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

To: Allen Benn who wrote (4511)	3/30/1999 4:41:00 PM
From: Paper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

I agree with your arguments about WIND's performance of the last few months. I've own this stock on and off since it went public. This not the first frustrating period of ownership. While I'm an avid reader of everyone's posts, I like to thank you for steady thoughtful ones. I firmly believe that Ron and company have to make a concerted effort in the next conference call to explain where current markets conditions are for WIND products overall versus the competition. More importantly they need to demonstrate a "story" about their future plans for this company and the threats it faces in the marketplace. The technology and its development is the business we have all invested. The marketplace is indicating that there maybe a subtle change occurring that will prevent WIND from moving forward...

To: Allen Benn who wrote (4511)	3/31/1999 8:33:00 AM
From: Bomar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

Allen, Thank you for all of your comments.At a time when a stock is suffering the death of a thousand cuts, it is valuable to keep a close eye on the fundamentals and remember the rationale for buying in the first place. As I commented a couple of weeks ago, I have always seen that the louder the grumbling the closer you are to a market bottom. One interesting trading point is that the May 17.5 puts closed bid yesterday at 1.3125. To sell and be exercised would get the writer WIND at 16.1875 per share. (if not, obviously the writer would get the 1.3125) As they always say: "If you liked it at 33 (pre-split), you got to love it at 16!!" Good luck... Bomar

To: Allen Benn who wrote (4511)	3/31/1999 10:04:00 AM
From: Mark Brophy	Respond to of 10309

How long are you willing to wait? Small stocks have been undervalued for years, so it could be a long time. In a previous post, you noted that the SEC considers any stock repurchases to retire shares in a 2 year period to be in contemplation of a business combination. As a result, only small companies that want to rule out a pooling of interests can defend the liquidity of their investors. I bought shares of VLSI a couple of months ago at 12 when they had $8 cash and $12 of book value. It would never have been that low if an array of SEC rules forbid them from defending the price. Now, they are the object of a takeover and the only possible buyers are those that can afford to pay cash. Practically speaking, that's IBM, TI, Intel, and European companies. It looks like the SEC is giving away a crown jewel to the Europeans. There was an article in the WSJ a couple of days ago about LBO companies that are buying minority positions in public companies. At a time when the S&P 500 is setting records, these companies are having no trouble finding undervalued companies. I don't think we are disagreeing much about these things, but there are subtleties that I think are important. I think we agree about more than we disagree, which is the problem with SI threads. I'll move on to the subtleties. The good news is that the individual investor able to withstand the stress of a stock out of favor, and who is not constrained by benchmark comparisons, stands to rake in tremendous rewards by ignoring these optimization constraints and relying strictly on classic economic valuation. I need some liquidity, too, even though the daily or quarterly performance doesn't matter much. I still expect a good return within a year, which often doesn't happen in this small cap market. And I'm not likely to buy Wind River if others stocks are even more undervalued. The remaining issue concerns the possibility that short-term performance constraints do affect the company's business performance. That is, does treating a stock like a dog makes the company into a dog? This, by the way, is my only concern about the market's treatment of WIND over the last couple of years. So far, there have been no signs that the company is suffering from the market's disrespect. However, should management detect significant problems, with customers or obtaining and/or retaining employees, then the situation will have to be corrected. The thread has missed something here. The stock price at the end of last quarter was a lot lower than at the end of the previous quarter. The outstanding shares should've been reduced as options went underwater. It didn't, so management repriced options or issued new options, indicating that they don't expect the price to return to previous levels. This company has a habit of diluting their shareholders whenever they get the chance.