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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hueyone who wrote (127152)	2/24/2003 8:48:54 PM
From: sal99	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Whatever the numbers, I'm confident they pale in comparison with the benefits their endeavors have provided employees, shareholders, San Diego (the opera in particular) and Korea economies, etc. These guys are great American heroes.

To: hueyone who wrote (127152)	2/25/2003 3:13:41 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Huey, I don't think the people I mentioned formed a kleptocracy. A kleptocracy exists where people don't have choice. QUALCOMM stock options have always been announced, published and been available for shareholders to value and account for in their valuation of the shares they consider buying. No kleptocracy was involved. I don't know about the details, but Irwin Jacobs has about $1 billion in value, which came from QUALCOMM. Whether it was via salary or stock options is irrelevant. $1 billion [give or take a bit] is how much he has which the shareholders don't. I don't think that's excessive when I consider the total value and his contribution. I think it's generous enough. There were lots of other people who contributed highly creative achievement. Irwin is much like the conductor in an orchestra - he has a significant impact on the overall performance, especially if he has selected and created the orchestra and even written some of the music. Klein, Andy, engineer and others contributed a lot too and received value in pay and options. Since the current shareholders have about $30 billion in market capitalisation at a P:E around 30:1, it's reasonably in balance in my opinion compared with paid in capital. As a long time shareholder, I'm happy enough with the return on my capital inputs. We capitalists normally expect something like 10% on our money for fairly low risk stuff and 30% for fairly high risk stuff. We bid against each other and buy shares according to our judgement of the risk levels. Nobody had their arms twisted. John Shannon is holding out for a better deal because he thinks the employees are getting away with too much of the value via share options. Other capitalists are currently outbidding him. We wait to see whether he or they are right. We will find out. At $40 a share, I figure my shares are about fairly priced. Which is why I'm not selling, nor buying more. I want some of the smoke to clear over Iraq, the USA deficits, Japan's financial stability, South Korea, China/Taiwan, the USA and global adaptation to the Y2K bust. Mqurice