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Technology Stocks : MEMC INT'L. (WFR -NYSE) The Sleeping Giant? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (3318)	5/16/1998 11:52:00 PM
From: Chip Roos	Respond to of 4697

I also am currently in "lurk" status. MEMC was good to me. As a St. Louisian in Memc's backyard, I bought a few shares at 24 and alot at 28 during the first year the company went public. By sheer luck, I sold at 52 after my wife attended that first annual shareholders meeting and it was announced that the President was resigning to pursue other interests. He walked away from $8,000,000 (if my memory serves me correctly) which he would have been given for staying another 8 months or so. The red flag went up and I sold for that reason alone. I will tell you that in that first year, MEMC was exciting and the talk of St. Louis. The employees had spirit and the company couldn't expand quickly enough. Since then, things have drastically changed. Some of the negatives are beyond the company's control, of course. But I do question the positioning of the company by its management. Anyway, hopefully WFR will someday soon make a great comeback and those of you sitting on the stock will be rewarded for your patience. The shame is that in this type of bull market, you lose by sitting still. Good luck to everyone. I'm always lurking. Chip

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (3318)	5/17/1998 2:32:00 PM
From: Carl R.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4697

One of the biggest things that changed of course was that in 1996 neither of us expected MEMC to earn much less than $2/share while in actuality they have moved into a loss situation. Contrast them to AMAT which when it recognized a downturn, immediately discharged a large contract work force and laid of some regular employees as well. By comparison, MEMC made no similar layoffs until 2 years later. Now the question is how quickly they can reverse the losses and return to profitability. If wafer demand does grow by 30% in 1999 as someone here recently posted, then profitability shouldn't be too far away. Good luck, Carl