|
|
Enron Mail |
_________________________________________________________________
B R E A K F A S T W I T H T H E F O O L Tuesday, November 14, 2000 benjamin.rogers@enron.com _________________________________________________________________ REGISTER TO BECOME A FOOL -- GET FREE STUFF! http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193901 _________________________________________________________________ Sponsored By: VirtualMoneyManager.com Save $200 until 12/31. Get a FREE subscription to market and equity analysis from top-rated Mastrapasqua & Associates. Serious research for the serious investor. Sign up today! http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=193902 "Profundity of thought belongs to youth, clarity of thought to old age." -- Friedrich Nietzsche 3M ADDS ANOTHER M 3M Post-It Note reads, "Reach out and MicroTouch someone." By Rick Aristotle Munarriz 4M? Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (NYSE: MMM) will add touchscreen specialist MicroTouch (Nasdaq: MTSI) to its conglomerate in a $160 million acquisition. For MicroTouch shareholders, the $21-a-share cash buyout price finds the stock fetching levels it hasn't seen since 1997. The landscape was much kinder then. Demand for the company's touchscreen offerings ran high. Through 1998, sales growth was running at an annualized clip of 35% over the five previous years. Then the fundamentals went insane in the resistive membrane. So far this year the company has had to close down its Australian office and look into fiduciary improprieties in Taiwan. The company has divested itself of its once-promising Ibid digital whiteboards and its Factura high-tech kiosks. The touchscreen operations that remain have grown the top line by a paltry 5% over the first nine months of the year. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=193903 http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=193904 http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=193905 Last week the company reported that it was engaged in sale negotiations. 3M was a logical suitor since the company had entered into the touchscreen market with its acquisition of Dynapro Systems over the summer. Dow component 3M trades at two times trailing revenues and it is buying out MicroTouch at roughly the total sales over the past year. But will the deal be accretive to the bottom line? MicroTouch is struggling with profitability right now. But if 3M is able to steer MicroTouch back into the operating groove the company mastered in 1998, then, yes, definitely. The Post-It reminder to pick up MicroTouch in order to become the top dog in the touchscreen space will be worth it. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193906 _________________________________________________________________ NEWS TO GO Super Selection at Everyday Low Gross Margins! That's not the official Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) slogan, but the company that Sam Walton founded on producing financial results through whirlwind inventory turnover on meager markups reported earnings in-line with projections this morning. Sales climbed by 13% to $45.7 billion while earnings per share rose two pennies to $0.31 a share -- a 6% gain. Uh-oh. That's falling net margins. However, same-store sales climbed by 5% and the company's international sales shot up 26%. It's a big day for other retailers too. Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is set to erect its quarterly report while Target (NYSE: TGT) has its earnings conference call slated for 10:30 a.m. ET. After yesterday's close, Too (NYSE: TOO) reported earnings that came in a penny ahead of estimates. The specialty retailer that was spun off by Limited (NYSE: LTD) also expressed comfort with the December quarter forecasts. Meanwhile, the investing community is fumbling for a Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) remover after the company reported earnings that came in below analyst projections. The office supply superstore chain also said that profits would fall short of expectations for the current quarter. However, it does see growth of at least 30% next year. Medic! The bleeding at WebMD (Nasdaq: HLTH) is running more profuse than once feared. The company reported a wider-than-expected loss for its quarterly checkup. As the company begins to digest recent acquisitions, WebMD is looking at a deficit next year of between $75 million and $100 million. The prognosis calls for massive restructuring that finds the company having to reduce previous revenue guidance for 2001. Thankfully the company is cash-rich and debt-free. No one is calling Dr. Koop for a second opinion, yet. Stop the presses -- Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is buying a company. OK, keep the presses rolling, the networking titan does this all the time. The target of Cisco's affections is Australian high-speed chipset developer Radiata in a $295 million transaction. Onward. Check out yesterday's Foolish market wrap-up with just one click. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193907 _________________________________________________________________ EDITORS' PICK Find out how and why Learning Tree's stock value has been growing like a, um, weed. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193908 _______________________________________________________________ -News & Commentary http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193909 -Fool Community http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193910 -Post of the Day http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193911 -Latest Fribble http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193912 -Latest Market Numbers http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193913 ____________________________________________________________ My Portfolio: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193914 My Discussion Boards: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193915 My Fool: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193916 Fool.com Home: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193917 My E-Mail Settings: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193918 Sponsored By: VirtualMoneyManager.com Save $200 until 12/31. Get a FREE subscription to market and equity analysis from top-rated Mastrapasqua & Associates. Serious research for the serious investor. Sign up today! http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=193919 FREE BOOK, JUST FOR FOOLS! Investor's Business Daily will send you a free copy of 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success when you sign up for a free trial subscription of their newspaper. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=193920 INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN STEM CELLS Get a free preview of this new report at Soapbox.com. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=193921 FOOL DIRECT E-MAIL SERVICES Need to change your address or unsubscribe? You can also temporarily suspend mail delivery. Click here: http://www.fool.com/community/freemail/freemaillogin.asp?email=benjamin.rogers @enron.com< Have ideas about how we can improve the Fool Direct or new e-mail products you'd like to see? Try our discussion board: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=193922 ____________________________________________________ © Copyright 2000, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool. . MsgId: msg-14394-2000-11-14_9-10-55-3305509_2_Plain_MessageAddress.msg-09:16:09(11-14 -2000) X-Version: mailer-sender-master,v 1.84 X-Version: mailer-sender-daemon,v 1.84 Message-Recipient: benjamin.rogers@enron.com
|