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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tony Viola who wrote (145227)	10/19/1999 6:23:00 PM
From: D.J.Smyth	Respond to of 176387

Tony, you're not asking me, but i'm going to give you an answer to this question anyway. The fact that Taiwan supplies only 10% of the DRAM market didn't carry much relevance relative to prices worldwide. When the quake hit, the Koreans used the quake as an excuse to squeeze 30% to 40% (overnight increase) more from certain chains. It's called overnight mass collusion. Once Samsung began it's campaign, others joined in by raising prices as well. Dell, I think, as a result, signed a multi-year agreement with Samsung (which turns out to be fortuitous anyway). The Samsung agreement is more positive than negative for Dell - seems Dell's earnings will be more predictable (relative to that variable anyway); so other variables can be concentrated on more fully. Dell should have signed a Samsung agreement before the quake in order to avoid this vary problem. Live and learn. I figured Dell's other areas would pick up the slack of $.01 to $.02 in earnings. And; you still never know. Dell's pronoucement last night stated they were not able to objectively quantify exact earnings from other positive areas - which leaves it up in the air to the positive side (just as Apple did). So, Dell stated it was probable on one end; but on the other ends not possibly scientifically set in stone.

To: Tony Viola who wrote (145227)	10/19/1999 6:43:00 PM
From: Uncle Frank	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

>> Name one Taiwan DRAM powerhouse. Vanguard. TSMC owns a 26% stake in them. Currently a major supplier of 16Meg and 64Meg dram. In the process of building a $2B .13u fab with tsmc. Regards Frank

To: Tony Viola who wrote (145227)	10/19/1999 9:56:00 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Tony - saw that on the intel thread and almost responded there. I have exactly the same question... prices have been edging up since July. There was a brief jump on the spot market after the Taiwan quake but it only lasted a few days, and prices are now back to about pre-quake levels. Hard to believe that any kind of long term contract arrangement would have left DELL open to a big spike in DRAM costs. As far as the argument that "everyone will have the same problem", that doesn't play either. IBM, of course, has their own price protection plan, called technology infrastructure. HP and CPQ did equity investments in several DRAM manufacturers years ago, and have product agreements tied to production costs, not market price, so they should have a much better picture than DELL apparently has. DELL's recent agreement with Samsung covers LCD panels, not DRAM. And even the LCD deal will take a long time to bear fruit. All in all an interesting turn of events. You can be sure that others on this thread will paint a different picture... but I am trying to keep my head out of the sand.