To: robnhood who wrote (28237 ) 10/14/2000 6:18:02 AM From: Gary M. Reed Read Replies (1) | Respond to Speaking of Mr. Fleckenstein, his piece last night was a gem...I usually hit "mute" when the Ferret is doing her Arsenio Hall "Let's get BUSY!!!" imitations from the floor every morning, but I did catch her hootin' and hollerin' about GTW Friday morning...her comment about GTW now only deriving 50% of their revs from PC sales struck me as odd (of course, she painted it as a positive), and I remember thinking when she said that, "well, where in the hell are the other 50% of revenues coming from???" To paraphrase Paul Harvey, now we know the REST of the story, thanks to Mr. Fleckenstein:Gateway is no longer a PC company, it's basically a consumer finance/sub-prime lender. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of balance sheets can see that there's quite an incredible game being played by this company. Last night on a conference call, Gateway allowed that it is no longer going to give unit data, ASP data or segment data. Then again, one should recall that the CFO who is bringing you this wonderful financial fable was also the CFO in the waning days of Boston Chicken (BOSTQ), and we all know how that story concluded." What do you want to bet THAT never gets disclosed on any analyst's GTW report...the CFO came from Boston Chicken, yet tells analysts "yeah, the financial numbers we're giving you are gonna be pretty vague going forward, but you gotta trust me on this one," and the analysts fall for it. Unreal. Since the analysts are so foregiving these days, perhaps that Eddie Antar guy of Crazy Eddie's ("prices so low, their INSANE!") fame can make a comeback as a CEO too.
