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Non-Tech : Bill Wexler's Dog Pound -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Dale Baker who wrote (1082)5/15/1999 12:21:00 PM
From: Michael  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10293
 
Barrons trashes Costco
interactive.wsj.com
<< May 17, 1999
Pricey Club
Costco's wares may be cheap, but its stock isn't
By Robin Goldwyn Blumenthal
...The last time Costco was trading at a hefty price/earnings multiple -- over 40 times earnings in 1992 and 1993 -- Wall Street became unforgiving after the company reported flat earnings. The stock tumbled 71%, from 42 to 12, over 2 1/2 years. Clearly, Costco has little room to disappoint. And the company is likely to face more challenges maintaining the kind of double-digit earnings growth investors have come to expect.

Until recently, Costco had been able to do no wrong. And it still is doing a lot right, to please its fans. But even management acknowledges some cause for investor unease. Chief executive and co-founder Jim Sinegal concedes that the stock has been trading "at a fairly healthy multiple," a notion he apparently took into account when he sold 200,000 shares, or about 9% of his stake, at about $88 apiece in March, to pay off mortgage debt. The affable 63-year-old executive says that "when people come to the conclusion that perhaps interest rates are going to change or sales may slow, retail stocks tend to get hit, probably industrywide.">





To: Dale Baker who wrote (1082)5/15/1999 12:31:00 PM
From: Michael  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 10293
 
Tried shorting IRID already,
IRID is a great short , if one could find shares to short
ML was underwriter for secondary in Jan. got stuck with shares,
and has been trying to dump shares on it's customers.
IRID is the world's most expensive white elephant.
A $5 billion satellite phone system that does not work.
Could likely be a totally lose. Motorola has been launching the satellites
without ever making sure the system can actually work.
Just hoped, that they could one day work out all the problems.
That day might never come, and IRID will always lose money.

sure is a nice day

Michael



To: Dale Baker who wrote (1082)5/15/1999 12:48:00 PM
From: Michael  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10293
 
SELL SIGNALS UPDATE: Why Iridium Shares Could Become Worthless
iionline.com
Director of Online Research: Dave Sterman (5/14/99)
Don't say you weren't warned.
On three previous occasions we unabashedly warned you to run away from
Iridium (NASDAQ: IRID - Quotes, News, Boards) –
and each time the stock headed even lower.
February 2nd: 'SELL SIGNALS: Iridium Falling From the Sky.'
April 5th: 'SELL SIGNALS UPDATE: Iridium's Nightmare to Worsen.'
April 23rd: 'SELL SIGNALS UPDATE: Iridium is Going, Going ......'
At a recent $10.81, Iridium's stock is down 66% since we first recommended
shorting it. With each passing month, the company has been delivering increasingly
bleak news. From top management defections to technical glitches to missed subscriber
targets, the global wireless phone provider has been a maelstrom of bad news.

The latest dose of bad news has sent the shares crashing through the $10 barrier
(though the shares have rebounded to $11 in late morning trading). The latest dose of
misery: Iridium will not be able to satisfy its debtholders by the end of this month. By
May 31, Iridium needed to convince its lenders that it had a viable strategy to pay off
its mounting debt load. It won't.

Though the news sent the company's shares down, bondholders took an even deeper hit.
Iridium's 14% 2005 bonds tumbled 200 basis points and now trade at just $0.18 on the
dollar. But bondholders may soon be in a better mood.

Ticking Death Clock

That's because the death clock on Iridium's equity has started ticking. Simply put,
they now have little recourse to further funding. And without more money, they can't
even complete their capital expenditure program, let alone make good with their bondholders.

As a result, Iridium's lenders will soon take control of the company. And when that happens,
the equity will be worth less than the paper it's printed on.