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Technology Stocks : WCOM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: P.T.Burnem who wrote (3178)	8/11/1998 5:25:00 PM
From: Jake0302	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 11568

P. T. is short WCOM. Disregard.

To: P.T.Burnem who wrote (3178)	8/11/1998 5:46:00 PM
From: Carter Patterson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 11568

What is the relevance of Cendant here ? WCOM has done nothing illegal regarding the in process R&D charge. Unfortunately US GAAP is really bad in the area of purchase accounting. If companies were allowed to simply charge unidentified assets (goodwill) against paid in capital/equity, you would'nt get into the judgement calls about useful lives and in process R&D. Had BT not queered the deal, this would not be an issue, as pooling would be used. WCOM is therefore trying to get as close to a pooling answer as they can. Regarding your comment re: MCIC not having more than $0.5 b, I am willing to bet that they are considering some of the metro/local costs here, which are probably way more than $0.5 b. I appreciate insightful comments and analysis, but you are acting like Ben Stein here.