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To: Mike Buckley who wrote (24173)	5/4/2000 8:41:00 AM
From: chaz	Respond to of 54805

Mike, that's a very interesting idea...but can you imagine the nightmare it would cause in making period to period comparisons, or the maddening (and costly) process a company would have to go through to be current on a daily basis? Sounds like a software opportunity to me. Chaz

To: Mike Buckley who wrote (24173)	5/4/2000 10:08:00 AM
From: saukriver	Respond to of 54805

MSFT Assets on Book Microsoft has billions of dollars of assets that can be easily sold and the company's operations generate billions in cash flow every year. On this I disagree a little. Microsoft may have "billions" of assets on its books, but I am not sure whether those can be sold easily. Stock investments in private companies might be subject to major restrictions on sale. Minority position in private companies may not be worth much. Share in public companies (e.g., Microsoft shares in AKAM if it still holds them, or Microsoft's utterly stupid $5B preferred investment in AT&T) could be tricky to unload in a downdraft. And if Microsoft's put warrant liabilities are significant enough, all those assets are in a "weak hand." If MSFT's share price spikes down before the expiry date, what could it do to market and sell shares in a private company. Buffett won't touch a tech investment. So, the most likely exit would be a fire-sale back to the private company itself. The book value of these assets may be worth "billions" but the difficulties in sale make that book value overstated if Microsoft gets a big margin call. The book value assumes Microsoft would be able to sell. Whose going to buy that stupid $5B investment in AT&T, and what might that be worth in MSFT has to sell that overnight? The market of potential buyers--companies stupid enough to plunk $5B into AT&T preferred--is pretty narrow. So Microsoft would have to unload it in a hurry at a steep discount or sell it back to AT&T, again probably at a discount. That brings us to an interesting idea. David Gardner of the Motley Fool has said in the past that he would like the Fool's financial statements to appear online and be updated daily once the company goes public. He wanted that concept to be a model for all public companies Very interesting idea. I suppose the resistance is that the data on sales and expenses incurred etc. is out in the field and difficult to collect, assemble and audit. Presumably, this new economy will make it more possible for almost instantaneous financial reporting. I would see the SEC pushing for monthly financial data, then weekly, then maybe daily. Public companies would scream if the SEC started to head in that direction because as the time to report shortened there would be less ability to manipulate (called "playing games with") the financial data at the last minute. So, the inertia in the existing quarterly system makes this idea difficult to implement. Still a good idea, though. saukriver