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Technology Stocks : Network Associates (NET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William F. Wager, Jr. who wrote (3681)	12/2/1998 4:53:00 PM
From: $$$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6021

What I say to that is, every company I've worked at has worked the numbers(no cooked). I wasn't close enough to HQ tell you that NAI is or isn't but what I am saying is, there are shades of gray regarding numbers and good ole Billy likes to stay in the gray. If you think that every other company that makes acquisitions do it purely for that companies people/technology I've got a bridge I can sell you. With that said, NAI should still be higher with or without Herb's statements. When they split this year it went up to $56.xx, where is the support that got it that high? Back then they had a $800 mil/yr run rate, now they will have 2 Q's with over $1bil/yr.

To: William F. Wager, Jr. who wrote (3681)	12/3/1998 1:55:00 AM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6021

William, you noted: Awhile back some of the eggheads on Wall St. figured that NETA was making too many acquisitions and that there had to be some funny business with the accounting practices involved I guess that as this thread's resident "egghead" I ought to defend the criticisms. The problem is this: the plethora of "mergers" created the opportunity for a huge number of "non-recurring charges" which could easily result in producing very rosy-looking earnings. Write-offs from questionable accounts, in-process R&D etc. creates the problem of what the earnings really look like. I am long NETA because I feel that there is real power in this company, but I have no idea of what earnings look like (nor does anybody on the outside). So, as I pointed out a couple of months ago, what NETA needs is a few quarters without significant acquisitions so that the dust can settle. Certainly, the company has benefited from the acquisitions, but considering the potential for huge dilution, it remains to be seen whether shareholders will benefit. TTFN, CTC