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Technology Stocks : DELL Bear Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Phoenix who wrote (1791)	9/2/1998 2:08:00 PM
From: Stewart Walton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2578

Gary, Thanks for the summary post. The question I ask myself is why is Dell so successful. The answers the bulls (I'm one) have come up with are mostly rational, from the aggressive JIT/BTO model down to Michael's personality. You don't accept these arguments. But what counts is performance of the business, or execution, right? Not only performance in boom times like right now, but in bad times like when the notebook line was a disaster and when the attempt at discount chain distribution failed. Dell does seem to have its act together, and Michael has a good PR group writing articles in HBR to sell the concept of DELL as a major player. Is it fair to say that DELL's performance has been stellar? Isn't it also true that just duplicating DELL's business model is not sufficient to guarantee success? That conditions for expansive growth are always changing, so you can't go back and do it again the same way? DELL's a heck of a company, and every competitor appears to have a problem which will prevent them from hurting Dell. Inventory, overseas markets, channel delay, etc. Do you really think that someone with enough cash could duplicate DELL's business enough to impact DELL? Would it make economic sense at this point to do that? I think that DELL has been in the right places at the right times, has made good decisions along the way, and is executing flawlessly. It's going to be a tough act to follow, and a tough act to keep up. For right now, however there's no sign of faltering. Best wishes, Stewart

To: The Phoenix who wrote (1791)	9/2/1998 11:17:00 PM
From: divvie	Respond to of 2578

Thanks Gary for your links. It helped me as I was relying on memory and, admittedly, a viewpoint colored by the flavor of your later posts. However, my point still stands. Your replies were very dismissive, and the only one you gave much credence to was Michelle's. LOD's question on why other manufacturers had not been able to replicate what you saw as an easy model was a different slant but still a valid point. That it did not answer your question literally was surely not a reason to dismiss his question? I must admit that the initial four replies were a bit weak and did not seem to be from the regular, insightful posters on this thread (Chuzz, Kemble, Sig, Michelle, etc.) However your reply to jbn3 about being an adult seemed way off base. I am ignorant of Cisco's specific advantages in its market. If someone told me that I would not be offended. You were. This is a shame as this was the start of a change in your attitude to the dismissive tone that I recalled but could not find until you posted the links. I read all the posts from Chuzzlewit to you and all were polite and sane. I cannot see why you lump him with LOD and jbn3 (no offence guys). Your parting shot seemed quite offensive given that his arguments were sane and polite. you seemed to ignore some sane posts like Chuzzlewit's. I went to the CSCO thread hoping to learn about the investment prospects in them. I searched for your name as your reputation was that of a valuable contributor. It seemed like the DELL thread but this time you were LOD and ASND supporters were you. This is simply an observation and is understandable as you obviously have good reason to back CSCO. To some people your reasons may not be compelling enough but in that respect you come across very much like the DELL bulls (CSCO/DELL can do no wrong). You have very good reasons but what if someone kept dismissing them because they did not think that they were good enough? BTW what do you do for a living?