Thursday, February 10, 2005
Colllision of Two Garbage Trucks
And that's only one of the choice metaphors that Lawrence Fisher digs up in this quick read. I wonder if his sources are good as he claims. I was surprised when the merger went through - given the opposition across the board.
Also, I think the market is way smarter than Lawrence Fisher gives it credit for. The investing public in general are rubes, but prices are determined by a very savvy minority. Just like fashion, the public is a follower. The smart money had sold HPQ heavily post-Compaq. I bought HPQ on 8/29/02 because I thought they had overdiscounted the negatives. HPQ is up exactly 60% since so a 21% compound annual gain. Not bad but the Egyptian stock market would have been a more profitable and safer.
I think I should dump this now. Problems at HPQ are far worse than the alleged personality problems of a CEO. Sure, the buck has got to stop somewhere, but remember Warren Buffett:
"With few exceptions when a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad fundamentals, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact."
Update: Check out this article from 2002 that predicted the debacle. It's always useful to compare predictions with outcomes ...
Also, I think the market is way smarter than Lawrence Fisher gives it credit for. The investing public in general are rubes, but prices are determined by a very savvy minority. Just like fashion, the public is a follower. The smart money had sold HPQ heavily post-Compaq. I bought HPQ on 8/29/02 because I thought they had overdiscounted the negatives. HPQ is up exactly 60% since so a 21% compound annual gain. Not bad but the Egyptian stock market would have been a more profitable and safer.
I think I should dump this now. Problems at HPQ are far worse than the alleged personality problems of a CEO. Sure, the buck has got to stop somewhere, but remember Warren Buffett:
"With few exceptions when a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad fundamentals, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact."
Update: Check out this article from 2002 that predicted the debacle. It's always useful to compare predictions with outcomes ...
