GDP, M&A, EBITDA, P/E, NASDAQ, Econo-thread Part 11

[Sten Sture]

to further the one-off sampling program...

my tech analyst thinks HP will implode post Compaq merger - no specific time horizon, though. Could be 200 years.

[DanS]

Odd perceptions. Europe sees 2.5% consumer inflation and starts to get skittish. US sees a 3-month annual rate of 3.0% and says "no sign of inflation."

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT32LAA250D&live=true&tagid=FTDO9DHMZJC

[TCO]

Originally posted by Sten Sture
to further the one-off sampling program...

my tech analyst thinks HP will implode post Compaq merger - no specific time horizon, though. Could be 200 years.

The HP thing makes me sick...

[Sten Sture]

I should have said "continue to implode" not just implode. Carly blew-up Lucent and now she is doing the same thing to HP. I wonder what major brand is next on her schedule. Maybe she can turn Microsoft into a local auto repair shop hunk of refuse.

[DanS]

Ah, you just said that so you could use the smilie.

[Colon™]

Dan, compare apples with apples, y-y CPI in US stands at 1.5% compared to 2.5% in the EMU so if you focus at this figure I can understand the divergence in perceptions. The main reason that isn’t justified IMO, is because of the different structure. Core is about equal because energy and food exerted a much larger negative impact in the EMU than in the US and I assume that, without too many currency fluctuations or food scares, both rates should converge.

I’d be interested to see the rate of the past quarter in the EMU though.

GP, what makes you sick about HP?

[TCO]

Colon, it pretty much fits in with the discussions we've had by mail. Just take a look at the organizations being deposed by Bill Hewlett.

New subject: Could you give me your take on Vail Resorts? (MTN ticker)

[Moral Hazard]

About Acer, I don't know their labtops reliability, but I've had lots of trouble with thier CD Roms, 2 Cd roms and Dvd went schitzo or just died with in a year (still under warranty but I didn't use it for the second 2 Cd Roms which died). Some one told me that they owned Aopen (a real crap mother board maker) so I'd stay away. I'd cautiously recommend IBM or Dell.

[Saras]

Originally posted by Moral Hazard
About Acer, I don't know their labtops reliability, but I've had lots of trouble with thier CD Roms, 2 Cd roms and Dvd went schitzo or just died with in a year (still under warranty but I didn't use it for the second 2 Cd Roms which died). Some one told me that they owned Aopen (a real crap mother board maker) so I'd stay away. I'd cautiously recommend IBM or Dell.

Thanks - how come no one likes HP? And no one sells Dells back here.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Toshiba Satellites are supposed to be nice. Well, CNET.com like them . If you ger Acers, you probably can get Toshibas.

And Dell doesn't ship to Lithuania, Saras?

[Saras]

They actually do sell Dell, there is one I like for EUR 2700.00 a Pentium III 1,13 GHz 256 MB RAM, 30 GB HDD, 32 MB DDR nVidia GeForce2 Go, DVD 8x, + stuff.

Perhaps a bit too expensive?

[Roland]

"I could have the sotry wrong but my impressionw as that the govt was subsidizing settlement/early retirements associated with reducing work force (at this time)."

Early retirement plans are financed by the companies until retirees are eligible for normal pensions. Yet in this case those plans were indirectly subsidised as the state owned the companies and injected a ****load of money. But I don't know of any ongoing subsidies for retirement plans in the steel industry.

And btw, what's so bad about a two laptop sample ? If you go by my 1 laptop sample, buy a gericom.

[DanS]

Colon: I know it's comparing apples to oranges, but if the core is comparable, then the perceptions should be similar, no?

[DanS]

Colon: I know it's comparing apples to oranges, but if the core is comparable, then the perceptions should be similar, no?

[Colon™]

Dan, the words “should” and “perceptions” in the same sentence just doesn’t work.

GP, re HP, which fad(s) do you have in mind? I’m also not sure by what you meant with your second line. (depose in the sense of “to remove”?)

Re Vail resorts, I think the corps isn’t very healthy financially speaking. They spend a lot of cash on interests and their short-term liabilities are way bigger than their short-term assets so they risk falling into a liquidity crunch. I don’t know how much their real estate activities benefited of the real estate boom but a burst might get them into trouble. (particularly as they still have a lot goodwill left on their books)

It does seem to me they can avoid cash problems by limiting capital expenditures as they have a healthy operational cash-flow. (but will that remain so if mountain tourism is hit by a sluggish economy?) However, that could also have its impact on future earnings growth because they finance much of their investments with debt and real estate sales. (the latter of which could be impacted by RE bust)

The company has a lofty valuation P/E wise so I assume the markets expect strong growth in the future. But then again, P/CF and P/B are much more favourable, so I guess it depends on what shareholders and analysts focus at.
At least it’s not for the divided you’d have to buy this corp. There are also low returns on assets and equity, that may suggest weak financial management. (if you want figures, my source is pchang’s site

I wouldn’t buy it judging the financial side, but if they’re strong at operational level and if you expect their market(s) will develop positively, why not?

Do you work for them?

Anyone, when a company outsources its manufacturing division, does it usually act as the wholesaler of the branded goods? (to put the question differently, is the only change in its book after such an operation that of the source of costs – purchasing costs instead of manufacturing costs – or does it change the sales figure as well?)