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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nancy who wrote (36923)	1/20/2000 10:50:00 PM
From: Valley Girl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Well, yeah, if you count the management as "brainpower". ;) Seriously, I think MSFT still has plenty of smart men and women on the engineering side where it counts, and there's no shortage of competent managers to fill top-level spots. The only top-level spot I watch is CEO. I share your concern about MSFT's apparent lack of understanding about the opportunities in the internet; they've repeatedly shown that "they just don't get it." Perhaps we shouldn't shed quite so many tears over the departing execs after all, eh? I'm still optimistic that the new team will eventually find some avenue for growth in the internet, but I'm not counting on seeing it reflected in the stock price any time soon. Meanwhile I'm still hunting for investment alternatives to broaden my base beyond MSFT (and ORCL). At present I'm holding $350K cash. The rising interest rates and oil prices don't bode well for the market as a whole. If there's a massive sell-off then I'll be snapping up my favourites on discount. Otherwise I'll just keep fishing them for reasonable entries. How about you? Your notes didn't tell me your situation or strategy. I'm guessing from the tone that, like me, you've got a truckload or more of Softee. Anyway you have my best wishes for prosperity whatever you do. VG

To: Nancy who wrote (36923)	1/20/2000 11:47:00 PM
From: Alan Buckley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

[MSFT has brain drain - there are over a dozen high ranking execs left in past 12 months to start-ups.] This is true and while it's a potential future problem, I don't think its a current problem. I say this because all my contacts in Redmond are happy with the people being promoted. In a way it's good since a lot of these leavers are guys with CEO dreams that just won't be fulfilled at Microsoft. At least this way they leave happy, will be inclined to work with MSFT rather than against it, and will tend to promote the use of MSFT products externally. Meanwhile the hotshot younger guys are not trapped under a "senority ceiling" and feel challenged. A trouble signal would be MSFT guys leaving to work at SUNW, AOL, IBM, etc. This is not what's happening. They're leaving because (a) they want to be the top dog or (b) they're tired and can afford to quit, whether temporarily or permanently.