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Technology Stocks : S3 (A LONGER TERM PERSPECTIVE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ken Muller who wrote (7171)	11/3/1997 7:26:00 PM
From: Synapsid	Respond to of 14577

Could there be some kind of price protection scheme that S3 has to provide to its distributors? I remember companies making charges for such price protection (although in a very different market), such as DIMD in 1996. Clearly if distributors are holding inventory purchased at say $15/chip, they can't afford to sell them at say $12/chip (which would be the price that customers can get the chips for from other sources). They wouldn't take such a risk, would they? Actually, S3's 10K for 1996 has a nice paragraph about revenue recognition: " Revenue from product sales direct to customers is generally recognized upon shipment. Accruals for estimated sales returns and allowances are recorded at the time of sale. Certain of the Company's sales are made to distributors under agreements allowing price protection and rights of return on unsold products by the distributors. The Company defers recognition of revenue on such sales until the product is sold by the distributors." So there is some price protection.

To: Ken Muller who wrote (7171)	11/3/1997 7:49:00 PM
From: Ken Muller	Respond to of 14577

To All Re: Class Action Law Suit As a result of this acknowledged accounting error on the part of S3, there is a high probability of a class action lawsuit. I have been involved with lots of these actions in the past. I wil pass on my experiences FWIW. This is not to be taken as any type of suggested legal advice!!!! 1. Keep copies of all the stock trading slips. You will be asked to provide proof of losses on the stock transactions. 2. Option losses have not been usually treated as a normal investor loss (too risky I guess). So if you lost money on the options you are probably out of luck. 3. Takes about 2-3 years for the actions to be resolved. The losses are usually compensated with a small % of the overall loss. 4. Lawyers are always paid handsomely. 5. If you want to continue holding on to the stock, you can sell and re-purchase. However, last time I checked with IRS rules, they require a 30 day interval between same stock buy/sell transactions to take tax gains/losses. If this is a consideration, the alternative is to sell the stock and write naked puts. This is not to be taken as any type of suggested legal advice!!!!

To: Ken Muller who wrote (7171)	11/3/1997 8:41:00 PM
From: MoonBrother	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14577

Ken, I feel so sorry for you. I know that you're hurting badly. Comparing with Leo, you know that you're more like a idiot. At least Leo was brave enough to dump SIII after S3's Q3 report was out. It was you who volunteered to grab that stupid cheerleader role, therefore got burned into ash! Don't tell me no one tried to pull you out of the fire. I, for one, have been given you my hand since SIII was at $12. Even as late as last Friday, I warned you on ALSC thread that SIII still has more down side to go, perhaps as low as to $7. Boy, you were stubben. Well, now I guess you know that you have made a big mistake. What's next? I don't know what I can say to you now. Perhaps now SIII will be bottomed out at $7, you might as well sitting there, or, you might want to jump over to ALSC boat. You will feel that you are welcomed again! Take care! MB