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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clarksterh who wrote (20472)	6/16/1998 11:49:00 PM
From: Chuck Williams	Respond to of 70976

Yes, I must concur. Regardless of what AMAT produces they still are likely to have some exposure to the Y2k issue from the systems they use to support their production (e.g., their MRP system, sales automation, old PCs, etc.) I've been thinking about this problem quite a bit lately. . . specifically about how people are predicting reduced capital spending in 1999 because the corporate coffers must be spent on Y2k fixes (read: spend a ton of money on COBOL programmers' effort.) I believe companies will be just as or more likely to replace non-Y2k compliant systems rather than 'patching' existing systems to make them Y2k compliant. I rationalize this simply from a value perspective, seasoned with a bit of experience. This may not affect AMAT significantly, but could bode well for s/w and h/w companies (IBM, SAPHY, BAANF, CPQ, etc.) My .02 Chuck

To: Clarksterh who wrote (20472)	6/17/1998 8:45:00 AM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

>>The "Year 2000 Issue" creates risk for the Company from unforeseen problems in its own computer systems and from third parties with whom the Company deals on financial and operational transactions worldwide. At present, the Company's internal systems, the ability of the Company's suppliers to address the "Year 2000 Issue", and the impact of the "Year 2000 Issue" on the programs which operate the Company's products have been identified as the primary areas of risk to the Company from the "Year 2000 Issue". << Now I am worried.... I would have expected them to mention potential problems with the control software/firmware for their machines, too. Katherine PS Yes, I'm aware of the firmware problem. A purely mechanical gas valve still doesn't care what year it is, but there aren't many such valves out there any more.