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Technology Stocks : Cohu, Inc. (COHU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Demosthenes who wrote (2015)	7/7/2000 12:24:14 PM
From: Ross	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7827

Did you ask him specifically how orders are going so far this quarter? I remember how a drop in COHU stock was once related to COHU telling a fund manager that orders had dried up (comment then appeared in a Barron's interview with the fund manager). Was he very clear that he said nothing like that to the analysts? Isn't the quarter finished now? Doesn't he know whether the order has closed now? Ross

To: Demosthenes who wrote (2015)	7/7/2000 3:20:05 PM
From: geoffrey Wren	Respond to of 7827

Some thoughts about COHU.<p><br><br><br> One. Perhaps the institutional investors are so accustomed to getting the heads up from companies that they invest in about upcoming problems, that they fear the worst when they run across a mum company, and dump. Under this scenario, it is possible that COHU is nonetheless having a good quarter.<p><br><br><br> Two. Perhaps the institutional investors are so accustomed to getting the heads up from companies that they invest in, that COHU management has given in to them, and the small investors are the last to know.<p><br><br> Three. While talking to the institutional investors, COHU management seems to display "tells" (poker parlance-hesitations, coughs, etc., such that one can sense a strong hand or a weak hand) such that the institutional investors feel they have learned the answers to their questions about income. Of course this would be poker playing, and COHU could still be having a good quarter if the institutional investors are reading COHU management the wrong way.<p><br><br><br> Four. Perhaps COHU is having a bad quarter and word is out, but COHU management is too stuck in their conservative mode to admit it. (I think once it appears word is leaking of a problem, the management owes it to all shareholders to share that information right away).<p><br><br><br> Five. About the accounting rule, I wonder if there is an obverse side: that companies purchasing the equipment do not have to charge it as an expense until acceptance. That would give the receiving companies great flexibility to defer expenses, while adding to the volatility of recognized revenue to the equipment sellers. And that would mean COHU would find out just in the last days of a quarter what their revenue would be (just when receiving companies make their decision in which quarter to recognize expenses). If this is the case, and if implementation of this rule is voluntary, COHU would be foolhardy to continue with using this deferred recognition of gain practice. Even if there is asymmetry in the accounting rule (such that receiving companies are compelled to record an expense upon receipt of the equipment and before COHU gets to recognize income), I presume acceptance means a final payment is due. Receiving companies have an incentive to defer acceptance so as to defer payment. It just seems putting this control in the hands of the receiving company, who has its own incentives to delay acceptance, is not a good accounting idea.<p><br><br><br> This drop of stock price without any explanation is sickening. I have the feeling there are going to be a lot of people unhappy with COHU management in a couple of weeks. I hope I am wrong.<p><br><br><br> GTW