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

To: MoonFather who wrote (4781)	4/7/1999 11:10:00 AM
From: Just_Observing	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6021

NETA's problems are just beginning While they announced that this quarter will come in between 245 and 250 million, we don't know anything on DSOs. I think several factors will emerge in the next few days. 1. Would you buy all your security solutions from one company if the company's value can fall from 9.137 billion to 2.26 billion in less than a quarter? What was NETA's strongest selling point in selling a complete suite of applications is now its liability. Would you sign a two year contract with a company (NETA was hugely successful with the 2 year deal signing) if the company has a such a sharp selloff? How many people will NETA be forced to layoff ? Bill Larson has said no layoffs but when will anyone ever believe him again ? 2. Top talent realizing that their options are underwater will begin to leave. Pay for remaining employees may have to be increased to retain them since the future potential of options will be severely curtailed. Recruiting new talented employees will be a problem. If NETA rebounds into the mid 20s the severity of this problem will be greatly reduced. 3. Lawsuits will dog this company for years to come. 4. NETA's reputation as a successful company is history. The job of the salespeople just got much tougher. 5. NETA may have to adjust pricing aggressively to maintain some revenue. But this is going to eat up future revenues and margins. 6. Bill Larson has spurned the retail market as irrelevant. He has cut pricing on his retail products by more than 50% in a year. In several of his conference calls he would say that retail accounts for just 5% of NETA's sales even though it was not true (more like 15 to 20% but then Bill was lost in his own delusions). This stream of revenue could have been very useful but NETA has just ignored it. Now it's too late to replenish this stream. In fact, his strategy has been to flood the retail market to drive out competitors in the Corporate market. Bill assumed that the Corporate market will always be his for the taking. Now he has no retail market and a diminishing share of a stagnant Corporate market. I could cite many more reasons why this stock is dead but I think the picture is clear. And not pretty at all.

To: MoonFather who wrote (4781)	4/7/1999 11:35:00 AM
From: AlienTech	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6021

Amazing, from 68 to 15 in 3 months! Company going out of business sale. Maybe they should go for a stock buyback, at these prices they cna buy back half the shares with some of that cash they are sitting on. =Merrill Lynch -2: Y2K Hurt Software Cos. More Than Expected By Maria V. Georgianis NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Merrill Lynch & Co.'s technology analysts don't expect many first-quarter upside earnings surprises and forecast a mixed view for sector fundamentals during the balance of the year. Several sectors that experienced tough conditions in 1998 have appeared to have bottomed out, such as semiconductors, capital equipment and electronic components, analysts said during an investor conference call Wednesday. Other areas such as enterprise software seem to face more difficult times ahead as the year 2000 computer glitch cuts into businesses' technology spending on software. Merrill Lynch enterprise software analyst Chris Shilakes said the first quarter has been disappointing for some names in the enterprise software sector with the impact from the year 2000 glitch being "bigger than anticipated." Companies such as Peoplesoft Inc. (PSFT), Documentum Inc. (DCTM), and Network Associates Inc. (NETA) have preannounced downside first quarter expectations, citing the year 2000 problem as one of the reasons behind their shortfalls. Shilakes said he remains "guarded for the first half in 1999" on the enterprise software sector. (MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 04-07-99 11:29 AM