Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: trust fund pirate who wrote (8607)	10/8/1998 9:17:00 AM
From: Reginald Middleton	Respond to of 19080

Your post details a hypothetical that I was posing to make the point of the potentially deceptive capability of assets sales. I am not saying that ORCL actually did this since, as I have stated several times, I did not bother to dig into the actual assets sold or bother to ascertain if funds received were labeled as operating income. One easy way to check is to look at the 5/98 statements and see if you can find anything that amounts to 813 million dollars in non-operating or non-recurring income. If not, then I would (as an ORCL shareholder, which I am not) take the time to investigate the asset sales further. If the sale was of hard assets suchas real estate oreven securities, it is a good chance they were sold above thier carrying value. If they were what you labeled "intangible assets," then mgmt. would have even more leeway in interpretation. AS I stated in my first post, I have a gut feeling that ORCL is feeling margin and revenue pressure in relation to thier past performance, hence will start to become more aggressive in both sales practices and GAAP interpretations in an attempt to prevent additional volatility in their shares. This is just my cursory opinion, but it is an unbiased opinion and one worth giving a second thought.