To: D. Swiss who wrote (7693 ) 10/20/2000 7:58:16 PM From: Bill F. Read Replies (2) | Respond to drew- it must have gotten lost in the shuffle,i dont recall seeing it. amore complete synopsis will be in mondays rap but in general the problem has to do with the explosion in other assets and other current assets.if you go back and look at the year end 96 and 97 balance sheet you will see how the composition has changed over time.cash and a/r have dropped as a % of total assets from 73% to 38% since 96 as this explosion has occurred.when this happens it is a red light,especially when no information is given about any contra assets or details.also the are wildly cash flow negative another warning sign.this year as "earnings" have grown by 400 mmm, cash + a/r have DROPPED vy 265mm or so.gtw eps usd to all roll up into cash + a/r and now it is overwhelmingly in 2 "other" categories that no data is given on........they have 1000 outlets yet give no same store sale,they sell pc's and now will no longer give units sold or asp's.in essense they will tell you NOTHING about the business.it is all trust us,except the cfo came from a place where bad financial things occured(boston chicken) and i know someone who worked for him and he confirmed to me the unsavory nature of the activities there.......so,i dont trust them.furthermore, as to pc's ,yoy, outlets quadrupled yet rev growth is up only 20% and if you "triangulate" from their comments you can see that pc operating income FELL,so there was no growth.they say dont worry about pc sales but how do you sell beyond the box nonsense if you dont sell boxes? then their is the matter of the false adverstisng lawsuit.....this is as blatant a case of financial statement funny buisness as i ahve seen in sometime.IF i am wrong and everything is legit,why not give out all the data?this is a simple business and there is no reason not tohave the data they wont give out.nearly everyone else does.i hope that adequately answers your questiion.
