Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (14423)	10/21/2002 1:49:31 PM
From: Killswitch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

If you block out the brightest stars like MSFT, DELL, etc. and take a look around at the vast majority of tech companies, it is hard to find any that are calling a turn here in IT spending. Even biggies like IBM were unable to give 2003 guidance... many others guiding for even tougher times potentially, and many companies like INTC, AMD, SUNW, etc. continuing to cut capex. What I see is that earnings appear to have been stabilizing, but this is more due to cost cutting by companies... and a theme I've heard from some of them in this quarter's reports is that they are running out of costs to cut. So we really appear to be in a dicey situation at the moment... if things weaken a bit more then profits are going to start taking bigger hits. If IT spending picks up then we should see a nice turn upwards in profits. Which will it be?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (14423)	10/21/2002 2:45:42 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

<<...I'm not arguing that point really. I just think things are stabilizing and starting to improve in the tech arena barely. And during this recession msft has gained major mindshare in the enterprise imo (not that I'm happy about that btw). For example in 2000 we thought .NET was a dead dog. Now, SEBL is co-developing on it. It means msft will move up the food chain, and enterprise apps have a costly maintenance component which msft is going to start to benefit from. This new pricing strategy is the start of that, imo. It doesn't matter that nobody likes it...>> Lizzie: Good points...Never underestimate the power of the Gorilla - Microsoft (they are a legal monopoly with incredible influence and almost $40 Billion in cash)...=)