K the last refuge of the software scam-artist? I hope for your sake, and all the others who are long, that the company is bought out. But that is not the kind of rumor on which I am willing to speculate. An analyst friend of mine told me of a discussion she had with another analyst who follows NETA. She told me that his comment was "I don't know if the stock is worth $70 or $17". I think that given the most recent financial results, $17 is vastly optimistic. I'll publish a bit of financial analysis on NETA a little later. TTFN, CTC