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.

Technology Stocks : IBM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (8022)	12/9/2004 1:53:34 PM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8218

Growth Report Free growthreport.com Volume 4, Issue 92 December 9, 2004 ======================= The Good, the Bad and the Ugly As IBM sells off more of itself, the consequences are greater than most investors realize. Wall Street can be an emotionally weird place. What often is seen as good for business is just as often bad for people – what is deemed good for shareholders is actually just a smokescreen for what’s convenient for insiders and profitable for management. Corporate strategy, on its face, can turn disaster into a field of daisies. But turn it upside down and flip it inside out, give it a little time to simmer, and it’s still disaster. I’m wondering if this isn’t the ultimate consequence of IBM’s impending decision to off its PC business – the cheers from Wall Street analysts in the loge seats notwithstanding. According to its corporate playbook, if all goes well this week, IBM (NYSE: IBM) will be up to $2 billion richer and at least one personal computer business smaller. In its bid to shed itself of lower margin divisions that have dragged at its valuation in favor of higher margin software and services offerings, Big Blue will finally exit an industry it helped form more than 20 years ago. The company had already decided to dump its memory chip and storage businesses in the late 90’s, and sold its PC production operations in the United States to contract manufacturer Sanmina-SCI two years ago. It has since relied on outsourced contractors such as Taiwan's Wistron and Quanta Computer for PC desktop and notebook production. If it now offloads the rest of its PC business to what is apparently at least one Chinese suitor, Hong Kong-based Lenovo Group Ltd., it will rid itself of not only little black boxes but will leave behind most of its contact with individual consumers, not to mention a good chunk of its employees. From a business strategy standpoint and according to Harvard MBAs (and their professors) this is all good stuff. Analysts applaud it, and if it’s the bottom line we’re looking at, who could argue with Big Blue’s moves? The problem, of course, is that such decisions have consequences – and even those consequences have consequences. The first is that all of those displaced workers who used to enjoy good livings putting IBMs PC business on the map have now found their middle-class livelihoods enjoyed by Chinese, Japanese, and Indian counterparts. Our loss is their gain – that’s life and that’s globalization. Yet, the further consequences are more worrisome, and have implications that should not be lost on investors. The problems that arise when companies such as IBM ditch billion dollar businesses – selling them off as easily as pez dispensers on eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) – are that multiple industries take a hit. Parts suppliers and benefits contractors lose out. Retail businesses in once healthy communities suffer. Even what should have once been fully funded pension funds suddenly come up half empty. This isn’t a liberal lament on the evils of outsourcing – it’s a legitimate concern regarding the financial health and well-being of all other publicly traded companies that find their bottom lines hurting when Americans lose their jobs. Retail sales suffer and Christmas holiday shopping takes a turn for the worse. Home builders, contractors, building supply companies, mortgage brokers and financial services providers find themselves pinched. Then, though they appear either oblivious or surprised, politicians and state government officials find that tax revenues fall and the costs of social services rise. Watch it happen more than a couple of times and, in aggregate, top line growth of US companies will suffer. Don’t believe me? Here’s some data. According to a forecast of participants at a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, U.S. economic growth is expected to slow in 2005 due to rising interest rates and high crude oil prices. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is now forecast at 3.3 percent, down from a projected 4.4 percent this year, with the housing sector seen peaking given rising interest rates. Though investors might not see it – and Wall Street might not wish to -- there is clearly a direct line to be drawn between IBM shedding businesses and GDP forecasts continuing to slide. Take a big chunk of business – and all of the feeder micro-economies tied to it – out of the equation, and we’ve lost far more than one IBM business unit. I got a taste of this firsthand while visiting the Pacific Northwest last week – an area they used to call the ‘silicon forest.’ A special place that held some of the greatest firepower of American manufacturing when it came to producing wafers for the semiconductor industry. Guys made their livelihoods up there as the middle class boomed off silicon production. That was before high tech took a dive and many of those wafer manufacturers closed up shop and moved back to factories in Asia. Now, the excitement that marked the early days of wafer manufacturing is gone. And so, too, are other growth businesses that fed off that industry’s success. Housing prices have slumped and retail has flat-lined. Car and truck sales are weak – see GMs (NYSE: GM) latest sales disaster– and the Home Depots (NYSE: HD) and Wal-Marts (NYSE: WMT) of the world find themselves challenged to meet sales goals. None of this should matter, of course, to IBM -- or to its plans to sell off its PC business. Times change and a company has to protect its profit margins and bottom line. But instead of cheering Big Blue’s decision, if I were a Wall Street economist I’d be far more concerned as to the critical aftermath such decisions leave behind and just how many other companies it will impact. Because when IBM sells off yet another piece of an industry it, and it alone, helped create, it is slowly selling off parts of other American businesses and households which relied so heavily upon it. And as investors are quickly finding out, that has implications far beyond IBM’s stock price next quarter. Peter D. Henig Market Columnist Growth Report

To: Kirk © who wrote (8022)	3/22/2005 10:27:03 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8218

IBM Introduces New Weapons in the Fight against Spam Tuesday March 22, 9:24 am ET IBM's Global Business Security Monthly Index Shows Decrease in Spam from January to February ARMONK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2005-- IBM today introduced new anti-spam technology to help companies reduce the cost and security risks associated with spam and make existing spam filtering solutions more effective. Dealing with spam is costing businesses a significant amount of time, money and system resources. In addition to loss of workforce productivity, spam has become a vehicle for identity theft and propagating viruses and worms that can be devastating to company reputations and IT systems. Developed by IBM and dubbed FairUCE ("Fair use of Unsolicited Commercial Email"), the new technology helps filter and block spam by analyzing the domain identity of an email -- using built-in identity management capabilities at the network level. FairUCE is able to establish the legitimacy of an e-mail message by linking it back to its origin -- thereby establishing a relationship between an e-mail domain, e-mail address and the computer from which is was sent. Since IP addresses are fixed and cannot be changed, FairUCE can identify if the messages are arriving from a zombie computer, bot device or legitimate email server. Unlike spam filters, which identify spam by scanning the content of every email message entering the network, FairUCE blocks and eliminates spam from spammers who assume false identities to hide who they really are. The new solution effectively minimizes the growing threats of phishing and spoofing - tactics used to trick people into disclosing information that can lead to identity theft. Content filtering also heavily taxes IT systems, siphoning off bandwidth used for business needs. IBM's new FairUCE spam technology can help customers identify potentially harmful traffic much earlier -- before it affects their networks. The February IBM Global Business Security Index -- the monthly report that measures the global security threat landscape -- found that spam has actually decreased from 83.11 percent in January to 76.3 percent in February -- a decrease of seven percent.(1) Despite the decrease, spam continues to be a major headache and tax on IT staffs worldwide. "Spam has become a high priority security issue for businesses today," said Stuart McIrvine, director of corporate security strategy, IBM. "By creating a multi-layered defense that proactively repels spam at its source, companies can get ahead of spammers and malicious hackers who are always looking for new ways of penetrating IT systems through email." Highlights from IBM's Global Business Security Index report for February 2005: Spam -- during February, IBM Security Intelligence Services found that 1 in every 1.3 (or 76.0 per cent) emails was identified and intercepted as spam, and 1 in every 46.1 (or 2.2 per cent) emails was stopped for carrying a virus, trojan or other malicious content. Microsoft vulnerabilities -- on February 8, Microsoft announced a number of vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, and other applications. One of the most serious vulnerabilities announced was in the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol used by most Windows systems. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker could trick the user into visiting a malicious URL or could also send malicious SMB traffic to vulnerable systems. IBM recommends businesses use patches to fix the vulnerabilities. Malware outbreaks -- in February, a new variant of MyDoom and a new strain of malware -- Poxdar -- appeared. MyDoom spreads via email, while Poxdar seeks to exploit a number of Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities. IBM recommends that businesses update antivirus signatures and solutions to address these variants. FairUCE is available through IBM alphaWorks, IBM's online community providing early adopters and innovators direct access to emerging technologies and resources created by IBM. To download FairUCE, visit alphaworks.ibm.com. (2) IBM's Global Business Security Report is published by IBM's Managed Security Services for security intelligence. As part of its managed security services portfolio, IBM Global Services offers email security management services that provide customers with the option to sign up for these services without the need to purchase or install hardware, software or servers. Businesses can also receive the services on a virtual pay-per-user basis. The email security management services involve re-routing a customer's email traffic through filtering centers that intercept and store unwanted emails without introducing appreciable delays to the delivery of legitimate email traffic. The service allows customers to manage the disposal of quarantined emails via an online tool. For more information, please visit www.ibm.com/security. About IBM With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is a leading provider of e-business solutions and is dedicated to helping companies, Business Partners and developers leverage the potential of e-business on demand across a wide range of businesses and industries. The company offers a host of cross-industry and industry-specific solutions designed to meet the needs of companies of all sizes. For more information on IBM, please visit: ibm.com (1) Chart chronicling spam for the past 14 months available upon request (2) At this time, FairUCE is available worldwide, except in Germany. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: IBM Corp.