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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andreas who wrote (80478)	3/30/2000 1:40:00 PM
From: Andreas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

At this rate we may not see my goal of 32.50. I wonder how many people knew about this article during the past week while this pos sank slowly in the west. What a joke!! MC. Are you listening or reading this?? What in heaven's name are you clowns doing? Can you get anything right?

To: Andreas who wrote (80478)	3/30/2000 2:02:00 PM
From: Loki	Respond to of 97611

Andreas...Do you get emails from MC too? ---------------------------------------------------------- Dear Low key and Thread... I don't think it is funny saying MC stands for more confusion. I'll have you know that I am working at least 17 hours a week thinking up cool stuff. (that's twice as much as EP) MC should stand for Mighty Compaq. Somebody said that would be an oxymoron, but I have been called worse. I am using Eckhardt's old computer (labelled "Komputer"), and will soon be working at internet speed. The guys from service will be installing my 14.4 modem next week. (Is that more cool stuff or what?) Oh yeah.....I'm really looking forward to the shareholder meeting. (should we change the name to prayerholder meeting?...just a thought). Got to go. Ben's waiting to use the computer. MC ------------------------------------------------------- Salah's post said MC is changing moral not morale. ------------------------------------------------------- Loki

To: Andreas who wrote (80478)	3/30/2000 3:10:00 PM
From: Captain Jack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Hell-- its only down 1 7/8 now! It has donw much worse than that many times. <<"This management is a joke!!">> What mgmt? Does not sound like there is any. <<"CPQ is losing the battle">> WRONG,, they did that a year ago. Still waiting for more remarks on my 31 1/2 end of year projection with a spike or two.... but moral is up,, sure why not? Lots less work and still holding 8K employees they did not need when there was more work,, plus they give stock too,,, now why cannot I find a company like that to work for,,

To: Andreas who wrote (80478)	3/30/2000 7:55:00 PM
From: Salah Mohamed	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 97611

Andreas ... About Consumer PC's >>>O.K all you defenders of this management on this thread. Have you read the article by Joe Wilcox, staff writer for CNET News? HP kicks CPQ's butt! Real flattering! CPQ is losing the battle.<<< Yes, I read the article but I'm not concerned. CPQ's market share has been between 30% to 35% over the last five months or so and HP was the leader in at least one month during this period. Also, the article didn't tell us anything credible about CPQ failures, they mentioned the 5% sales from kiosks which have been there for a long time (nothing new here), and the RW CD-ROM which CPQ provides. The remark that CPQ got a black eye in one of their bright spots is just pure hype. Yes, MC said several times that their consumer biz is on fire, but the fact of the matter is that this biz is a very low margin biz and they make very little money from it. Let's look at the last two quarters numbers: Q3 Total Revenues = 9.4B Consumer PC Group (CPCG) Revenues = 1.5B Operating Income from CPCG = 65M Unallocated Shared Expenses = 325M CPCG share of the above expenses = 325 x 1 .5 / 9.4 = 52M Net Operating Income from CPCG = 65 - 52 = 13M Operating Margin (OpM) = 13M / 1.5B = 0.9% Q4 Total Revenues = 10.4B Consumer PC Group (CPCG) Revenues = 2B Operating Income from CPCG = 69M Unallocated Shared Expenses = 268M CPCG share of the above expenses = 268 x 2 / 10.4 = 52M Net Operating Income from CPCG = 69 - 52 = 17M OpM = 17M / 2B = 0.9% Above data are obtained from: www1.compaq.com!ob~17850_1_1,00.html www1.compaq.com!ob~24370_1_1,00.html I don't consider ~1.0% operating margin a bright spot, maybe it is bright relative to the Commercial PC's which has a negative operating margin. Their target for OpM for CPCG is 4.5% which translates to 3% profit margin. In summary, the CPCG contribution to the EPS is currently less than 1.0 cent and the impact on Q1 results would be negligible even if they improved the OpM to 2%. They make most of their money from the ESSG. About MC >>>I think it was Salah or someone who works at cpq who was quick to point out that MC has done a great job turning around morale.<<< Yes, I said that MC is doing a great job and I'm sticking with it, but I've never talked about morale. Let me be very clear, I don't work for CPQ, and I don't even know anybody who works for CPQ, I'm just a shareholder. Now, back to MC ..... I'm convinced that he is doing a great job based on what he said and what others said about him, and based on the improvement in the financial results over the last two quarters. The attacks on MC in this thread are not justified, it is solely based on the stock price fluctuations, when the stock is above $30, no attacks, when the stock is around $25, everyone takes a shot at him. In fact, after I said MC is doing a great job, two independent IT Research outfits (Gartner & Forrester) said more or less the same thing. The main point here is this company is turning around but it is not going to happen overnight, it will take time. In the latest CC, MC clearly said that the turnaround won't be completed before some time in 2001. If one doesn't believe him or thinks he can't do it, or thinks the turnaround is slow, or can't take the stock price fluctuations, I suggest selling, shorting, or finding greener pastures. Again, here are the Gartner and Forrester articles: Gartner yahoo.cnet.com Forrester Message 13276804