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To: Les H who wrote (207908)	12/4/2002 4:29:12 PM
From: Secret_Agent_Man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

that's perfect....gotta be bullish...right?

To: Les H who wrote (207908)	12/4/2002 5:28:22 PM
From: who cares?	Respond to of 436258

I took my normal post market nap and had this nightmare that after closing down for the day, IBM halted and then stunk things up by announcing a 3billion charge just to even up the pension right now, forget that they still assuming 9% going forward for rate of return, while Mario Gabelli says markets only going to go up 8%.(idiot, lol, can't even beat IBM pension managers, what's he even doing in the business, lol.) At this point i was all smiles then my dream turned bad when IBM said don't worry, we're still going to make just as much as we said we would, trust us, and the market did and it unhalted and traded up. Good thing it was all a bad dream, nothing that bizarre could really happen.

To: Les H who wrote (207908)	12/4/2002 5:45:32 PM
From: reaper	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 436258

its perfectly obvious why they are doing this; standard IBM trash the balance sheet to make the P&L work ploy. they say in the press release that they are going to lower the return assumption from 9.5% to 8.0-8.5%. of course, lowering the return assumption lowers your income. but of course if you add money to the plan, then while you are lowering the return assumption, you are multiplying that return against a bigger plan, and thus walla your pension 'income' is not changed. quick math: IBM US plan assets right now are +/- $35 billion. 9.5% return times $35 billion is $3.325 billion in income. lower the return assumption to 8.5%, and whoops now suddenly we only have $2.975 billion in income from the plan, or $350mm missing earnings or about 12 cents a share after tax. BUT, add $3 billion to the plan, and then multiply the new 8.5% return times the new improved $38 billion asset level, and you have $3.230 billion in income from the pension, or essentially 'no change'. so what a beautiful world. IBM only has to spend $3 billion to have their EPS not change. unbelievable that the market lets these farkers get away with this carp. Cheers