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Technology Stocks : THREE FIVE SYSTEM (TFS) - up from here? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Franklin M. Humphreys who wrote (2417)	9/23/1998 5:19:00 PM
From: Noblesse Oblige	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3247

Franklin notes: Hi, Maurice. Your amazement at N.O.'s reasoning (see below) may be tempered somewhat if you can imagine yourself sitting near him recently on a short flight which went something like this: When the first engine of his tri-jet became silent for unknown reasons, the Co-pilot reassured everybody over the PA that it was no cause for concern: It would mean only that the normal flight time of 1 hour would be extended by 30 minutes due to the slower speed to be maintained on the remaining two engines. A few moments later, the second engine followed the first by abruptly falling silent. As before, the copilot reassured everybody that all was well: there would simply be another extension of the flight time of about 45 minutes. Then, as the third and final engine gave up the "ghost", even before the Co-pilot could get to the PA system to calm everybody, N.O. plainly could be heard complaining irritably above the screaming of the other passengers who obviously had no difficulty in grasping the "gravity" of their predicament: "Great! I suppose that means we will be up here all night!" --------------------------------------------------------------------- You had noted: N.O.----sometimes your reasoning eludes me. Slowing construction means delaying expenses. Carried further --stopping construction would stop expenses. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Two salient points, Franklin. 1) What makes you think I wouldn't be screaming right along with the rest of the passengers? Haven't I screamed enough in this location for you to judge that I "contemporaneously" had developed a total lack of respect for the professionals in charge of this business? How much screaming would be necessary to convince you? 2) You are right. Not finishing the plant would dramatically cut expenses. Unfortunately, it would also result in a sizeable writeoff. That doesn't mean it would be wrong to do so, however. It still isn't clear whether the hoped for incremental business will actually show up. It shouldn't be lost on anyone that not a single production order has been announced to date for any of TFS's new technologies. Perhaps the LCD business will become somewhat more profitable with a change in foreign exchange valuations. But, it clearly won't be "enough" for TFS if it can't get its new technologies out the door and into the real world. I can't speak for anyone else on the "thread," but the inability of TFS's sales force to penetrate new markets is the single most important problem that I believe the company has. Unfortunately, the ability to find and retain top quality sales personnel seems to be something TFS has a problem with. If they could fix that, the stock will take care of itself. However, is there a shareholder out there who can honestly say he/she is confident that this will be done?