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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RR who wrote (44634)	12/1/2001 6:04:29 PM
From: RR	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 65232

The past 10 weeks or so I've been from one end of this nation to the other. Been on the road a lot. I'v been in a lot of different plant facilities, visited with a lot of managers out there where the rubber meets the road, as the ole saying goes. I got to ask a lot of questions about their operations, and see things first hand. I'd say that the vast majority are planning on increasing production towards the end of the second quarter. Most of the seasoned field managers that have gone through such cycles before did not seem alarmed necessarily. They view this time as a period when they can cut personnel, make machinery modifications, bring in some newer equipment for the lines, etc. and essentially do some things that they would not normally do during regular production. In fact, I saw numerous rebuilds, retrofits, and new lines going in, at several facilities. Many managers told me that their operations will be better, that they will come back leaner, more efficient, and more productive. While times are hard for them, they felt that their forecasting models have a recovery within 6 months. This is just some general observations from me talking with numerous management personnel in a variety of businesses first hand, especially out in the plants themselves. FYI. RR

To: RR who wrote (44634)	12/2/2001 10:32:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

AT&T clients lose Net access 760,000 customers without high-speed connection Posted at 10:32 p.m. PST Saturday, Dec. 1, 2001 BY JOELLE TESSLER Mercury News More than 760,000 AT&T customers were left without high-speed Internet connections after At Home shut off service to AT&T -- its controlling shareholder and largest customer -- early Saturday. AT&T, which relied on At Home's network to provide cable-modem service to about 850,000 customers, has been rushing to build its own network and has vowed to restore service to all customers within 10 days. AT&T said it already has moved about 86,000 customers in Oregon and Washington state to the new network. But in the Bay Area -- where AT&T is the primary cable-modem service -- customers will be out of service until at least Tuesday. AT&T said it will take until Saturday to move all Bay Area customers to its new system. The company did not disclose how many customers it has in the Bay Area. Customers will receive two days of free service for each day of interruption, AT&T said. That did little to placate many subscribers, who woke on Saturday without an online connection. ``AT&T needs to help me understand why I should stay with them and why I should pay money for bad service,'' said Robyn Braverman, a Fremont resident and At Home customer for four years. At Home's decision to pull the plug on AT&T came after a San Francisco bankruptcy court judge ruled Friday that the Redwood City company, which filed for Chapter 11 in late September, could terminate money-losing agreements with cable companies that use its network. At Home and its creditors, which have been pushing the company to negotiate new contracts, were in negotiations with cable companies late Friday. Although the discussions with AT&T ultimately broke down, At Home is still in talks with Cox, Comcast, Insight, Mediacom and Rogers, and it is providing service to them. Although Cox and Comcast have said they plan to leave the At Home system, neither is ready to abandon it, because they do not have alternative systems. ``Cox, Comcast and the others still appear to be negotiating in good faith,'' said Martin Bienenstock, an attorney with Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the New York law firm representing At Home's bondholders. He said AT&T was offering At Home significantly less money than the other companies. Saturday's developments make it increasingly unlikely that AT&T will pursue its proposed purchase of At Home's network -- further threatening At Home's already shaky prospects. AT&T, which owns 23 percent of At Home's shares and has a 74 percent voting stake, offered $307 million for the network when At Home first filed for bankruptcy. That deal has been vehemently opposed by At Home's unsecured creditors, who are owed about $1.3 billion and would recoup almost none of that if the deal goes through. They allege that AT&T used its control over At Home to negotiate a bargain price. ``It doesn't look like AT&T wants to do a deal, and we wonder if we ever really had a deal,'' said Rebecca Litteneker, an attorney with the San Francisco law firm McNutt & Litteneker, which represents At Home's trade creditors. AT&T's Internet customers said they felt largely forgotten in all the wrangling. ``What they fail to realize is that people are beginning to depend on the Internet the way they rely on the phone,'' said Bob Pearse, a Saratoga resident who headed to his office at Hewlett-Packard on Saturday to do online shopping. Many customers said they feel as though they have few other choices. Waits for access to digital subscriber lines from Pacific Bell can be long, and customers who live too far from the phone company's central office cannot get the service. Dial-up connections are often not an option for those used to the speeds of broadband access. ``I think people who say they will go elsewhere will find that there really isn't anything else out there,'' said Steve Lemke, a Sunnyvale subscriber. ____________________________________________ It's all about money... AT&T is TOO CHEAP and does not seem to be willing to spend the money required to provide consistent service to it's customers. Cox and other leading cable firms have not cut customers off abruptly. AT&T's brand, reputation, and market share will suffer...The financial gurus are trying to make the decisions at AT&T rather than those that truly understand the lifetime value of a healthy customer relationship. Just my views. Regards, Scott