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

To: Satyr who wrote (17800)	2/20/1998 6:29:00 PM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Looks like Computer City may be dropping Packard Bell as a vendor.. Packard Bell May Lose Computer City Account (02/20/98; 6:12 p.m. EST) By Roger C. Lanctot, Computer Retail Week Packard Bell NEC may lose another large national account: Computer City SuperCenter. Although executives at both companies were unavailable for comment, store-level personnel at Computer City said they had not seen any shipments of new Packard Bell computers since before Christmas. Store visits confirmed that the only available product was being closed out. At the Computer City store in Garden City, N.Y., sales associates said Packard Bell's reputation for poor customer service made the brand a tough sell. Other Computer City stores said that when they checked, they realized the brand wasn't being restocked. A source close to Computer City said the chain may replenish its supply of Packard Bell computers if the company can deliver an offering that sells well. Lack of sales appeared to have been the primary reason for the brand's at least temporary departure from the chain. Computer City joins Office Depot as the second top-5 retail account to drop Packard Bell. Although executives at Office Depot insisted the company has not parted ways with Packard Bell, the office superstore currently sells only Compaq and Hewlett-Packard computers in its stores. Between them, Office Depot and Computer City accounted for more than $3 billion in computer hardware sales in 1997, about 15 percent of the total hardware sales of the CRW Top-100 retail accounts. At one time, Packard Bell computers were sold by nearly all U.S. computer retailers. As the company sought to improve its profitability, it progressively cut back its distribution, including a withdrawal from Wal-Mart stores two years ago. Although Packard Bell PCs have never sold as well in computer superstores as they have in the stores of mass merchants and consumer-electronics retailers, the brand has held its own recently, according to audited retail sales data from companies such as PC Data, Intelect ASW Marketing Services, and Computer Intelligence. Computer City's decision to drop Packard Bell appears to coincide with a larger role at the chain for the WinGen brand, which first appeared at Computer City last year. Computer City's latest print ads feature four WinGen systems, including a 166-megahertz Cyrix-based system selling for $499.99, a 300-MHz Pentium II for $1,699, a 233-MHz Pentium II for $1,299.99, and a 333-MHz Pentium II for $1,999.99. (All system prices exclude monitors.) Meanwhile, Packard Bell may more than make up for any lost retail sales with commerce conducted over its Internet-based retail site. Some of the offers, which include refurbished systems, consist of an $849 233-MHz Pentium, a $757 200-MHz Pentium, an $899 233-MHz Pentium, and a $645 166-MHz Pentium. The site offers volume discounts as well.

To: Satyr who wrote (17800)	2/20/1998 8:01:00 PM
From: Loki	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Satyr (Thread)... "The thread doesn't think so. They hope so." Certainly a sober perspective on the optimistic hopes of some CPQ shareholders. Considering the gains of CPQ shares after the acquisition announcement one should not be dissatisfied. (3Com shareholders have, today, more reason to be unhappy.) CPQ is priced fairly (PE ratio) in the market place. One should maybe consider the time horizon for realizing the gains on the CPQ investment. If it were within the next 6 months I could understand the anxiety expressed. Although this obviously doesn't appear to express the sentiment of the majority...I think one could be satisfied with a 30% stock gain at year end. (Hopefully, more 48-52 /shr) (Remember there are more hurdles to come for CPQ/DEC) In the meantime, I am making money on other stocks short term...not CPQ. When Mr. Pfeiffer mentioned 50 bil rev. by 2000 did he already consider DEC? Loki Patience with CPQ

To: Satyr who wrote (17800)	2/22/1998 5:40:00 AM
From: peacelover	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Hi Satyr! I am new to this thread. I have never even lurked on it before, but I just invested in CPQ on Thursday. You seem to believe they have problems which in your opinion they will blame on analysts, etc. What are the problems you think they have, buying DEC? I am asking in earnest. I have always thought of DEC as a great service company and I thought CPQ needed that badly. As for "anal-ysts" (sorry if you are one of them, I can't stand them, a bunch of hyped idiots), they are nothing but "paper-pimps". IMHO this week, next week it is DEL( I like DELL by the way), soon they will pushing CPQ. That is how analysts's employer make money, using these bozos to spew stupid epitaphs, which herd mentality Wall St. buys as gospel. This is the only profession I know of where these people make idiotic estimates and are always right, regardless. The reason being, if the Co. meets their stupid nos, they exolt themselves, but if not they beat the heck out of the Co. through their non-sensical downgrades, and some other bs. Why can't they be wrong? God bless the soul of Mr. Roberto Goizuetta, the deceased CEO of Coca Cola. He was the only one that made any analyst live upto his/her stupid statements by directly corresponding with the analyst. Believe me, analysts never played their stupid games with Coca Cola. It is during his reign that Coke grew from a 2 Billion to 50 billion in a few years. Why can't CPQ grow from 38 Billion to 50 Billion by year 2k. I do not see why not, but I hope CPQ's CEO read about Mr. Roberto Goizuetta. Go CPQ, ASND!!! peacelover (with exception to "anal-ysts")

To: Satyr who wrote (17800)	2/22/1998 9:27:00 AM
From: Markus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

To ALL: Don't Be Too Hard on CPQ Indeed, It was an eye opener for all CPQ shareholders to watch in horror the way DELL stock price moved in the last few weeks 9 points plus in one day! However do not lose heart. In time our CPQ will provide us with a decent return for our money. Please consider the following points. 1) Price action from October 1997 to Dec 1997 was caused by many institutional investors reallocating their assets from equity market to the bond market in what they called flight to quality, due to the Asian flu. As a stock with high institution ownership (More than 81% in October 1997) CPQ stock price was hit hard. The downward price action from Oct 97 to Dec 97 was caused by a market event, and did not indicate any major shift in CPQ fundamental. 2) DELL up 9 points plus in a day is mind bogling however in percentage term it is really a regular break out moves. On 2/18/98 DELL closed at $113 3/16. The next day 2/19/98 it closed at $122 3/16 up $9 5/8. In percentage Dell was up by 8.5%. CPQ also has a similar moves this year. Earlier this month on 2/2/98 CPQ closed at $30.5. The next day 2/3/98 it closed at $33 up $2.5. In percentage CPQ has gained 8.20%. So CPQ recent price action can be considered compareable to DELL. 3) Option Expiration date. When CPQ made its big move in the first week of February many investors and speculators purchase CPQ Feb Call options like crazy. Consequently CPQ price will be under pressure one week before the February CALL options expire. Why? When I or any other person buy a call option the Market Maker (MM) writes a call. Contrary to many investors believe. To protect their position the MM do not buy the Put Option, instead they buy shares of the underlying securities. For example, if I buy one Call contract of CPQ Feb $35 (CPQBG) The MM do not buy one Put contract of CPQ Feb 35 (CPQNG) to protect their position. To protect that position the MM buy 100 shares of CPQ as soon as they write their CALL Feb $35 to me. In other words MM writes a covered call so I, and other people can buy Feb $35 CALL of CPQ. Remember MM lives on the spread and commisions only. They do not have to gamble their own money. So if CPQ stock price is more than $35 let say $36 Dollar MM do not lose money, because they still keep the money from the spread of the bid and ask. Unfortunately these MMs are greedy people. Instead of just letting their 100 shares of CPQ got call out and done with it. Here is what they usually do. One week prior to expiration date they starts to push the price of the underlying securities (CPQ)down. They sell their 100 shares of CPQ to drive down the price below the $35 strike price, so the Feb $35 Call will expire worthless. Now the MM got the commission money, the spread money, and also the call premium that the average investors pay to buy the call. In this example, we are talking about one contract. in reality it could be more than 50,000 contracts for a particular call strike price. 4) CPQ is not a box maker company anymore with DEC aquisition. CPQ now is a one stop solution provider. Mr. Pfeifer knows that he cannot directly attack DELL's direct model directly. So he uses the indirect method to blunt DELL offensive in the corporate market, by providing CPQ corporate customers with more comprehensive services, and solutions with the DEC aquisition. Soon DELL's specialized market segment (the corporate segment of the computing market) will get smaller, and DELL will become like MUEI (just another mail order company). As for the other computer companies (IBM, HWP, GTW, MUEI, etc) they don't even know what hit them. 5) CPQ is poised to challenge SUNW in the workstation area and high end server. CPQ has a comparable CHIP (Alpha) to compete with SUNW computer, soon SUNW too will become another AAPL. And for the other player (DELL, MUEI, GTW) Merced is still in the drawing board. So don't be too harsh on CPQ. It is true that with the DEC aquisition CPQ fundamentals becomes rather foggy, but under that fog Herr Pfeifer is preparing his Blitzkrieg, before we know it we are already in Paris (Price target for CPQ $62 by July 1998). Just pray that those DELL, IBM, HWP, SUNW, GTW, MUEI shareholders can go to Dunkirk in time to save their money. Good Luck to You ALL God Blessed