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To: pala who wrote (11972)	12/4/1999 4:32:00 PM
From: Mike Buckley	Respond to of 54805

Doug, But I've always wondered, if one excludes one time charges, where are they accounted for? They are always accounted for in the P&L statement. It's the analysts and investors who add them back in to the earnings as a mental exercise to recognize that their context is not a repeating aspect of the business. By the way, one-time gains (such as the sale of a handset division) are also treated the same way; the gain appears in the P&L statement but the analysts and investors deduct it from the earnings because it is not a recurring expectation. That's why I call them one-time accounting events, because an event can be either a gain or a loss. Take Cisco for instance, which takes them often. Don't confuse the context of a one-time charge. If Cisco buys Company XYZ this quarter, there is a one-time charge associated with the acquisition of that company. That doesn't mean there won't be another one-time charge associated with the purchase of a different company. And as above, if Cisco sold a division this quarter and a different division next quarter, you would want to exclude each one-time gain from the earnings to get a true picture of the goings on. I guess a guy would have to look at P/E before and after one time charges to make sure he's not comparing apples to oranges. I was with you up until that point. What would that accomplish? --Mike Buckley