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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (8959)	1/11/2001 10:50:34 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Both Gateway and HWP added their sad songs this afternoon to the chorus of woe in PC Land. Gateway in particular was bleak: <<Although Gateway had also warned of lower revenues previously, its actual fourth-quarter sales came in 7 percent below that already diminished forecast, at $2.37 billion, down 6.9 percent from the year-ago quarter. While lower-than-expected sales hurt profits, Gateway also blamed severe price-cutting, which accelerated as the quarter progressed. Chief Financial Officer John Todd said that in the final month before Christmas, the company cut prices close to 10 percent, resulting in a loss at its PC division for the first time in Gateway history. The company said unsold inventory will continue to pressure PC sales across the industry during the first half of this year. ``I can't imagine why we would see a sudden return to higher pricing with a lot of inventory out there that is basically rotting on the shelves,'' CEO Weitzen said in response to a question about the pricing outlook. The company forecast a slim 3 percent increase in revenues for 2001, and said it expects first-quarter revenue to decline 10 percent. It said it expects first quarter earnings of around 21 cents per share, less than half the forecast 45 cents. Company officials said they expect to see a return in PC demand in the second half of the year, but until then they plan to offer more lower-priced PC models for between $799 and $1,299.>> Since both companies are good customers of HDD, it is only prudent of them to reduce their build for the next two quarters. HP wasn't as bleak as GTW, but it wasn't good either. Of course, all of the major PC companies are HDD's customers, and all are hurting right now, with inventory "rotting on the shelves", as GTW put it. Wonder how the inventory at the drive companies is? Hopefully it is still as lean as it has been for the past year or so. A Note on IT Don't know if anyone say MSNBC's report on IT this evening. They are holding their own contest at www.cable.msnbc.com. According to one of the interviewees who claims to have seen this wonder of wonders, IT is, on the scale of inventions, "bigger than the Internet, but smaller than clean, limitless, free fusion energy would be". He was sworn to secrecy, so could not divulge what IT is. He also said that he thought that the Secret of IT would be out sometime in the next few days or so, since the publicity has become so intense (from what I can see, fed mostly by MSNBC and the boards like these).

To: Stitch who wrote (8959)	1/11/2001 11:39:03 PM
From: Yogi - Paul	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 9256

Stitch, <<, the desktop arena is highly suspect for Q1, and possibly extending into Q2, IMO. >> Diplomatic phrasing <g>. What is your catalyst for recovery in the pc sector? << I really think the slowdown of PC sales caught the industry flat footed and it was too late to turn off supply lines completely. >> At least they had room for building up some inventory--was down to < 2 weeks after last quarter as I recall. Will be an interesting number to listen for during the conference calls. Average historical level is around 6 weeks? Enjoying your 'zine-- highest regards as always, Paul Vlad the Impaler-- the sex aid... LOL