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To: T L Comiskey who wrote (112052)	2/2/2002 9:04:10 AM
From: limtex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

TLC - Yes Saw it. Actually there may be some justification on prf-forma reporting where there is a solidly growing economy and occasional items could be excluded. But in this environment where the the economy is in recession and still heading south these kind of annoucnements stick out like a sore thumb. Once again another sign of recession going headlogn into depression. The increase in bankrupcies the size of the bankruptcies, the reducing number of employed, the return of big volatility, gloomy views of big players like INTC and MSFT. And the constant reminders that the economy is goign to rebound in the 2nd half. Those are clear signs of an impending depression. Best, L Best, L

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (112052)	2/3/2002 9:32:34 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Re : comparing reported losses ("pro forma" and "reported to shareholders via headline") -- One thing that I have NEVER seen discussed is the following : Company A and company B are both high-flying, well-liked (in the years 1999 and 2000, anyway) high tech companies. Company A happens to take over company B (in an all stock transaction) some time while the share prices of both companies are quite high (and, the perception is that the high tech business sector is great). Things change. All high tech stock prices fall dramatically, and the high tech business sector is now perceived as bad. My idea / observation / question / query -- it seems to me that : It is ONLY because company A merged with company B that we are forced to hear about these ridiculously large pro-forma earnings losses. If company B had remained independent, it would still have suffered a massive collapse in its share price, but ... as an independent company, would NOT have triggered a huge write-off in earnings. (I am aware that (independent) company B might have done some weird "re-structuring" type announcements, and thus created some massive non-cash (?), incomprehensible to the ordinary person "losses." But ... I still think that the magnitude of NASDAQ 100 companies "pro forma" earnings report losses would have been profoundly lower if not for the mergers that happened to take place ... ) Comments, please ? (And, please feel free to re-post this some other place on SI where there are people that can explain accounting to "mere mortals"). Jon.