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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lee who wrote (26888)	1/28/2000 8:19:00 AM
From: JDN	Respond to of 64865

Dear Steve: Why would a short want to justify valuation? SUNW could in fact, along with the other premium high pe high tech stocks take a hit this spring, they often do. But it wont be because of Linux or NT. If you listen to their most recent CC (SUNW'S) you will be told why. To all the other Red Blooded Longs: Bill Joy was interviewed by Bloomberg this morning over in Switzerland. IMHO Bill Joy is a TOTALLY STRAIGHT shooter who pays little or no attention to the stock price etc. He is a pure technician who works for the JOY of it. haha. Anyhow, Bill, when asked about the companies prospects, said he pays little attention to the financials of the company but that he is absolutely sure that a HUGE GROWTH will continue. I dont remember his exact words but it was something like, "You just cant imagin the incredible amount of Servers that are going to be necessary in the future" JDN

To: Steve Lee who wrote (26888)	1/28/2000 8:33:00 AM
From: Eski	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

If you can tell me why any Tech stock can justify's it's valuation, I'll tell you why SUNW can. DUH. PLEASE SHORT this so you can make the longs richer. (Another Clueless Putz's). BTW don't forget to buy your Preparation H ointment you'll need it once you cover.

To: Steve Lee who wrote (26888)	1/28/2000 8:36:00 AM
From: Charles Tutt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Abandon all hope, shorts who enter here. But that's JMHO.

To: Steve Lee who wrote (26888)	1/28/2000 10:28:00 AM
From: cfimx	Respond to of 64865

what's a p/e? <g>

To: Steve Lee who wrote (26888)	1/28/2000 2:56:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Steve, To the regulars: you've heard all this before, so you can skip the rest of this post. Your questions are entirely legitimate. They have been asked and answered many times in the past few years, but they are significant issues, and they go to the core business that supports Sun's profitability. My initial thoughts are that with Linux and NT taking some of Sun's business If you're talking about the server business, you have to look at the differences between Solaris and NT/Linux for an answer. The differences are significant. Solaris is a superior software technology. I know of NT bigots like rudedog who may dispute this, but Solaris has many advantages: 64-bit vs 32-bit, multi-threaded on the user level, highly scalable, currently over 64 SMP's vs. 2-4 MP's for NT, smaller in size, more reliable code that has stood the test of time and abuse from end-users, and a company that stands behind its software with an entire operating company (Sun Service) dedicated to support and enhancement. All this stuff makes a difference to IT managers. The code-word used to describe these capabilities is RAS (reliability availability, and serviceability). Sun products have it and PC products don't. That's why they cost more, and that's why Sun has been able to maintain its margins while DELL,CPQ,HWP,IBM, etal. margins have fallen through the floor. The PC is a cheap commodity. Pay your money and take your chances. If your mission isn't critical, then it might be ok to take your chances (NT is used quite often as a print server in secretarial pools). If your mission is critical, however, you have to take a serious look at Sun. They provide you with a soup to nuts solution for your web server/database server requirements and with big, demanding, critical applications support, processing power, security etc... A couple of years ago or so, it was popular for PC companies and the PC-press to crow about how Wintel was going to "take over" all the "overpriced" Unix markets and replace the equipment and software with inexpensively priced, yet highly useful PC software running on cheaply produced commodity hardware. Somehow that warmed-over hue-and-cry is still present in the threads and chat rooms over at DELL MSFT etal. But it doesn't hold much water anymore, and its most vociferous adherents have been curiously silent for nearly a year now, even with the advent of W2K looming ominously in the near future. First there is the question of just which market NT/Linux is going to "take away" from Sun. Sun was never in the office market and has not produced personal productivity applications up until the release of StarOffice. They have release a number of low-cost workgroup server solutions and inexpensive workstations in the past 18 months and they have been selling like hotcakes. They are a low margin product, however, so the big money is still in big servers. Last fall, during an interview, Scott McNealy was asked if he was concerned about the "onslaught" of the pending release of W2K from Microsoft. He answered: "Who?" That sums it up pretty well: PC-advocates/shareholders would like to BELIEVE that Wintel is in the same market as Sun, but they never have been, aren't now, and don't appear to be headed that way anytime soon. There is only competition between Wintel and Sun in a very narrow range of the corporate market and that is only because Sun has entered the low end of the corporate market which had been Wintel territory, not the other way around. Please could one of you longs tell me how SUNW can justify its valuation This is a larger question than the one above. The simple explanation is that Sun is not just a hardware seller but a solutions company. Sun has worked very hard to change their image to the public and so far, has succeeded in doing so. They are on everyone's A-1 buy list and are seen as an internet infrastructure supplier like CSCO. The other reason is that nothing succeeds like success. Investors like to go with a winner and Sun has managed to obtain a certain cachet among them. Rising year-over-year revenues >30% doesn't hurt either. This is at a time when PC-hardware vendors and even the "behemouth" MSFT are struggling to maintain profitability. If you want a solid, long-term investment, Steve, go long on SUNW. None of us "old-timers" have regretted it. cheers, cherylw