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Technology Stocks : Wind River going up, up, up! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Allen Benn who wrote (2736)	2/4/1998 10:47:00 PM
From: carolyn walder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

Allen - thank you for your response. Please excuse my ignorance, but I have a few more questions. Why issue the convertible bonds if you have the cash to pay for acquisitions through earnings? I realize that acquisitions were only one reason given for issuing the convertibles in the first place, but these statements in the press releases appear incongruous to me. "This acquisition, and our recently-announced partnership with Network Computer, Inc., are very important strategic applications of the capital that Wind River has raised over the past year and a half." "In July 1997, Wind River participated in a highly successful convertible debenture offering which enhanced the company's cash position by approximately $140 million. It was stated at the time that a major use would be to acquire companies and technologies which are strategic to the company's continued success. This partnership represents precisely the type of opportunity that we wanted to be able to financially afford." These statements imply that the convertible bond offering was necessary to fund these purchases, however the other statements seem to contradict that assumption. I realize that once in the company coffers it is all green, no matter what the source, however doesn't the source of funding for the acquisitions affect the statements of income and balance sheets? Maybe I truly don't understand but I thought that any charge to earnings shows up on the income statement (and thus impacts net income/share). If the acquisitions were funded with existing cash wouldn't that come off the balance sheet? If I am understanding correctly, a charge to earnings would negatively impact net earnings/share and could be misunderstood by investors (as was discussed earlier on this thread). Whereas funding with cash already on the balance sheet would not have such an impact. In the end, my main point was that I believe that WIND's management made very deliberate decisions on the wording to use in those press releases and the true meaning of what was said may not be known until they release earnings later this month. I also believe that WIND has superb management and feel that all strategic management decisions (including wording of press releases) are intended to guide the company and the stock in a positive way over the long term...and then again, maybe I am just thinking too much... Carolyn

To: Allen Benn who wrote (2736)	2/6/1998 9:24:00 AM
From: w2j2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10309

With the news that Siemens and Nokia will use the MSFT CE product, it is important for WIND investors to monitor the competition between Wind and Msft. Using the index, I found a couple of pertinent posts to this thread: 2398 and 2394. Dr. Benn, can you share your thoughts on the threat to Wind posed by Msft embedded os?