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Technology Stocks : Nortel Networks (NT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Paquet who wrote (11744)	9/6/2001 3:33:39 PM
From: rrufff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14638

Hi John, I've been following the debate between you and Rob. I was wondering if you have a rationale for a turn around other than a return to speculative fever of 2-3 years ago? Hasn't NT basically cooked its own goose by wasting money on its CEO (wouldn't a few hundred million help about now?), acquisitions of inflated companies with inflated stock to the tune that there are now over 3 billion shares, and huge amounts of debt? I really would like to see an optimists argument but even if the economy turns around, it takes a lot of revenue to produce the earnings (after interest on that huge debt) that divided by the number of shares comes to any meaningful number. As far as a takeout, who would have the resources to take on the huge debt and what would be gained? CSCO can buy upstart technology a lot cheaper. The only argument I could see for CSCO would be in bragging rights for defeating its arch rival. Not a good business reason and probably not enough to get by antitrust arguments. How about MSFT? or INTC or NOK. I am trying to stretch to find a company with good balance sheet that would take on the debt, the culture and the rapidly decreasing equity of NT.

To: John Paquet who wrote (11744)	9/6/2001 5:07:55 PM
From: Stocker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14638

JP, you've talked several times about the Fed and Bush's tax cuts. Both have little to do with what NT needs for a turnaround. What NT really needs is a group of customers who can straighten out their balance sheets and start charging prices for their services where they actually start making money. The capital spending on networks that NT needs is hardly influenced by tax cuts or lower rates. NT's problems are secular, not cyclical. If you truly believe NT will benefit big from those two things you're in the wrong stock. Maybe INTC or WMT or MER, but not NT.