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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lee who wrote (50549)	7/22/2002 4:58:31 AM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

What is his alternative, and would he really take that alternative just because it is a grouchy task he would rather not do? I don't think so. I don't see what it means for a CEO to sign off on financial statements. The CEO already bears ultimate responsibility for financial statements regardless of what he signs or doesn't sign. Nobody believes the crooks who feign ignorance when they testify before congress...their finger pointing and shoulder shrugging was the butt of jokes. How deep in the process does a CEO have to get before his signature carries the same amount of weight as a full-time CFO that manages a huge part of company operations? How much time does he have to spend? What does a CEO's personal certification of reports that are distilled from reams of detailed documents actually mean, in terms of justifying opportunity costs of other demands on his time? I believe McNealy is an honest manager who has built both his company and his not inconsiderable reputation as a management thinker by hiring honest subordinates. As a shareholder, it would be an understatement to say that I don't care whether he signs an income statement that has already been signed by the CFO he chose, especially if that signature cost him days or weeks of reviewing trivia (and once again, if it doesn't cost him that kind of time, then what does the signature mean?). As a shareholder, I would accuse McNealy of wasting his expensive and valuable time. If they need to stop doing pro forma, then all he has to do is say to the CFO, "Stop doing pro-forma, and show me the next report before it goes out." --QS