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Technology Stocks : Atmel - the trend is about to change -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John McDonald who wrote (13405)	5/14/2004 12:46:51 AM
From: tech101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13565

Re: Atmel intuition/shareholder meeting by: skeeter207 (M/Cupertino, CA) 05/13/04 01:40 pm Msg: 197000 of 197094 <<<<Volume's up, price is down, but my intuition is that today is turnaround day. Heavy selling seeking buyers, and a turnaround in the price, also on heavy volume, later today. We may even end up for the day. Wishful thinking? Yes. Hard facts for such a view? No.>>>> Triton, I attended yesterday's annual shareholders' meeting at Atmel in San Jose. Just a skip hop and a jump from my home and was the first time for me after several years of owning this stock. Just wanted to see if George Perlegos was as hard to understand in person as on a conference call over the internet. Just kidding, but trust me he is. You know, after listening to the big mucky mucks yesterday, I am convinced they are on the right path to recovery and was particularly impressed with how the new CFO Fran Barton handles himself, but bottom line by George's own admission when I asked during the shareholder question/answer portion of the meeting, Asics, and flash memory represent something like 35% and 25% of their total business which right now are barely making money in the former and according to Perlegos not expected to reach breakeven until this summer in the latter. No wonder the analysts and institutional fund managers are still reluctant to make a big commitment just yet. When I introduced myself to Mr. Barton as a shareholder at the conclusion of the meeting. I asked him if he really thought a two cent eps qtrly return was ever going to be enough to interest the powers that be at Wall Street. I liked his response in which he essentially implied his style was to not make big predictions in advance but to hopefully consistently surprise on the positive side. He said further, he could be happy with another quarter of 2 or 3 cent earnings as long as sales and revenues continued to trend up. That's what they were promising yesterday would be happening the rest of this calendar year, with the usual attendant safe harbor disclaimers. Again, bottom line, if and when Atmel is able to move their two biggest divisions into healthy margins over a sustained period beyond just a quarter or two then we'll see that surge in share price we have all been painfully waiting for for the past few years. Hell, even their consumer business and automotive products are growing. Perlegos and Barton both claim the company is on track to carry the current momentum cycle well into 2005. I hope they are right. If nothing else I've got to say these guys sure do know how to put out a spread for shareholders although I suspect most of the attendees were employees. I've been to weddings and barmitzvahs where there wasn't the variety or as much food. $10 dollar contest or no contest, hopefully we'll be there and beyond by the end of the year. Skeeter