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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D.J.Smyth who wrote (171002)	9/27/2002 1:19:48 PM
From: kemble s. matter	Respond to of 176387

DJ, Hi!! I compliment you on your precise and honestly written facts...I would refer to the locker room jargon or version...DELL has honesty kicked the #@%$&* out of the competition for many many many years...They have marched down the field numerous times pouring through the red zone and held their opponents scoreless (they others don't make money..STILL!)...It's simple...Tell me how someone's gonna stop Michael's visions and direct model? I'm from Missouri...Show me... They aren't selling tires yet DJ... :o) Best, Kemble

To: D.J.Smyth who wrote (171002)	9/27/2002 7:09:16 PM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Hey D.J., some comments from the guy everyone loved to trash two years ago (the esteemed Bill Fleckenstein) when they should have paid attention <ggg>... Regards, John Dell Who? What, When Where, Why: Now for a look at the news, where lately The Wall Street Journal seems to have so many weak articles worth noting. Let's begin with "How EDS Rolled the Dice and Lost." Yes, the company lost a couple hundred million dollars, and yes, it probably shouldn't have gotten itself into this position, vis-a-vis its exposure to puts. But EDS has closed out its liability. Meantime, I don't recall seeing an article in the Journal about how Dell rolled the dice and lost. Dell still has a potential liability of more than $1 billion, and will almost certainly lose at least $500 million on its put exposure. The Speculation Siphon: I might also point out that in the last three years, Dell's stock-buying operations have reduced retained earnings by about $2.5 billion, such that retained earnings have swung from $1.3 billion two years ago to negative $1.2 billion today. Said differently, every dime Dell has made in the PC business (plus an additional $1.2 billion), it has lost speculating in its own stock. And yet, this company is held up as the ultimate in high-quality management. If there was a story to do on the subject of monkeying around in the stock market and causing yourself grief, Dell ought to be the poster boy, not EDS. ..... Pentium Psoriasis: Moving to the whatever-could-have-possessed-us department, I'd like to spend a moment on another Journal article titled "Tech Companies Itch to Shed VC Portfolios," which looks at outfits that are walking away from the venture-capital business. Included in this group is Intel, whose venture-capital portfolio has shrunk to $1.46 billion from $10.8 billion at the peak. But what the article doesn't mention is that at the height of the mania, Intel had the hubris to include its portfolio gains as part of operating earnings. Forthcoming and Going: At the time, I remember screaming and yelling about how absurd that was, but it didn't stop Intel from playing this game. Now that Intel's gains have turned into losses, I notice that it doesn't feel compelled to reflect this fact on its income statement. Likewise, the point is nowhere to be found in the pages of a prominent business daily. So, here is just another example of a company that's perceived to be "high-quality" slinking off from a sleazy practice embraced during the mania, and receiving a pass for its efforts.