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Technology Stocks : LHSP: Lernout En Hauspie -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: the dodger who wrote (2266)	8/8/2000 10:48:55 PM
From: Ben Wa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2467

regarding what exactly do earnings mean...Many tech firms are doing lots of acquisitions & when they are not poolings, a lot of goodwill is created that most firms try to write off as quickly as possible. In the case of JDSU, it is 3-5 years. I do not know Lernout's timetable. Nevertheless, the rapid evaporation of goodwill from reported eps allows firms to report positive GAAP earnings quickly, and also enables firms to claim that acquisitions are accretive to earnings much faster than they could if goodwill remained a drag on earnings for say, 10-15 years. Brokerage firms analysts who are recommending stocks on "cash" earnings - (prior to goodwill amortization) are ignoring completely the fact that an acquisition that may add to "cash" eps may in fact be a negative net present value proposition. In other words, by zeroing in on just "cash" eps, so-called analysts and investors ignore return on invested capital. aka ROIC. It is clear that in the case of Lernout, the blizzard of acquisitions have created several boatloads of goodwill on the balance sheet, and of course if we ignore the impact of goodwill amortization, we get "cash" eps, but it is a bit confusing to determine if Lernout is getting a positive return on the prices they are paying for the acquisitions. For instance, if you want to buy a candy store that has a book value of $500 thousand for $20 million, your true return on the buyout of the candy store should (unless you are a Democrat) be based on your $20 million investment. If you "write off" over 3 years say, the $19.5 million you paid over book value for the candy store, and then get excited in year 4 when you see that your candy store is made a 20% return off the original equity of $500 thousand, or $100 thousand operating profit, is that a reason to go out and celebrate? Some would say yes, if you bought that candy store with stock instead of cash, since it was only paper that you gave away. The problem with that arguement is that it infers that the true economic value of the candy store you bought was only $500k if you write off the excess over book quickly AND, (here's the funny part) that the stock that you used to pay for the acquisition was overvalued also. So, if Lernout wants to buy a Pizza Hut for $100 million in stock and if some sellside analyst ignores the goodwill created and focus on the cash earnings contribution from the acquisition in 3 years time, fine. Or, if JDSU pays $41 billion for SDLI in stock, does that say anything about ROIC on $41 billion invested today at t=0 on your HP 12-C calculators? Time for a pizza hut thin crust, extra sauce with "shrooms". Oh, I apologize if this caused anyone to actually use their brains.

To: the dodger who wrote (2266)	8/9/2000 8:45:02 AM
From: cdtejuan	Respond to of 2467

agreed on your points. this is why i don´t believe their allegations. a fraud ipo may try to cook the books this way, if the management want´s to bail all months later, but L&H?? a company that is for real and has the chance of getting one of the biggest pieces of the voice tech market?LOL that´s why i tripled my position @28.5 yesterday 15 minutes before the close. premarket so far @32. gonna be a nice day for trading! juan ----------- Speak your mind Discuss this story with other people. [Start a Conversation] (Requires Yahoo! Messenger) Tuesday August 08 09:15 PM EDT Speech recognition to hit MS Office By Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet News Tech gets a voice. New capability to debut in Beta 1 of Office 10, Microsoft's update to its Windows desktop applications suite, which is expected in 2001. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has notified testers that it has officially launched Beta 1 of the next version of Microsoft Office for Windows, code-named Office 10. Microsoft is adding new features to all of the applications that make up its desktop suite, according to testers. But the most noticeable change to Office 10 will be the addition of speech capabilities. • Microsoft begins Office 10 beta • PC Trouble? Fix it now! • Web Surfer Power Tools • Beginner's Guide to MP3 Word 10 is being enabled with speech to handle both voice dictation and command-and-control scenarios, testers said. Office 10 is the successor to Office 2000 for Windows (which is expected to ship next year) and is anticipated to be a fairly minor upgrade on the way to Office.Net, the company's next major version of Office. According to Microsoft's .Net roadmap, Office.Net is due to ship sometime in 2002 or later. Finishing Mac version, too While Microsoft is working on Office 10, it simultaneously is putting the finishing touches on its next Office release for the Macintosh. The company has said it will ship its next Mac Office release, called Mac Office 2001, this October. Microsoft has been far more secretive about its Office for Windows plans. Company officials provided a demonstration of some of Office 10's capabilities at its late-July financial-analysts meeting. Among the new features slated to be included in Office 10 are Web Parts components, Web-based data storage, "smart tags" and new formatting options. Microsoft officials confirmed "an early technical beta has been shipped to a small subset of customers," but declined to comment on product timing or specifics. More apps on tap According to a copy of the Office 10 Beta 1 release notes reviewed by ZDNet News, however, Microsoft has a number of new features due for inclusion in its next-generation desktop suite. In addition to gaining speech-recognition capabilities, Beta 1 of Word for Office 10 is scheduled to include improved multi-user document editing, digital signature support, and enhancements to specific features such as footnoting and table creation. The next version of Word also will include improved crash-recovery support and a "smart" copy-and-paste capability. Microsoft is creating more synergy between Office and Exchange Server, as well, according to the Beta 1 release notes. With Office 10, Word becomes the default e-mail editor, meaning Outlook users can make use of Word's text editing from within Outlook. 'Unlocking data' with Excel On the Excel spreadsheet front, Microsoft is focusing on the "unlocking data" concept in Beta 1 for Office 10. " Excel 10 will make it easier to find, analyze and publish data," Microsoft said in the beta release notes. To fulfill this goal, Microsoft is adding to Excel a new Web query interface, "smart" tags and improved pivot-table programming capabilities. Microsoft also is adding XML support and new real-time-data analysis capabilities to Office 10. As with Word 10, Office 10 will get enhanced crash-recovery functionality. With Access 10, Microsoft is focusing on maintaining backward file format compatibility with Access 2000 for its database application, while simultaneously adding a new file format option aimed at supporting larger projects. The release notes acknowledge, however, that in Beta 1, replication between the different file formats is not working. As expected, Microsoft also is more closely aligning Access 10 and SQL Server 2000. And with FrontPage 10, Microsoft is adding a team-Web-site-building capability, as well as making some minor tweaks to the user interface.

To: the dodger who wrote (2266)	8/9/2000 9:21:49 AM
From: cdtejuan	Respond to of 2467

re: WSJ Europe. coincidence ------ Jesse Eisinger-has he fully disclosed? by: nineteen27yankees 8/9/00 5:49 am Msg: 31717 of 31778 As longs know, Jesse Eisinger is a former employee of TheStreet.com. The last article I was able to find that he wrote for TheStreet.com was dated December 10, 1999. And guess what .... he quotes David Rocker (anyone surprised?): ..... David Rocker, who runs a short-only hedge fund, says: "The sad thing about the market is that many extremely bright people are having terrible years, while many of those having spectacular years are the borderline irresponsible." ..... thestreet.com As a former employee of TheStreet.com, I wonder if Eisinger owns options and/or any other stock interest in it, given that TheStreet.com had gone public long before Eisinger began working for the WSJ. Why? ---- Certainly Eisinger knows or should know that Rocker Partners, a hedge fund with about $400 million in assets, owns 4.6% of TheStreet.com. As of March 31, 2000, Rocker Partners owned 1,177,828 shares of TheStreet.com - its third largest institutional investor. ---- Certainly Eisinger knows or should know that for at least the last year and a half Rocker Partners has also maintained a large short position in L&H. Further, as of March 31, 2000, for reasons not fully understood, though there is little doubt those reasons are to hurt the share price of L&H, Rocker Partners also owned 1,125,400 shares of L&H. ---- Certainly Eisinger knows or should know that Rocker Partners with its almost 5% interest in TheStreet.com and that huge short position in L&H obviously wants L&H to be bashed. ---- Certainly Eisinger knows or should know that Marc Cohodes, a partner at Rocker Partners which owns slightly less than 5% of TheStreet.com and maintains a heavy short interest in L&H, regularly promotes TheStreet.com - Cohodes touts TheStreet.com as a good long investment on 'Facts from the other side of the tracks,' a weekly internet radio show which is no more than a self-interested infomercial paid for by Rocker Partners. Additionally, almost weekly for the last year and a half, Cohodes has bashed/attacked/smeared L&H. ---- Certainly, Eisinger knows or should know that he personally stands to gain financially by Rocker Partners touting TheStreet.com on Rocker Partner's internet radio show and by owning over a million shares of TheStreet.com and possibly increasing its long position in it. These acts could increase the share price of TheStreet.com and, of course, Eisinger wants its share price to rise. So, Eisinger, to my knowledge, has now written three (3) provocatively timed columns about L&H, one denigrating L&H Q4-1999 results, one denigrating L&H Q1-00 results and the latest one accusing L&H of fraud. Question - does Eisinger have any option/stock interest in TheStreet.com? If yes, I think he should disclose that interest. If no, ignore all of the above.