Friday, July 05, 2002

AN INDUSTRY WITH A SHORT MEMORY & LITTLE CONSCIENCE The telecom industry SBC Pacific Bell Is Fined $27 Million [Wall Street Journal] Remember "slamming" - the tactic of switching your long distance carrier without your approval. How about absurd long distance rates? Have you ever received a call from your current long distance provider simply letting you know that your next phone calls will be at a new, lower rate? Of course not. There's an old quote in some of Warren Buffett's writing that says, "you never know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out." With the Internet bubble now a memory and telecom players failing right and left, it's no wonder that Qwest is being investigated, Worldcom's executives will be on Capitol Hill Monday and SBC is paying a fine. We may be looking at an industry that is as short on integrity across the board as many that I've seen over the years! 3:22:08 PM     Comments[]

THE DISK DRIVE INDUSTRY Frank Paynter has asked us to be patient as he readies an interview with Tom Shugart. Though I have no idea of Tom's relationship (if any) to Alan Shugart of Shugart & Seagate disk drive fame, the Shugart name and several recent business scandals have reminded me of the early days of the "small" disk drive industry in the U.S. Does anyone remember the great Miniscribe disk drive scandal? Not only were bricks put in the boxes they were shipping, but they were shipping boxes of bricks to their own finished goods warehouse and accounting for the shipments as sales - not inventory. Before we assume that Enron, Worldcom and Andersen are somehow new phenomena, a bit of history might be in order. From government to business, you'll discover there's not much new under the sun! 3:10:02 PM     Comments[]

WARREN BUFFETT HAS SAID, "Price is what you pay, value is what you get." Jonas looks like he's got a value number in mind and is trying to name his price before a fire sale is necessary. IDT Chairman Howard Jonas outlined a $5 billion plan to purchase part of WorldCom's unit serving business customers. IDT has submitted a written offer for the assets; WorldCom hasn't commented on the bid. [Wall Street Journal] 2:24:20 PM     Comments[]

LIFE'S UNWANTED INTRUSIONS Advertising at $9.00 movies is the subject of a rant from the formerly nicotine-stained fingers of Mr. Dave Winer today. He's right. Congratulations, Dave, for staying the course. Hope you're feeling better every day! Oh, and thanks for the tip on Minority Report. My rant is about something that's been going on for decades. The stock market closes and some twit announces which way it moved along with some trivial, overly-simplistic drivel about why it moved that way! The way these people report cause-and-effect relationships is beyond any form of logic I was ever taught. Today's example is: U.S. stocks snapped higher at the opening bell Friday, buoyed by relief that no major terrorist attack occurred during the July 4 holiday. [Wall Street Journal] 2:20:28 PM     Comments[]

© Copyright 2002 Steve Pilgrim.

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