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Technology Stocks : IBM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike M2 who wrote (7480)	3/5/2002 6:51:53 PM
From: Arrow Hd.	Respond to of 8218

William, I certainly respect your opinion of Fred Hickey but I still have not seen any examples cited by any of these folks that would cause me undue alarm. For instance, the pension assumptions come up and it is true that this has been abused by many companies in the past but IBM's assumptions were abysmally low for many years and the pension fund was very over-funded. So if it can be pointed out quantitatively that it is no longer over-funded with regards to its current and future liabilities and the current return assumptions are out of line with annual returns of diversified portfolios then I would agree that this should be a concern but all I ever hear is general issues, never specifics. I am aware of how difficult it is to drag info out of IBM or from its SEC filings but there are a few analysts who actually worked there as very high ranking financial executives and even with Reg FD these guys can wind their way through the business better than even a very thorough person like Fred Hickey. FWIW, my concern is revenue growth and FASB 142. Thanks for taking the time to post about Fred Hickey and if he is this good I certainly would be interested in what he is long at this point as long as it is public info.