Conference 7.286::digital

    Digital stock usually only drops for one of 4 reasons:

    Good news about the competition
    Bad news about the competition
    Good news about Digital
    Bad news about Digital

    So maybe it was the big product announcement this week. Really though I
    don't know. If I could figure out the market I'd make a living that
    way. :-)

    			Alfred

Aren't 1st quarter earnings, the ones BP was scared we'd be back in the red for, scheduled
to be announced sometime next week?

Maybe they're anticipated to be lower than expected.

Just a thought.

/Mario

    Just read the recent message sent by Ed Lucente to the European Sales
    Force.   In Europe we were a whooping 30% below budget and we all know
    US was also below budget for Qtr. 1, therefore expect a $ 100M ++++
    loss for Qtr. 1, and this is best case scenario, worst case is $ 500M !
    
    

    .3
    
    CAn you post this note so we can all read it?

Re: .4

Not unless he gets Lucente's permission to do so.

			Steve

    
    Steve,
    
    
    Can it be forwarded or is it for a restricted audience?
    
    
    Mike

I have not seen the memo to know if it is labelled in accordance with
corporate information security policies. (Likely not.)  However, Personnel
Policy and Procedures 6.54 explicitly prohibits posting memos in notes
conferences without the original author's permission.

As for forwarding the memo - too many memos are indiscriminately forwarded
throughout the corporation.  Some people seem to think that if they receive
a memo they are free to pass it on to whomever they want, often to broad
distribution lists.  I pass on my share of memos, but I try to use some
common sense about what I forward and to whom I send them.  If a memo
requests me not to forward it, I don't.  If a memo appears to have been
intended for a narrow circulation, I don't forward it.  A memo sent to
the "European sales force", though, would appear to have been intended for
a wide distribution.

					Steve

    I agree with the last few notes, therefore I will not post the message
    from Lucente.
    
    However I think I'm free to editorialize what it says.
    
    Basically the message (in this specific memo) was for the european
    sales force.   Lucente quoted a 30% below forecast and he wanted
    to have an extremly urgent meeting next week to have plans in place
    to assure that we meet the Qtr. 2 revenue number.
    
    Now that is europe, I have not seen US and/or GIA regions, however
    can tell all of you that our numbers were drastically cut for output,
    specifically for US area.

  And we wonder why the stock price drop! The information posted in this
  notes file is accessible by variety of people associated with Digital.
  Employees, Consultants, Contractors etc. etc. How long does it take before
  the industry and Wall Street analysts hear that in Europe Digital didn't
  make 30% of it's sales goal.

Avinash

    Avinash, not only that, the industry analysts have been consistent that
    Qtr. 1 we were going to be in the red again.    However what I think
    is that they did not expect us to be in the $ 100M to $ 500M mark.
    
    I'm not saying that we will, accountants can be very creative, however
    if we are ....................................................
    

    	Sounds like we'll be getting a good buy price again for the DEC1
    	ESPP.

    
    Re: .11 >getting a good buy price...
    
    Wonderful! :-(
    I'm more concerned about getting a good sell price.
    

    re: .11
    
    "Good" is a relative term. It's good if DEC stock rises to $40, $50 or
    $60 dollar a share. But, it's not so good if DEC stock falls to $20 a
    share.

    
    Hold onto that stock.....
    
    On CNBC last night on their BUY, SELL of HOLD program someone calling
    in asked about Digital Equipment. The analysts on, not sure where he
    was from, gave it a positive outlook and rated it a hold.
    
    I thought it was encouraging news to hear someone say good things about
    us.
    
    Mary
    

Re:    <<< Note 2713.11 by CSC32::J_OPPELT "I'm ready for Christmas!" >>>

>    	Sounds like we'll be getting a good buy price again for the DEC1
>    	ESPP.

Well, $31.50 isn't too bad.  But did anyone notice that while that number was 
based on the FMV on the previous day ($36.8125), on the day the purchase 
occurred the actual price was much lower opening at $35.50?

So who made a profit on that change?

-  David

    I have no facts but what you noticed seems to happen quite often.
    
    Jim C.
    

    Re: .15
    It's not bad interest for a "Christmas Club!"
    
    

    I am a finance person, and I still don't understand how the stock works
    (or maybe I do and that's what bothers me).  When I multiply the avg.
    value on Nov. 30th, I get 31.30, not 31.50.  So it apprears the amounts
    are rounded up, to Digital's favor.  But, we they sold the stock on
    Dec. 1st, I get the sell price of 75.736.  How come the rounding on the
    buy end, but the exact amount on the sell end.
    
    I think that the stock plan is one of the best things going, but unless
    the stock is higher at the end of the period than it was at the
    beginning, it always seems to come out as something less that 15%
    profit.
    
    Bing

    Oops, that should have been a sell price of 35.736, not 75.736.  I
    wouldn't be saying anything if it was 75.
    
    bing

    ACtually, you typically end up with 10% to 11%. 

Re:                   <<< Note 2713.18 by MIMS::HUNT_B >>>

>						When I multiply the avg.
>    value on Nov. 30th, I get 31.30, not 31.50.  

On what did you base your average?  If you based it solely on the average of 
the high and the low, then that's not necessarily representative of the day's 
trading.  It was my understanding that it's based on the average of *all*
trades during the day.  How they get that info I don't know, but it could even
be a service provided by someone like Reuters or Dow Jones. 

Doesn't change the fact that it went down a bunch the next day...

-  David

    I based it on the number posted in VTS VNS.
    
    Bing

Re:                   <<< Note 2713.22 by MIMS::HUNT_B >>>

>    I based it on the number posted in VTS VNS.
    
I assume you mean VTX VNS...  :-)

I didn't see any numbers in VNS on December 1 other than the closing for the 
previous day.  So I still don't know what you calculated it from.

Then the FMV itself for November 30 was published in VNS on December 2... 

-  David

    I used the FMV posted in the DEC 2 VTX VNS.  Is this not the number
    that is used to calculate the buy price?  The closing value was posted
    at 36.875, the amount posted in VNS was 36.812, so I assumed that this
    was the amount used to calculate the 85% of FMV buy price.
    
    Bing

Re:                   <<< Note 2713.24 by MIMS::HUNT_B >>>

>    I used the FMV posted in the DEC 2 VTX VNS.  Is this not the number
>    that is used to calculate the buy price?  The closing value was posted
>    at 36.875, the amount posted in VNS was 36.812, so I assumed that this
>    was the amount used to calculate the 85% of FMV buy price.
    
*NOW* I understand!  And you're right!  Even though the VNS number was slightly 
truncated (it was actually 36.8125), 85% still comes out at 31.29.  Rounding up 
to the next 1/8th would be 31.375 which is 1/8th less than the actual purchase 
price.  I can't explain that either.

Sounds like we got ripped off (slightly)  :-(

-  David

    RE: last few
    The "round up" is by quarters not eighths.
    
    

Re:<<< Note 2713.26 by MIMS::PARISE_M "Profitability?...fawgeddaBOW'dit!" >>>

>    The "round up" is by quarters not eighths.
    
Well, I guess that explains it.  I don't recall ever seeing the algorithm
documented anywhere to that level of detail...

-  David

    See VTX IS for the prospectus.  The algorithm is detailed therein.
    
    L.

Re:   <<< Note 2713.28 by ELWOOD::KAPLAN "Larry Kaplan, DTN: 237-6872" >>>

>    See VTX IS for the prospectus.  The algorithm is detailed therein.
    
Thanks for the pointer, Larry.  It's amazing what's out there if you know where 
to go look for it.

Oh, sorry, I thought this was the discussion about the phone book...  :-)

-  David

    the profit or interest on the employee stock purchase programm to me is
    much higher than mentioned earlier...
    
    lets assume a monthly saving from your salary at USD 100.- 
    forget the incremental and leftover from previous period for the sake
    of easyness
    you invest 6 times 100 over a period of 5 month (lets make it 6 for
    easyness) that gives an average of USD 300 over 6 month, or 150 over a
    year...
    
    your gain is (600/0.15)/2 assuming a taxbracket of 50% -> USD 45.- net
    after income tax, assuming a flat stock price over the 6 month period, 
    in the case of a falling or rising stock price the profit increases due
    to the bigger agio (minimum 15%), the tax obviousely depends on your
    tax-country - Austria's 50% will give you a fair calculation base. 
    
    $ 45.- on an investment of $ 150.- (yearly equivalent) is appr. 27% net
    taking now my 5 versus 6 month shortcut into account the real figure
    will be lower by 20% that yields 
    
    		approximately 22% net interest
    
    provided you sell at purchase date...
    
    (sorry for the approximation - I'dnt have a calculator at hand)
    kind regards, Hans-Joerg Uhl
    (former Financial Services Industry manager)
    

	You've not taken into consideration that the sell price is often
	a little less then the buy price.

	And ESPP charge to sell them.

	And usually it's not a 6 month, but a 7 month return - depending on
	how long the cheque takes to get back to you.

	Then, for people outside the US.......

	They take your currency and exchange, then you take the dollars and 
	exchange, so you loose the difference in the "buy and sell" currency 
	rates, and the cost to exchange the cheque.

	Then there's the currency fluctuations, which seldom seem to go in your
	favour.

	Then there's the local tax situation. For example, in the UK you are
	taxed as if you had a 15% gain, even if all the above means you don't
	make the 15%, or even make a loss!

	Heather