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- Xref: sparky comp.os.os2.misc:39885 comp.os.os2.advocacy:10582
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy
- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!torn!csd.unb.ca!news
- From: hwhalen@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Hugh Whalen)
- Subject: Re: Future of OS/2 and IBM????????????
- Message-ID: <1992Dec18.160725.8470@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca>
- Sender: Hugh Whalen
- Organization: Faculty of Administration, University of New Brunswick
- References: <1992Dec15.210437.934@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> <1992Dec16.072137.28867@sequent.com> <1992Dec16.152535.12204@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca> <1992Dec18.035926.1900@sequent.com>
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 16:07:25 GMT
- Lines: 93
-
- In article <1992Dec18.035926.1900@sequent.com> furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod) writes:
- >In article <1992Dec16.152535.12204@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca> hwhalen@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Hugh Whalen) writes:
- >>In article <1992Dec16.072137.28867@sequent.com> furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod) writes:
- >>>In article <1992Dec15.210437.934@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> ashwath@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Ashwath Ram) writes:
- >>
- >>[Stuff about IBM laying off 25,000 people and being stable deleted]
- >>
- >>>
- >>>Ahem .... stable? I believe that around 1987 IBM stock was trading at
- >>approximately $178 per share. Yesterday it was trading at $56 per
- >>share. God help us if this is stability. :)
- >>
- >
- >Yes, stable. You obviously don't play the stock market with
- >professional investors or you would realize that stock price is not
- >relavent, unless you are going short term.
-
- Well, within a certain range I would have to agree with you. However,
- IBM stock was trading as high as 175 7/8 in 1987. Yesterday it closed
- at 53. During this time (if you were unlucky enough to buy at the
- high) your investment lost $123 per share or 70% of it's value. I
- hardly think that this is irrelevant. During this same period IBM
- dividends were $4.84 per share per year. Thus you would have earned
- only $25 in dividends. As for the dividend stability, I quote from an
- Associated Press article in today's Globe and Mail:
-
- " ..... fell to an 11 year low of $51.87, much of the selling pressure
- coming from investors fearing the loss of the generous dividend of
- $4.84 a year."
-
- Let's summarize this. During a 5 year period stock drops $123 per
- share but you get total dividends of $25 and there is a great fear in
- the marketplace that the dividends might be reduced. Hmmm, still does
- not sound stability or a good deal to me.
-
- DIVIDENDS are the
- >stability. And, IBM earned it's BLUE CHIP status by producing
- >DIVIDENDS that are, up till now, consistently better than the
- >average.
- >
- [other stuff deleted]
-
- >>>IBM as a whole than Microsoft. I would not worry about OS/2 support
- >>>suffering. Right now, it's becoming a cash cow for them and they
- >> ^^^^^^^^
- >>
-
- [lots of stuff about how OS/2 is not a cash cow deleted]
-
- >>
- >Think again. IBM makes a large portion of it's money on hardware
- >and service. They could give away the OS for all intents and
- >purposes, so long as they get the service contracts and sell
- >hardware. That's why their called International Business MACHINES.
- >
-
- Agreed, in fact if you read my entire post I said that they would keep
- selling OS/2 because it was strategic .... this is what I meant by
- strategic. I guess I lapsed into jargon. Sorry if this was not clear.
- Sometimes I forget that I am dealing with mostly technical people
- rather than business people.
-
- >>>have announced plans to integrate it into their other system
- >>>platform. As long as people continue to buy OS/2, IBM will continue
- >>>to promote it's growth and useability.
- >>
- >>Maybe, in fact, probably .... but more as a matter of strategy and ego
- >>rather than the dubious fact that it's a cash cow.
- >>
- >
- >Old marketing strategy they never teach in college:
- >
- >"I'll give you the razor, so long as I can sell you the blades..."
- >
-
- Sorry, you lose on this one. We *do* teach it in college. :-)
-
-
- >One last thing. According to the sattelite news service, IBM is
- >having problems producing enough OS/2 packages to sell and bundle
- >with their PS/2 hardware, which is selling a record clip. Yes, I
- >would call that a cash cow.
- >
-
- So would I, but the hardware is the cash cow, not the software. After
- all the hardware sells for 10 to 50 times as much as OS/2.
-
- Hugh Whalen | Where all men think alike, no one
- Faculty of Administration | thinks very much.
- University of New Brunswick | - Walter Lippmann
-
-
- DISCLAIMER: Neither UNB nor I care what the other thinks.
-