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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DownSouth who wrote (61)	2/18/1999 11:15:00 AM
From: Teflon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

DownSouth and Uncle Frank: Please forgive the lag in response time, but I do not get much time during the day to participate in this luxury. Regarding EMC and NTAP: ***************EMC***NTAP Annual Sales~$4B***~$220MM Annual NI***~$800MM~$30MM PE Multiple**~105***~65 (trailing 12 mos.) Growth Rate*~30%**~45% PE Multiple*~40***~62 (looking forward) Status*******Gorilla**PWA (Prince With Attitude) Based on these figures (forgive the rounding) and the tools that you use for investment decisions, I think the choice is obvious. Of course, that all depends on your criteria of i) length of investment and ii) sex appeal of growth rates. I am a long term investor. To me EMC is the only Gorilla in this market. I am not saying that NTAP will not grow and appreciate, however. You decide. Regarding EMC and IBM: Tony hit the nail on the head. EMC has the best sales force in the field, hands down. IBM cannot compete with EMC in this regard. Their managements are on par, however. EMC wins this battle in the field with a sales force that I put in the same class as CSCO (undoubtably their best advantage). And Tony's figures are correct regarding market share. IBM is not banking the future growth of their business on the data storage market, in part because they know they cannot take EMC down from the top spot. Nobody will be able to, EMC is the true gorilla in this industry. I Gorilla invest, and that's it. For years I lost a fortune on the latest and greatest growth stories to hit the street, and I will not go back. Obviously, EMC needs to have a growth rate (one preferably higher than the S&P) that ensures it will maintain its position at the top. And this by no means dictates that terrific companies such as NTAP will not be prosperous and make you lots of $$$. Thanks, Teflon