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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rickus123 who wrote (7101)	9/27/1999 5:54:00 AM
From: DownSouth	Respond to of 54805

Thread, I thought y'all may be interested in MSFT's response to my e-mail complaint regarding Mr. Ballmer's untimely remarks: "Hi there! Thank you for contacting Microsoft. You and and many others have written to us about Steve Ballmer's comments regarding stock prices Thursday in Seattle. Microsoft has been consistently cautious in estimating future growth rates for its business. Steve Ballmer's remarks yesterday were not intended to signal a shift in any financial guidance about the company. In fact, later in the day, he realized he had been misunderstood and clarified that he hadn't sold any of his shares and was not advising anyone else about their individual investment strategies. He also indicated that the company is going to continue to work hard to be successful. Many market participants and observers have expressed concerns over the past couple of years about market valuations, and certainly they are high relative to any historical valuation metrics. Its a fact - stock prices have gotten more expensive on a relative basis and the multiples are up. We believe the company will continue to be successful if we work hard to develop the right products for customers and remain responsive to changes in our industry. Thanks again for taking the time to write to us, sincerely, Carlo C. Microsoft.com Support Team"

To: Rickus123 who wrote (7101)	9/27/1999 10:49:00 PM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 54805

OFF-TOPIC SENTIMENTALITY Or maybe it's not so off-topic after all. Just seconds ago I had an exchange of instant messages on AOL with a guy I've been out of touch with in recent months. He's a senior in high school who is splitting his time between half days at high school and half days doing research at Yale. I spent a lot of time telling him about all you folks in the folder which means a lot to me, not just because of the special relationship I have with all of you but also because of an extraordinary relationship I have with him. It's especially coincidental that I had this "conversation" with him because prior to the last six months a week never went by that we didn't discuss investments at leat twice a week. And folks, you could'n't begin to understand how much I've learned from him in the last few years. That's right. We met when he was 14. At the age of 14, he was an expert in banking stocks. He introduced me to a small bank that was more like a finance company and at the time was the largest, banking SBA lender in the country (before The Money Store was bought by a bank.) I made a killing in the bank thanks to him. My only regret is that the CEO wants to be the mayor of San Diego so he sold to a large bank. Otherwise I'd still be a shareholder. We met through the Motley Fool. At my encouragement, he became an official volunteer representative of the Fool at 15, writing stuff just like all of us with the same amount of authority and responsibility. Readers thought he was a mid-forties kind of guy making a career in the banking industry. Some people who knew his age actually thought he was pretending to be a teenager, that his youthful age was a hoax. I can't tell you how relieved some people were when I came back one weekend from having met him in person and verified that, indeed, he was a teenager. His writing and knowledge of investing, especially banking, was that good. There's another reason I'm waxing with sentimentality. He is the person who introduced me to Gemstar. When he was 14. Together, we wrote an article for the Fool about Gemstar that is still available in their archives. It was so long ago that the interactive program guides weren't part of the picture. Check out the price of Gemstar in December , 1996, remembering that is when the two of us co-authored that Fool piece. Okay. I'm done now. Just wanted to share that with you. --Mike Buckley