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Technology Stocks : CRUS, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Calvin Scott who wrote (5282)	3/11/1998 10:58:00 AM
From: Grand Poobah	Respond to of 8193

Calvin, I said that good engineering talent will go a long ways toward overcoming incompetent management. However, I will admit that if management is incompetent enough, it can destroy the efforts of even the best engineers. However, I believe that CRUS management has learned a lot of lessons from the last two years. Their project management and design methodologies were out of control. This has been changed. I think they also learned a lot from the problems with Laguna, although those problems have seriously hurt the company. I do not think they have learned all their lessons or have the best management. But I think they have learned enough lessons and fixed enough of the problems that the good engineers will be able to make the company succeed. Their success certainly won't be that of the grand visions of a $5-billion company in the year 2000, but I think they will continue to be mostly profitable and growing. I can certainly understand your frustration with the stock. I have a position around $14 and am probably better off in that than some. I am not confident that we will see that level near term, but I am optimistic that this stock has a pretty big upside if Cirrus can have another 3 or 4 profitable quarters to prove that the turn-around is not temporary. A lot of uncertainty remains about the capabilities of management and Cirrus' position in various markets, and that is why the stock price is depressed. If those questions are answered favorably, as I am cautiously optimistic that they will be, the stock will go up. I can understand the dissatisfaction of the investors in this stock, particularly those who remember the peak in 1995, but I think it is counterproductive to think about those days too much. Those stock prices were based on a high view of the company that has since been shattered. Similarly, I think the present low view of the company will eventually be dispelled. I also think that concerns about Asia are factored into the present price, without good reason, and that this will eventually help move the stock back up.

To: Calvin Scott who wrote (5282)	3/11/1998 12:38:00 PM
From: ted quinn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8193

I'm back to tell you that CRUS is a washed-up, tired old poor excuse for a company. Why would you people invest in this dog? Don't you notice that the markets (inc. the Nasdaq and Russell) are hitting new highs every day? CRUS is barely hanging above a historic low! People are investing based on the outlook 6 months down the road, and they aren't investing in CRUS. Who wants to invest in Hackworth anyway? He has zero credibility on Wall Street. Investors are ignoring CRUS' recent positive earnings--ask yourselves why? Because the structure and the strategy of the company are fundamentally flawed. The management is horrendous. And if that weren't enough, we are seeing a shift in profits from hardware to software/internet companies (with the exception of Intel and 2 or 3 others). CRUS has to spend hundreds of millions of $$ to build a fab to make chips selling for a few bucks. All risk, low reward. And by the time the plant is built, who the hell knows what chips will be needed and what their price will be? A company like Yahoo or Amazon has very low risk because it is service oriented, and they have brand-names. These stocks have gone up 5 and 10-fold in the past year. What about CRUS? No movement despite stock buyback, Teo, positive earnings, etc. Why? Poor management lacking vision on how to raise shareholder value. Almost 3 years since the stock price collapsed and still no light at the end of the tunnel. I see this stock drifting down to the $8 range when the market starts its inevitable pullback.