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To: Voltaire who wrote (13057)	4/13/2000 11:11:00 PM
From: RR	Respond to of 35685

Time QCOM starts its earnings run, JDSU too... Friday! Rick <eom>

To: Voltaire who wrote (13057)	4/13/2000 11:22:00 PM
From: Grandk	Respond to of 35685

Sun Micro Posts Better-Than-Expected 3Q By Therese Poletti SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news), the leading maker of powerful computer servers used to run Web sites, on Thursday reported better-than-expected fiscal third quarter earnings, amid astounding revenue growth and continued market share gains from its slower-growing rivals. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun posted net income of $436.2 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with a net income of $292 million, or 18 cents a share in the year ago period, excluding gains on the sale of equity investments in fiscal 2000 and acquisition-related charges in fiscal 2000 and 1999. Wall Street analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 23 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks earnings estimates. Speak your mind Discuss this story with other people. [Start a Conversation] (Requires Yahoo! Messenger) Revenues soared 35 percent to $4.005 billion, breaking the $4 billion quarter revenue mark for the first time ever. This compares with revenues of $2.956 billion a year ago. Analysts had been looking for revenue growth to surpass 25 percent, possibly even reach 30 percent, but none had predicted 35 percent growth. ``I don't know what to say about this quarter,' said Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive, on a conference call. ``I think we kicked some major bottom out there. A couple of quarters ago, I was talking about heartbreak hill and I made you all nervous. I think we have seen a lot of our competitors seized getting up heartbreak hill.' Sun executives said on the conference call that they had gained market share at the expense of rivals International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news), both of which have much slower revenue growth rates in their computer hardware businesses. They also said they do not run into Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news), which bought rival Digital Equipment Corp., in any server sales situations. ``Thirty-five percent (revenue growth) was way beyond what any analysts were looking for,' said George Elling, an analyst at Lehman Brothers. ``They scored a 10 out of 10 for the quarter.' While many analysts asked Sun if the company can sustain growth rate of 35 percent, Sun's chief financial officer Michael Lehman declined to make any predictions, only saying that the fourth fiscal quarter was starting off as a strong quarter. ``We are starting to plan the company based on north of 25 percent on the revenue line,' Lehman said in an interview. 'And if we have more business, we will go from there.' Sun has made big inroads marketing its servers and software to many Internet companies, including start-ups. Sun's servers power many heavily-trafficked Internet sites. In its third fiscal quarter, Sun said 730 new dot-com companies signed up for products, under Sun's many programs targeting their business. For example, last month, Sun said it was investing $300 million in its so-called ``iForce' initiative to help both Internet start-up companies and large corporations ready their businesses for the Internet economy. But in light of recent announcements by several dot-com companies who are running out of funds, analysts were suddenly jittery about Sun's exposure to its Internet customers. ``Four weeks ago, everyone loved dot-coms,' said Ed Zander, Sun's president, on the call. ``Now they are bad. A lot of dot-com companies are going to be big. AOL, E+TRADE, etc. are real companies...Certainly there will be a weed-out, but the numbers suggest that we will be very well protected in this space.' Lehman also noted that of all the deals that Sun made in the quarter with dot-coms, Sun is being very conservative in how it is financing these start-up companies and many are not even in the company's profit and loss statement yet. He also noted that Sun's balance sheet was stronger than ever and Sun now had more than $5 billion dollars in cash and marketable securities. Sun generated nearly $1 billion in cash from operations, more than any other third fiscal quarter in its history. The company had record bookings growth of 41 percent on a year-over-year basis. Product sales growth was strong across the board and its services business grew at 41 percent. During the third quarter ended March 26, Sun had a special net gain of $107.3 million, due to the sale of equity investments of $112.2 million and an in-process research and development charge of $4.9 million for the acquisition of Trustbase Limited. Including these items, net income in the third quarter was $508.1 million, or 30 cents a share.