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Technology Stocks : Wind River going up, up, up! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard Karpel who wrote (3984)	1/23/1999 2:13:00 AM
From: F. Foos	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10309

Richard Karpel, The WIND press release is not a pre-announcement that they will miss earnings estimates. They can't precisely state there earnings until they close the books for the quarter. There is one more week yet before the quarter ends. Until then, the best the CFO can do is estimate the range between $0.27-0.30/share. What I know of the management leads me to believe that they are conservative realists not prone to overestimate. The suprises have been positive. Frank

To: Richard Karpel who wrote (3984)	1/23/1999 9:40:00 AM
From: William	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

My latest quarterly report shows $15,802,000 in deferred revenue, what does yours show? William

To: Richard Karpel who wrote (3984)	1/23/1999 10:31:00 AM
From: Mark Brophy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

You're asking management to commit a crime. See the 9/28/98 speech by the SEC chairman at sec.gov. The speech indicates that the SEC will crack down on accounting fraud and Wind River will be asking for legal trouble if the company follows the advice of Allen Benn. I'd like to talk to you about another widespread, but too little-challenged custom: earnings management. This process has evolved over the years into what can best be characterized as a game among market participants. A game that, if not addressed soon, will have adverse consequences for America's financial reporting system. A game that runs counter to the very principles behind our market's strength and success…. I fear that we are witnessing an erosion in the quality of earnings, and therefore, the quality of financial reporting. Managing may be giving way to manipulation; Integrity may be losing out to illusion…. A third illusion played by some companies is using unrealistic assumptions to estimate liabilities for such items as sales returns, loan losses or warranty costs. In doing so, they stash accruals in cookie jars during the good times and reach into them when needed in the bad times…. Since U.S. capital market supremacy is based on the reliability and transparency of financial statements, this is a financial community problem that calls for timely financial community action. Therefore, I am calling for immediate and coordinated action: technical rule changes by the regulators and standard setters to improve the transparency of financial statements; enhanced oversight of the financial reporting process by those entrusted as the shareholders' guardians; and nothing less than a fundamental cultural change on the part of corporate management as well as the whole financial community.