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Pastimes : The Naked Truth - Big Kahuna a Myth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: MythMan who wrote (78655)12/8/1999 8:39:00 AM
From: wlheatmoon  Respond to of 86076
 
ANCR is ripe for puts/shorts.
Commentary : Herb on TheStreet

More on Ancor and
Checking Back on
MedImmune
By Herb Greenberg
Senior Columnist
12/8/99 6:30 AM ET

Wednesday's Wince

All in a day's hype, er,
work: A $14.8 million investment by Intel
(INTC:Nasdaq) yesterday helped Ancor's
(ANCR:Nasdaq) market cap grow by about $650
million in this wacky,
fundamentals-don't-mean-anything kinda market.
Nothing changed at the company. Nothing!


Nothing but the receipt of an investment from Intel
regarding a so-called InfiniBand product that, if
developed, is two years out. Yet Ancor's stock
zoomed on the news, and as you might guess, the
Hostile React-o-Meter was spinning outta control
in the wake of yesterday's Ancor item. (Actually, it
was also spinning because of the MedImmune
(MEDI:Nasdaq) item, but that's another story.)

Oh, and by the way,
SunTrust Equitable
analyst Mark Kelleher,
an Ancor bull, lowered
his rating on the
company to attractive
long term from strong buy for three sensible
reasons.

The first was the most obvious: valuation. "While we
continue to believe the company's prospects are
strong, driven by the growth of the [fiber channel]
market," he wrote in a report to clients, "we believe
most of the good news is now priced into Ancor's
stock, and the risks ... now outweigh the possibility
of continued strong stock price appreciation."

The second was also obvious: The Intel investment
does not call for Intel to take any product or
generate any revenue.


His final point -- something that has been pointed
out here (from the dose-of-reality department):
Kelleher noted that the higher Ancor's stock price
goes, the less Ancor makes on its much-heralded
order from Sun Microsystems (SUNW:Nasdaq).
Sun, you'll recall, has warrants in Ancor stock that
translate into a discount for Sun as Ancor's stock
appreciates. The higher the stock, the steeper the
discount. His bottom line: When Ancor's stock
reaches 74 1/2, the Sun deal actually generates
negative revenue under generally accepted
accounting practices.
Ancor closed yesterday at 85
7/8.

Of course, there was a time when investors were
bidding up Planet Hollywood (PLHYA:OTC BB).
Speaking of which...

Hooray for Hollywood: Many people were
hoping that "The Prince" -- Prince Alwaleed bin
Talal -- would bail out Planet Hollywood. In fact, in
Andy Serwer's excellent story on adventures of the
prince in the Dec. 6 issue of Fortune, the prince
says he's convinced Planet Hollywood will rebound.
Maybe, but according to an amended 13-D filed
yesterday by the prince, from Nov. 8 to Dec. 3, he
sold 3.4 million Planet Hollywood shares at prices
ranging from 22 cents to 8 cents. Of course, he still
owns 12.8 million shares, and he is the prince, so
who's to quibble?

What, me bullish?
Who started this rumor,
anyway? Some
comment I made on our
Fox News Channel TV
show a few weeks ago, I suppose, saying I thought
the Nasdaq would go higher. What a lucky guess!
Now Kansas (as in Dave, not the state) is writing,
"Greenberg finds himself inexplicably bullish.
Capitulation on Herb's part?" No. No capitulation!
The market will come unglued here, I just don't
know when and I'm not stupid enough to stand in
front of a speeding locomotive. I just wait for Ancors
to land on my head. For a full explanation on why
you could never say I've capitulated, go back and
read my Monday column, or take a look at my
personal email box or the message boards and
some of the hostile reactions I received from
investors in Ancor and MedImmune.

MedImmune misstatement: I wasn't alerted to
this by MedImmune, which still hasn't returned my
calls, but by some guy who posted it on my
message boards on TheStreet.com. Yesterday, in
an item about MedImmune, I said one shot of
Synagis costs $5,000. Make that one course of
treatment, which equals five shots.