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To: yard_man who wrote (198745)	10/20/2002 10:59:19 PM
From: Earlie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Tip: IBM has done all of us a favour. Not often one gets so many chances to ride the same toboggan down the same hill. (g) I will also load the boat up again on Sears if they give us another day or two of rally. Best, Earlie

To: yard_man who wrote (198745)	10/21/2002 7:01:14 AM
From: stan_hughes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

One thing about IBM I have not seen mentioned yet but should be clearly evident to anyone involved in business valuations is that services never deserve or get the types of multiples you would assign to a manufacturing business. That's primarly because there's nowhere near the leverage in re-billing employeee time and materials out that there is in producing finished goods from physical plant. I don't really care how solid the service contracts are, they still expire eventually and that limits the franchise value -- nobody pays big bucks for businesses like that. Any M&A person would be acutely aware of such things and mark my words, you will see IBM's multiple erode over the years as they continue down the service revenue path