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Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerome who wrote (2049)	10/9/2014 10:49:58 AM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26763

Two items stand out. You didn't answer my simple question. Did you read the 10K for company risks and was the risk of not getting paid by number one customer disclosed? You are now saying that somebody knew. My guess is some of the shorts also knew. We all make mistakes. I told you I wasn't going to buy because of this one trick pony risk. I had another "Crapple supplier"... company that supplied the network equipment to Cingular Wireless that had the original iPhone contract. I made a lot of money even after the dust settled but I gave even more back when the CEO gave up and sold out the company for 80% below the peak. You see AT&T bought Cingular and decided to use their POS network for the Apple iPhone and we had all the dropped calls, etc.... I switched to TMobile

To: Jerome who wrote (2049)	10/16/2014 12:08:41 PM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26763

I see Digitimes says it warned of GTAT's issues before BK... Digitimes Research: GTAT woes disrupt sapphire industry digitimes.com Jessie Lin, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei [Thursday 16 October 2014] GT Advanced Technologies' (GTAT) move to seek bankruptcy protection on October 6 came as a surprise to the IT industry especially because the maker was a major supplier of Apple for sapphire screens. The related supply chain in general, Digitimes Research believes, will feel the impact, such as seeing tight supplies of LED-use sapphire ingots and smartphone vendors reconsidering plans to adopt sapphire for their devices' screens. There had been already many signs showing that GATA had been in trouble before it filed for Chapter 11 protection: The mass production schedule of the company's sapphire had seen a long delay until August 2014; its sapphire yield rate was only 30%; the company's sapphire production ramp up costs in 2014 were expected to reach as high as US$100 million; Apple's prepayments for orders had been delayed; and the company had reduced its capex and revenue target for 2014. In August 2014, Digitimes Research estimated that GTAT would only be able to supply 1.35-2.25 million 5.5-inch sapphire screens in 2014, far lower than what Apple would have required. Although GTAT is hoping to be able to maintain its operation after filing bankruptcy protection, Digitimes Research believes the chance that Apple will adopt its sapphire for products is slim, because GTAT's sapphire production yield rates remain low. As a result, Apple is expected to turn to other sapphire suppliers for components used in cameras, home bottoms, and Apple Watch's protective covers. Apple's orders are expected to impact these suppliers' capacities assigned for LED-related applications. On the other hand, some other smartphone vendors originally planned to follow Apple's step to adopt sapphire screens for their devices, but GTAT's difficulties are likely to deter them from doing so now. As makers in China have turned aggressive about expanding their sapphire capacities since early 2014 with the major application being smartphone-use sapphire screens, how these sapphire makers are going to find downstream partners that will use their products could become another issue. At the same time, existing first-tier sapphire makers' expansion plans for smartphone-use sapphire screen capacities may need to be postponed. Here is another interesting report. digitimes.com