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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (39718)	8/2/2001 4:18:02 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

YO TA/candlestick/jacka$$/woolybeardude, Is that a hammer on the NAZ sticks today? stockcharts.com[w,a]dhcayimy[db][pb50!b13!i20!d20,2!f][vc60][iLo14!Lm12!Lf!La12,26,9!Lh39,1!Lh14,3!Lp14,3,3]

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (39718)	8/2/2001 5:06:46 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

EMC may slash costs further if economy worsens Thursday August 2 By Tim McLaughlin BOSTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The chief executive of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC - news) on Thursday said he is prepared to slash more costs if a deep global recession hits the No. 1 maker of data-storage systems. EMC CEO Joe Tucci said he has ``Plan B'' ready to pull out of his pocket, ``if things get worse.'' ``Hopefully, that won't happen,'' Tucci said during the second day of EMC'S data-storage seminar in Boston. Tucci, a self-described ``Dr. Death'' on expenses, already has reined in EMC spending on building projects, travel, consultants and cell phone use at the Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based firm. He declined to discuss what else EMC would cut in the face of a worsening economy. EMC executives did not signal any immediate turnaround for the company, whose profits tumbled 75 percent in the second quarter as corporate customers spent less on refrigerator-sized machines that store e-mail, bank data and Web traffic. Tucci said ``bad things'' are continuing in the current third quarter. EMC has refrained from giving Wall Street any guidance for the second half of the year. But when it came to talking about competitors, EMC executives were downright loquacious as they rattled off what they saw as faults in rivals such as International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news), Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news), Hitachi Data Systems and Network Appliance Inc. (NasdaqNM:NTAP - news). Tucci, for example, compared IBM's Shark storage device to the toy you get in a McDonald's Happy Meal. He said IBM is able to ship a growing number of Shark machines because they're thrown in with IBM's booming mainframe business. EMC executives are particularly sensitive to growing perception among some Wall Street analysts that rivals may be gaining ground on the company. Gross profit margin at EMC plunged, in part, during the second quarter as the company tried to budge stalled demand with deep discounts on data-storage hardware. EMC's information storage systems business shrank 19 percent in the second quarter to $1.22 billion as rivals gained audiences with customers living on slimmer storage budgets. Frank Hauck, EMC's head of sales and services, said market share, not price margin, is the top priority for his sales force. ``They are not allowed to lose a deal over price without my permission,'' Hauck said. ``... We're not playing for steak knives.'' A bright spot for EMC is software sales, which continues to account for a larger amount of EMC's overall revenue. And Tucci confirmed EMC will sell software that supports hardware made by competitors. Much of EMC's current software revenue is closely linked to its own storage devices. With a broader audience, EMC estimates 30 percent of its business will come from software sales in the near future. That's up from 23 percent recorded during the first half of this year, EMC Chief Financial Officer Bill Teuber said. EMC shares fell 82 cents, or 3.92 percent, to $20.08 in Thursday trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is off about 69 percent, underperforming the 7.90 percent decline in the S&P 500 Index.