Mark Stahlman Quotations

We've already had really good reports from Microsoft and Intel and those are the two most important suppliers to Dell. Both had upside surprises from their PC and server-related business.

We believe that R&D has been fixed, costs are under control and the customer base is diverse and large enough to support sustained growth. We take Mr. McNealy at his word that his continuing role as Sun's CEO and Chairman will last only as long as the 'job isn't done.

Should the revenue streams from these new businesses achieve the success we think possible, it is quite possible that estimates will prove too low.

Should Scott McNealy be leaving Sun Microsystems -- now?

If they are successful in saving that order of magnitude, it will fall directly to the bottom line.

IBM is perhaps the most important earnings call because this company is the one that has made itself out as a new model of a major tech company,

IBM is firing on more cylinders than many expected. The fourth quarter is shaping up to be particularly strong. It's the first time in many years we have visibility to year-end and all indications are positive.

He looked me in the eye and said, 'AOL is the future of Time Warner. We're going to make this thing work the way it was originally supposed to work,'

There is no evidence that points to anything other than a strong second half for IBM. Fundamentals are likely to continue to get better and investors at some point are going to stop worrying.

HP has a significant weight around its neck with its PC business, ... It cannot match Dell's business model.

Knowledgeable, high-end buyers today want AMD, ... Dell doesn't sell AMD. So they have gone into this important market with one hand tied behind their back.

I think this quarter demonstrates how unsettled market conditions are. The old IBM doesn't fit with the new markets. IBM understands this and is trying to move quickly to change itself. This elephant has been dancing on stilts.

I think we're going to see very strong reports for both Dell and H.P.. All the evidence suggests that PC's, including servers, are selling surprisingly well.

Previous management understood what needed to be changed, but they were unable to make it happen, ... To actually make these changes is a massive challenge. It can't be done quickly. There will be people who will resist. There's no avoiding a good deal of internal conflict.

I think Scott has to step aside so there is no confusion.

I think most of what people will be looking for will be discussed on the conference call. There's a lot going on in the product front.

Microsoft is becoming more and more a server company and less and less a classic PC company,

Today, they made it clear they're not in trouble.

We recognize that investors who have been trained to only expect steady price declines and even price wars will find this shift towards high-tech counter-intuitive. As a result, many may be inclined to miss opportunities and/or to exit strong performing stocks too soon.

This represents a clear example of what happens when employees throw their weight at execution, and morale improves,

We thought they would have a good quarter but it looks like they had an excellent quarter, ... With these bookings numbers you have to toss out any idea that IBM is losing ground in services. They are probably picking up market share.

There are a number of pieces of IBM's business that don't get as much credit as they should. These are categories that people had expected fairly little from and they are turning out to be quite strong, as is typical for systems companies and is certainly true for IBM.

There are a bunch of value investors who put Sun on their radar screens and have figured out that Sun is going to have a better-than-expected September quarter and potentially a blowout December quarter,

This was the chance for them to, if they had the confidence about where they are going next year, to begin pointing in that direction, but they clearly refused. I think there are a lot of unknowns for them.

This upgrade to 64 bits, which begins with servers, workstations and high-end game machines, is going to ripple through the entire market place. A year from now, very few people are going to be looking for 32 bit notebooks. This is a very big change. All the new software being written is (for 64-bit processors), so the consumer has a real choice for the first time in maybe 10 years.

This sounds to me like a preview of what we're going to see next week.

The transition to 64-bit computing is not in everyone's forecast. PC and server growth should be much higher than people are expecting and numbers for Dell will continue to come up,

Telecom is the largest piece of Sun's business and that has gone from being a negative to an increasing positive. Telecoms are back in an infrastructure build mode,

Of the three, Yahoo would be the least likely winner,

Dell, unlike the other major names I follow, tells you what earnings they are going to hit and then simply delivers,

This is an important signal for not just Microsoft but others in tech.

This is now a period with a lot of anticipation for new products. Only six months ago people were quite convinced that calendar 2005 would be a dead year as we waited for Longhorn but it's going to be more dynamic than that,

This is a customer that needs some special attention, so that is a sensible part of the package for Dell to offer,

This is actually a fairly attractive multiple, ... Many seem to be trapped in a time machine, namely that we're dealing with a bubble here. But I don't think that's the case.

They are clearly guiding us up for December, so I think there is a chance for a very strong finish for calendar year '05.

There's a growing feeling that Apple isn't the media's best friend. The media companies see downloading (content) as the future of their businesses, and they don't like one company holding 70% or 80% of the market share for making that content available.

This is the right guy at the right time, ... He is a high tech guy and a high growth guy who is very operations oriented.

It was better than I had expected and most importantly they are clearly guiding us up for December, so I think there is a chance for a very strong finish for calendar year '05.

It's a positive for Microsoft. I think it's been very much misunderstood.

Sun has succeeded in making themselves the most aggressive, most innovative, and most dynamic of the three of them.

It's clear there is a segment of the consumer market that is price insensitive and more interested in advanced features than concerned about getting the lowest possible price, ... That's a segment Apple does very well in; so does Hewlett-Packard. Dell has to try to sell to that customer.

It's critical to remember that these are really devices that are attached to a much wider range of services and interests on the part of customers that I think are fundamentally changing what used to be television. It's becoming much more personalized and much more interesting.

The consumer has options -- they can buy a cheap box, but unlike a year or two ago, they can also buy a much more capable machine where the 64 bit processor is the most important element, ... If they wish to spend a little more they can get a lot more -- there's a lot more choice.

I don't think there is anyone who is positioned to challenge the U.S. (Internet) leadership.

The importance of studios is exaggerated. Stringer has been clear that Sony is fundamentally a hardware company,

The concerns that everybody had over the summer that maybe growth was finished -- clearly that was wrong.