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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dell-icious who wrote (9491)	7/19/1998 8:04:00 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 74651

I have been following the thread on the deferred earnings. The company is known for its very conservative accounting procedures, coming straight from Gates. It's one of the things that makes it so beloved by Wall Street. They obviously want to do all they can to keep the stock price down, they don't want a huge crash after too many strictly "momentum" players run it up. If someone on this thread is really conversant with employee stock options and stock buy backs, I would like to hear what you have to say about their efforts to keep the stock down in relation to those programs.

To: Dell-icious who wrote (9491)	7/19/1998 9:47:00 PM
From: 16yearcycle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

"I suggest you listen to the conference call. Maffei clearly explains the reasons for defering revenue including the fact that some of this money comes from yearlong licensing and subscriptions." I have listened to every conference call for 6 years. It is apparent that we will agree to disagree. I am laughing my ass off listening to this crap from the last 2 cfo's. Your examples do nothing to cause me to see it differently. People will join msn throughout the year. Why should they spread out new members revenues throughout the year? You book the revenues as the money comes in. This is as far from real world as it gets. This is an accounting gimmick to smooth out earnings, nothing more. They started it at the time of win 95 because they wanted to control the stock price and not have it appear that revenues doubled within 6 months, which they in fact did. The truth is that revenues were 1.4 billion higher last year than they show on the statement. It is in msft's best interest to talk the stock down. They have massive amounts of shares they need to buy back for the employee option plan. High prices cause a potential problem for the employees, too. A steadily rising price works much better for the option plan. Just my opinion. Long since 1989. Longer since 1993.