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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Burry who wrote (28342)	5/21/1998 10:59:00 AM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

MB, Great initials. <G> The pre-announcement did not surprise me, but the reaction in the stock did. As a non-Christmas quarter, the June quarter is subject to higher costs to sell home video games. The move to more in-home products is a potentially gangbusters switch, but there are some transition problems. I think they will solve them and get profit growth back on stream this year. I don't think you or I am missing anything. I do think I underestimated the skittishness of my fellow WMS shareholders. They seem to think any bad news is a disaster, but the valuation of this stock is extremely low for the 25 cents number, much less any opportunity for growth. I pay no attention at all to TA, so I won't comment on that. I hate to see my growth plays become value stocks, but I am buying a final third of Midway today. Compared to its main competition, ERTS, this has got to be the greatest bargain around. Good luck, MB

To: Michael Burry who wrote (28342)	5/21/1998 1:29:00 PM
From: HB	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Michael (Burry), I and another poster (Don Ryndak) initiated positions in MWY a couple of weeks or so back. Mike Burke's been following the stock for much longer, though, and that's what initially put it on my radar screen. I think his entire position is in a long MWY/ short ERTS paired trade, though... is that what your last third is intended for, Mike (Burke)? I was lucky to have unloaded about 60% of my initial position in the mid 18's after the announcement they would sheep [I'll leave that Freudian slip alone] BioFreaks early... it just looked like the top for that particular piece of news was past, and volume drying up. So I'm buying some of that back now, although I wasn't watching the market this morning so I didn't get your excellent price. The announcement details a business plan which should be nice if they can execute... shifting focus to increasing presence in home gaming system and especially PC's... I'm hoping that the transition in the nature of their business is causing temporary fluctuations in profits due to costs of the transition, etc..., which are scaring people off. The release mentions they expect gross profit to rise 25%, but that this will be "more than offset" by increased development and marketing costs. At least it's something intended to produce results down the line. In the Reuter's story the Robbie Stephens guy mentions that this is the 2nd quarter of preannounced missed estimates in a row. This does worry me a bit... Planned development costs should be fairly predictable, so maybe there's something less benign going on. Can anyone enlighten? biz.yahoo.com From Reuters: ''It looks as though there is a shortfall in their coin-operated game business,'' said Stephen Fleming who follows the company for BancAmerica Robertson Stephens. Don, it looks like Big Al will find a way to get his share, one way or another... FWIW (I'm no tech analyst) the daily chart shows good volume after the bottom and continuing through the plateau we're in now, so there's a reasonable chance we're bottoming, with significant buying coming in. Do you still follow Speedfam, M. Burry? (I seem to remember you steeping out of that particular elevator shortly before they cut the cable...) I am down to a small longer-term holding, having traded the rest reasonably well, but AMAT competition looks increasingly worrisome, not to mention Lam/ONTK (even though Mr Sam doesn't think they are much threat, I don't see why Lam would waste their money if there weren't a reasonable chance there). Cheers, Howard