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Technology Stocks : Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PCSS who wrote (434)	5/16/2002 9:54:05 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4345

Sun Micro: Corner Turned in Asia, with China's Help Thu May 16, 8:25 AM ET By Edwin Chan SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems, which has been fighting for months to grab a larger share of shrinking spending on information technology, says it has finally turned the corner in Asia. After a dismal year for tech firms when Sun struggled to move its servers, even in booming China, the U.S. maker of high-end computers that run corporate networks expects sales to rise over the rest of 2002, a senior executive said on Thursday. Things are looking brighter for Sun virtually across the region from China, Sun's second-biggest Asian market, to Southeast Asia and Australia, said Jay Puri, Sun's U.S.-based Asia-Pacific vice president. To add icing on the cake, Puri said Sun is beginning to pick up customers from Hewlett Packard (news - web sites) as the U.S. computer giant merges with former rival Compaq (news - web sites). "Particularly this quarter in Asia, I'm starting to sense that the overall climate is strengthening, the size of deals are increasing, and the pipeline is looking better," Puri told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a Sun-sponsored seminar. "Japan is the only geography (for us) that is in a little bit of a downturn," he said. Quickening activity may not translate into actual business until the next one or two quarters, Puri said. Perched comfortably on a sofa in his 25th floor hotel suite overlooking Shanghai's bustling financial district, he said Sun and other IT vendors are zeroing in on China, which accounts for nearly a third of all spending on servers in the Asia-Pacific. OPERATORS, START FOCUSING Chinese firms are investing more on IT, even though their IT spending on average is just one percent of revenue compared with U.S. firms' 4-5 percent, he said. And the increasingly competitive telecoms sector also offers ample opportunities, Puri said. "Obviously China is the brightest spot," he said. "As China becomes a global manufacturing powerhouse... the only way they can do that is by aggressively using IT to become more efficient." "We never saw our business here decline that much." Sun is also poised to ride an anticipated jump in China's network infrastructure spending in the medium term, Puri said. China delayed part of a rapid infrastructure roll-out this year as it raced to complete a telecoms sector overhaul and break-up of its monopoly carrier, culminating on Thursday in the launch of two new operators, China Telecom and China Netcom. The newly created competition means operators will soon have to start spending again, he said. Industry experts see renewed spending from the second half of 2002 to early 2003. "The restructuring actually defocused the organization over the past few months and we did see a slowdown in our business," Puri said. "Now that it's been done, I'm hopeful that the spending will pick up... They need to invest to be competitive." While a regional recovery bodes well for IT vendors, Sun may see gains from another source: the merger (news - web sites) between HP and Compaq. Puri says HP and Compaq customers, worried that products they are using would be dropped by the new entity, have approached Sun to discuss switching loyalties. "HP and Compaq combined means one less competitor for Sun," he said. More from > Technology - Reuters Next Story: Siemens Says to License Nokia Phone Software Thu May 16, 7:48 AM ET - (Reuters)

To: PCSS who wrote (434)	5/16/2002 1:03:20 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 4345

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ - News): Still 3 STARS [hold] Analyst: Megan Graham-Hackett The company reported April quarter operating EPS of $0.25 vs. $0.17, in line with the Wall Street mean estimate. However, revenues, at $10.6 billion [down 9%], were below expectations of $11.1 billion. The revenue decline was offset by better than expected gross margin of 28.7% vs. 25.3%, aided by growth in supplies. Revenue declines were led by weakness in computing systems [because of stiff pricing and weak IT spending] and embedded/ personal systems. Printing & imaging sales were roughly flat. H-P left guidance for its June analyst meeting. At 15 times our fiscal 2003 [ending October] EPS estimate of $1.38, and with the company facing challenges to its profitability in the enterprise market and merger risks, they merit a hold rating. Go to www.businessweek.com to see all of our latest stories.

To: PCSS who wrote (434)	5/16/2002 3:20:49 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4345

Is there even a remote possibility that HPQ will unlock some value to the shareholders by spinning off one division or another... pcs, imaging, storage, etc. or is that too much to hope for??? El

To: PCSS who wrote (434)	5/16/2002 7:59:27 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 4345

Reuters makes push into Linux-based market software SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 (Reuters) - News and information provider Reuters Group Plc said (London:RTR.L - News) on Thursday it would offer customers the alternative of running its market-data delivery system on Linux, in a bet that banks and brokerages will shift trading to the upstart Linux software. Reuters said it would team up with Linux software developer Red Hat Inc. (NasdaqNM:RHAT - News), computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (PHD) and chipmaker Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) to produce the software used to hook up real-time news and data for financial institutions. HP said in a separate statement it expected the alliance would generate more than $200 million in sales over the next three to five years. The figure includes sales of Hewlett-Packard's Intel-based line of ProLiant-brand servers -- which HP acquired with its purchase of Compaq Computer -- and revenue from follow-on technical services that it supplies to Reuters customers. An initial version of the new Linux-based software, called Reuters Market Data System, is expected to be ready for testing in the third quarter, Reuters said. The Reuters' software is a mechanism for delivering information like stock and bond quotes and news to users in various parts of a financial institution and across the Internet. Financial institutions typically buy such software and pay a subscription for the news and data that it integrates. Until now, major banks and brokerages have tended to experiment with Linux, using the operating system to run peripheral systems like Web servers or internal Web-based networks, said Mark Hunt, director of enterprise marketing for Reuters. But more recently, some have become interested in shifting to Linux for the servers and desk-top computers that run the crucial operations of real-time trading, in large part because of the potential to cut costs, Hunt said. If that market develops for Linux develops, it would stand to benefit both HP and Intel, which compete with Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - News) to provide the computer hardware and chips for such complex corporate networks. Sun systems principally run on Unix, a long-established business software system that faces mounting competition from Linux-based alternatives. Reuters' existing market-data software largely runs on Sun computer systems, Hunt said. Reuters said it would work with HP, Intel and Red Hat to test and develop the market software for Linux. The service would run on HP servers with Intel's Xeon and Itanium chips, the company said. Investment bank Morgan Stanley called Linux an "important evolutionary platform" and said Reuters' decision to support the standard was important to our efforts and .. strategic to Morgan Stanley."

To: PCSS who wrote (434)	5/17/2002 9:18:57 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4345

Bear Stearns sees potential PC price war by: iamlonghpq (48/M/boston, MA) 05/17/02 09:11 am Msg: 133915 of 133915 08:34 ET Bear Stearns sees potential PC price war : In Bear Stearns' Ripple Effect, analyst Andy Neff says that there is an increasing probability of a PC price war this spring/summer due to: seasonally soft demand, increasing component availability of DRAM and Pentium 4s, high consumer inventory at HPQ, and an increasing focus on market share over profitability as indicated by recent HPQ comments. Presents short-term margin risk to DELL, but plays to its strength; offers more challenges to GTW; says PCs not critical to HPQ results.