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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Knipschield who wrote (7066)	9/6/2003 9:13:21 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Respond to of 25522

his initial story about that mysterious founder who lost his company to the preferred shareholders is fairly common, I agree. What Cringely omits is the reason why you have preferred shareholders in the first place, which often are VC or some others brought in to "revive" a mismanaged company and get it away from the founder. Cisco systems might have even been a case like that, when Chambers took the company from 2 founders from Stanford. Thank god for cheating in business.

To: Dale Knipschield who wrote (7066)	9/7/2003 9:38:49 AM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

Heavy article, Dale. Thanks for posting it. I would strongly recommend The Autodesk File fourmilab.ch to anyone interested in the software industry. Excerpt: [T]he software business is unique. The combination of minimal capital spending requirements, the extremely high operating margins that result from successful software products, low up-front investment to develop and launch a product, and the inability to predict which products will succeed among a large number of potential products combine to define an industry which behaves, both as seen by management inside and by analysts and investors examining operating result aggregates outside, unlike any well-known model. ibid., The New Technological Corporation While Walker's description may have some validity at the launch phase, I think Cary's description ["I don't invest in software. I believe barriers to entry are small, market saturation occurs quickly, marginal costs approach zero, and replacement cycles grow very long." Message 19278392] is more valid in the post-IPO period and sounds a proper cautionary note for potential investors. By the way, can anyone provide a citation to where Trotsky said "You may not be interested in strategy. But strategy is interested in you"?