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To: Earlie who wrote (180965)7/18/2002 12:25:33 AM
From: the_wheel  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 436258
 
Earlie,

I am mad as hell and close to losing it WTF should I do. I was going to buy 86 poots on DOWn but did not believe it was possible, so now am sitting on my cAsHH with no prospecsts and my old lady is giving me, well you know that financial problems generate lots of social problems, I just don knot what to do? Seems like loser, no matter what card is dealt. I was born on wednesday, she is taurus, wtf? Help?

PS I am sending this to you because you are a nice person, I know if I sent it to Luc he would boot me to you know where and maybe back. I am at the end of my ropes and gosh what is a poor boy to do? I dont have a time machine liek some peplese clsaimes to have evspecially that dood what makes 10% every day or oso. Yes, I am gullibel but not stuPid.

Sorry for long post but as mayge you can determintes I am what shwatell we say disgrtauightlkj MY father was a stands up guy us we are wimps what else is to be said?

PS those posts that qpoelpes quiotes form YHOO about losintg thier assex well, I wuse to kgthink it wat just bS totally but now I gurs MGANERS TLANDEV is sayingt bene ofer no t pleses but neccessarilly, and it do dnot fiil so good.

I am say saying to youse sclowns to GHIYYYYUY , I measns IGGGDFY Y sand in theASZZZZXZXXXXXx FGYIUNG TGH AZZZ GFYI you aszheolse-. O sbeem uputetting and now i am comeplesesey boroke nn OI I MEANS NOW WHAAT?? g

UNklie Franks adis buyi jukes gortitlla damesn dchim;plsx dusbles stocks cusck nesgte pas?

VBolstiaires asys andgles says calls 7 89t65 srtreike prices on rambos or whatwsservert alsisli go and go linglong and set stirek 9900 above cureent prive and 2 mos. borward. witll return 9923894r230993r49023% of couts cna be bakfrnrupt afterwarys.

POS this isi mai,meing bOGTTomeS you seeto boOOTnmewlss?
WLLLl lookE ast B OgtttoOOOmess.

I tsee fobobottmotmses now IJI campeothinauulates.
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To: Earlie who wrote (180965)7/18/2002 8:06:52 AM
From: orkrious  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 436258
 
A (Kitchen) Sinking Feeling at IBM

By Peter Eavis
Special to TheStreet.com
07/17/2002 08:47 PM EDT
thestreet.com

The kitchen-sink charge was a trusty '90s tool for managing earnings, and it should've died with that decade, along with business-to-business exchanges, Zip drives and the Backstreet Boys.

So what to make of the big charge IBM (IBM:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) took in the second quarter of 2002?

IBM earnings, released Wednesday after the close, appeared to exceed by a penny the Wall Street consensus estimate of 83 cents a share. But results were muddied by $2.1 billion in "incremental charges" in the quarter that made the true earnings at the tech giant almost impossible to assess.

Investors groaned when, earlier this year, IBM announced it was going to take this charge, which covers the expenses of realigning its microelectronics business, laying off workers and selling its disk drive operations. The fear with big charges like this is that operating expenses that used to be included in Street earnings get piled into a charge investors are expected to net out. Results from the discontinued operations were included in the 84-cent number.

The spin IBM execs have put on the charge is curious. Company officials say that some of the measures that the charge is based on will enable the company to meet the consensus earnings forecast for 2002 of $3.98. That implies IBM would be missing earnings if it hadn't taken these measures.

Of course, IBM says it's merely being proactive in taking steps to shore up ongoing margins. And, yes, investors do need to track normalized earnings. But investors would be better served by looking at results with and without charges.

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How Big Blue Plans to Squeak Through

We might be able to leave this discussion right there -- at a stalemate. But Wednesday, IBM said it was going to increase the range of the charge by a half-billion dollars -- to $2.5 billion to $3 billion, from $2 billion to $2.5 billion. The increase is because IBM now thinks it will have to take a bigger writedown when it sells its hard disk-drive operations. Fair enough. But any time a charge starts to grow in size, investors need to be really cautious.

Due to this very sort of noise in IBM earnings, investors also need to look at cash-flow measures. But the company gives no useful cash-flow figures in its earnings release. The cash flow data in the second-quarter release for the first half don't track at all with cash-flow statements included in the first-quarter Securities and Exchange Commission filing. As a result, it's impossible to update Detox's free cash-flow analysis of IBM.

IBM's stock is more than 40% below its 52-week high because investors are worried about earnings power at Big Blue. In light of nearly opaque earnings releases like this, it's no wonder.