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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard Tsang who wrote (87055)	12/27/1998 7:03:00 PM
From: jim kelley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Re: Desktop Pricing...DELL maintains competitive advantage companysleuth.com Messages 2538 and 2543

To: Richard Tsang who wrote (87055)	12/27/1998 7:03:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Richard, you are making a very subtle (and easy to make) mistake: you have forgotten to account for shares repurchased as a dividend. They work in virtually the same ways. For example, a company with earnings of $100MM but paying a $10 MM dividend gets to add only $90MM to retained earnings. In the case of $10MM of share repurchases you would find that treasury stock decreases by $10MM. So, the short answer is that equity increased by the amount of the total exercised price of the shares issued and decreased by the amount of cash used to repurchase common. Also, rather than listing put options as a liability (which would be the case if they were income statement items), they are also included in the equity section, but I don't believe they are marked to market, which means that equity is understated. I believe, although I might be incorrect on this, that only if the put is actually exercised or the options expire is there an adjustment to the equity section. All of this means that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to calculate what the actual cost of labor is. But you are correct in your concern, and this has been an ongoing irritant to me, not only for Dell, but for virtually every tech company. The more transparent the accounting system becomes, the more upset investors will become at this underhanded practice, and the less apt companies will be to pull this game. Hope this brief discussion helps. TTFN, CTC

To: Richard Tsang who wrote (87055)	12/28/1998 11:41:00 AM
From: nihil	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 176387

re: Where da stock go? Minnesota used to be filled with computer companies -- I distinctly remember traipsing through a number of them when shopping for computers -- big ones, fast ones -- is there anybody there now? Did the polar bears get 'em? Dell has the advantage of access to vast numbers of Texans and Mexicans as workers. Good guys, but they insist on money for tortillas,beans, and beer and Michael understands that so he shares his company with them. Instead of diluting our ownership, he buys our stock back and pays us to go away (only the really stupid ones do, so that Dell is one those few companies whose average stockholders are so smart and happy that the run around chirping and flapping their little wings even when in a trading range. As he ties his workers closer and closer to him by sharing ownership with them, the workers get wiser and wiser. Only the stupid ones leave. I estimate that the average IQ of Dell stockholders and employees increases by 0.05 std dev/year. Now, back in Minnesota, the former computer workers are living by ice fishing and eating piles of lutefisk (if you don't know, don't ask -- you wouldn't like it, and it is one of those words that is by tradition always misspelled in every language). Get with the program! Quit whining! Who gives a damn about accounting! The company is worth its capitalization to us, it stockholders. If you want "owners equity" per share or "book value" per share, sell Dell and buy a steel minimill (a whole one, they're cheap!). Nucor's the best. You need to play more Monopoly! I am sure there is a set out localized for Minnesota with defunct and formerly independent companies -- Control Data, Pillsbury, U.S. Steel, ERA (I cut my teeth on an ERA 1103 but can't get parts now - and besides it fills the local National Guard Armory -- remember that huge 16kb drum?), Cray Research, that never learned to motivate and share with their workers.