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Technology Stocks : INPR - Inprise to Borland (BORL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: smallaxe who wrote (4154)	1/28/2000 9:18:00 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 5102

The most significan writedown, and the puzzling one is the real estate. I think what they did was writedown the value of the unused portion of the Borland campus. It's no secret that a large part of the campus lies empty. This could be a plausible explanation for the writedown. If an asset is essentially "scrapped" -- decommissioned without an intent to either use it or sell it, then it might be appropriate to expense it even if it is real estate. In particular, if you have a chunk of empty space that you know you're not going to lease out to someone else AND you know YOU'RE not going to use it, then why not? We do this all the time with personal property. Computers are a great example. They're frequently scrapped before being fully depreciated. It also makes sense from Dale's point of view. As is often done, the incoming CEO wants to get all the red ink behind him. So when in doubt, charge it off. Given what you're saying, that the SV facility had a lot of empty space, I suspect your explanation makes a lot of sense...

To: smallaxe who wrote (4154)	1/28/2000 12:38:00 PM
From: TTOSBT	Respond to of 5102

Re: " It's no secret that a large part of the campus lies empty. " "I hope the company will elaborate on this real estate issue further. You have hit on exactly why this stock will go nowhere. 1) They hire an internet CEO and still hold brick & mortar expenses that's not being utilized. 2) They do not give any guidance on the writedowns and leave it to speculation. Most successful investors would not put any sizeable money on speculation that should be explainable. Obviously the board members are happy and I won't speculate why? Maybe INPR will be more forthcoming at the Linux thing next week but one would suspect that a quarterly report should be a place to start selling oneself. Instead INPR chooses to use their's for unexplainable writedowns. No wonder there were no formidable analysts on the CC. Those who were there probably did not ask too many questions cause they can read between the lines better than most of us everyday investors? TTOSBT

To: smallaxe who wrote (4154)	1/30/2000 6:27:00 PM
From: Fred Gohlke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5102

Smallaxe (and all), If you've read the posts following your #4154, you must be absolutely delighted that you decided to join the S/I group. The discourse between TTOSBT, Darrell Minott, Dennis Nicks, David Miller, Cube, and David Ray, et al. has been uncommonly civilized and informative. They covered the turf so well there is little to add. Given the turbulence we saw last week, it is not surprising that some folks suffered a bit of anxiety. I, for one, lost (nominally) more than I used to earn in a year ... not all of it in INPR. Should we keep in mind: 1) Fuller has been around for, what, 9 or 10 months. 2) Last week's report shows (IMO) "clearing the decks" activity. 3) The call for a "catch phrase" is warranted, but we should not forget the horror "webvolution" generated. 4) It may be well to lease out the excess space at Scotts Valley, but how many pressing tasks can come first? 5) Linux's day in the sun is just dawning. The lucid descriptions of INPR's prospects, outlined over this weekend, support the notion that we are on the correct course. As someone much smarter than I has said, patience is even more important than discipline in investing. Let's make haste, slowly. Fred